With the slow vehicle passing and a 50mph speed limit, the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge didn't entirely seem to set the stage technologically for the
2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, but get ready, Stanford's already prepping, their entrant: Junior. The Volkswagen Passat wagon will be equipped with a 360-degree laser rangefinder, bumper mounted lasers, RADAR, GPS, a network of systems and software powered by Core 2 Duo processors, and hopefully also
spinners to distract the competition's junk-ass rides. Junior's mission, if you choose to recall it: drive a simulated urban course 60 miles long; it must obey California state traffic laws, it must not crash, it must be able to operate without GPS, and it must run the course entirely without human input. The $2m at stake for first place is probably not nearly enough to immediately recoup the costs of a bunch of braniac grad students hacking complex AI algos, but it could be the icing on the cake for the current favorite after
2005's Grand Challenge was routed by Junior's pappy, Stanley.
P.S. -CNET has some early
pics of Junior's interior and such, check 'em out.
posted Feb 18th 2007 4:23PM
Drool. Too bad they couldnt get their hands on an R36 Passat Wagon :P
A friend of mine saw this driving around the Presidio about a month ago. True to geeky form, the team seemed to be set up at one of the coolest addresses around– 1337 Pope Street.
At least the nerds might get some spinners.
I saw a guy with those this morning...maybe it will make the competition's sensors go whacky!
http://technigma.wordpress.com
quote: "[...]bumper mounted lasers, RADAR, GPS, [...]"
"[...]it must be able to operate without GPS[...]"
so they're just putting it in for fun?
The DARPA Grand Challenge is amazing. If you haven't seen the PBS NOVA special ("The Great Robot Race") on the 2005 challenge, search for it.
The windshield have an add for Fig Newtons:
"This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient, but I do love Fig Newtons"
So *that's* what the Passat was on southbound 280 was I saw last month! It's not a North America Passat though, that color and navigation is not available here... Way cool though, tried to snap some pics but they're rather blurry.
Trivia: DARPA made the Alpha version of the Internet. It was a communication system made for the military. So: WAR... HUH! What is it good for? The Internet!
"...it must obey California state traffic laws" So does this means it doesn't have to stop at stop signs?