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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Aye Robot |
| 2004-03-13 |
| The first of 15 driverless robots began trundling across the Mojave Desert on Saturday in an unprecedented race for $1 million in government-funded prize money. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is sponsoring the Grand Challenge to foster development of autonomous vehicles that could be used in combat. Defense officials foresee using the driverless, remote control-free robots to ferry supplies in war zones. Is it just me or does anyone else get that queasy sinking feeling when "autonomous vehicles" and "combat" are used in the same sentence? First out of the gate was Carnegie Mellon University’s converted Humvee, which took off at a fast clip only to break down about 45 minutes into the race. "That’s not good. I assume that’s the end of it," said Carnegie Mellon President Jared Cohon. Meanwhile on The Western Front, "I hope chow shows up soon..." Virginia Tech’s converted golf cart failed within 100 yards of the starting line when its brakes seized up. That’s ok, Private Simpson will fix it...wait Private Simpson is a robot and she doesn’t do brakes. If no one finishes, the agency will host another contest, probably in 2006. Whaddyasay Ranters, we can start building today. I hereby donate an old set of Goodyear’s to the cause. Hmmm, we can use hot air to power it. I wonder where we can find some of that... |
| Posted by:Zpaz |
| #4 This my friends is the future of warfare. People laughed at early versions of most technology we now take for granted. Here is an interesting link. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-3-13 10:27:46 PM |
| #3 Here is an update in case you did not see the race on ESPN: Robot Race Ends As All Entries Break Down. In an unrelated story, the commies overran US positions on The Western Front. |
| Posted by: Zpaz 2004-3-13 3:20:44 PM |
| #2 All kidding aside that would be a fun project to work on... Anyway Carnegie Mellon was the favorite, the others don't look like they have a chance from what I've seen. So who's up for the challenge in '06? :) |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-3-13 12:57:22 PM |
| #1 My money is on NMM. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-13 12:11:41 PM |