DARPA Challenge Prize Money Restored 119
antispam_ben wrote to mention that, some three months later, DARPA has been able to find the money to offer cash prizes once again. The DARPA Urban Challenge will go forward next November with more than $3 Million on the line. From the article: "The race will see as many as 90 teams 'drive' an unmanned robotic road vehicle through city traffic, competing to finish a 60-mile course within six hours. Set for November 3 of next year, the challenge will call on robots to safely obey traffic laws, negotiate busy intersections, merge into moving traffic, avoid obstacles and navigate traffic circles. DARPA has yet to disclose the race location, but has said it will be in the western United States. The government research group didn't unveil the 2005 Grand Challenge location in the Mojave Desert until weeks before that race, in order to avoid giving any team an advantage."
Re:Spooky (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Spooky (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Call me a cynic if you like... (Score:5, Informative)
I've posted elsewhere in this story, but again to prefix my comments, I'm a member of the Georgia Tech team, Sting Racing [sting-racing.org].
The course plotting part of the challenge is actually probably the easiest part. It's roughly analogous to you reading a map beforehand -- we're given a file detailing all the aspects of the course (course segments, how many lanes are in the segments, etc., and zones where free driving is allowed) plus a mission file giving the different waypoints we have to reach. This is, relatively speaking, easy.
The difficult part is determining where the edges of the road and its lanes are (GPS is terrible at this; most of the time it's accurate to 10 or so feet unless you're using extraordinarily expensive differential units) which is mostly done using visual scanning. Of course, we also have to detect other vehicles or obstacles in the path (using LIDAR and vision) and also determine the correct "pose" of the vehicle. Then we have to take that information and use it to modify the path we've already decided to take. These problems as it turns out are far, far harder than just plotting courses.
Re:Stupid misconception (Score:2, Informative)
Nobody said they didn't. But have you ever sat around watching Americans try to figure one out? (Actually new england apparently has enough that new england natives can figure it out as long as there aren't any foreigners screwing things up)
Re:Call me a cynic if you like... (Score:3, Informative)
And of course, a lot of the purpose of this challenge is exactly what you stated in your post: we have to detect and avoid other cars, use safe and proper driving etiquette for passing others, follow the rules of the road (i.e., four-way stops, etc.), and dynamically adapt our course to the conditions. Chiefly, this last requirement means noticing obstacles (construction, accidents, etc.) and rerouting, but this could also incorporate predicting traffic jams. For instance, if a heavily-traveled section of the map has several intersections/stops, we might be able to predict this or at least notice it when we get close and take another path.
We don't have to deal with pedestrians at this point, but give it another generation or two. Right now it would probably be pretty hard to find any volunteers to do it. :)
Big difference (Score:2, Informative)
I know... I know... they did put 'drive' in semi-quotes, but it's still misleading to a reader who is unfamiliar with the Challenge.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The robots will be driving themselves.
This type of design is worlds different from a system to be 'driven' using a joystick or by some guy monitoring the robot's progress. Amazing leaps and bounds in artificial intelligence, software image recognition, spatial on-the-go mapping, etc. are coming out of DARPA Urban Challenge that would never be necessary if there was a human hand--even remotely--behind the controls.
Re:Call me a cynic if you like... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:City traffic... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Traffic circles?! (Score:3, Informative)
For those of you unintiated to the wonders of British driving, anyone that tells you to get a right hand drive car to "help" you get into things more quickly should be punched in the throat. Drving on the left hand side of the road, in a right hand, manual car, traffic circles, and all the signs being unfarmiliar makes you feel like you are dislexic and sixteen again.
The first week of driving in the UK was more than a little stress full. The 20 minute drive home would leave me completely worn out. The first time I came to a double traffic circle with 3 branch intersections attached to them (Imagine eight streets coming together in one spot.) my brain just about melted.
I'll admit I love traffic circles now because they mean two things, no stop lights and no stop signs and you only have to worry about traffic coming from your right. Also if your co-pilot sucks you just do a few donuts around it till you get back to the turn off you want. Down side is they clog up real easy when traffic picks up.
I give props to the British for being top notch drivers, well trained, polite, don't camp out in the fast lane going slow, and decisive. Of course that's because the road system will eat you alive if you are poor driver. Only the strong will survive!