Subject:
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Re: rtlToronto 16: DARPA Eat Your Heart Out
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
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Date:
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Fri, 12 Mar 2004 13:38:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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523 times
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:)
Jeff, I have been following this "glorified line following contest" and I am
impressed by it.
your play-by-play just gave me my morning smile.
thank you.
I want to go on and brag, but you said it best already!
------------snip---------------
I hate to say it, but a cheap laptop, DGPS card, Vision command and a couple of
custom sensors (ultrasonic ranging), and those really big wheels from the
Hailfire Droid, and we could have done better than about 18 of the teams.
------------------------------
Every once in a while during one of our events, I'm inspired, and feel compelled to
put together a hand picked "team" of RTL regulars and harness the "smarts" to solve
some problem or other.
WOW, if I had a million dollars, "I'd buy you a fur coat"
no wait,
If I have a ~few~ million dollars I'd hire out the RTL core list and a few others,
then enter something like that DARPA game.
-------------picture it---------------------,
Me and Calum pretending to be in charge,
Iain, Rob, John, Michael, on hardware....
Bruce, Mario, (Kevin C) Derek, Ralph on software
Dave, Ivan, Wayne, (Steve H) Jeff E, Jeff W as the everything guys (the glue that
bonds)
Greg H as lead illustrator (like the guy NASA hired to depict all the mars rover
computer animation's)
every day, we have the morning meeting, to discuss problems, everyone will be
allowed to help solve other problems, and generally brainstorm, it would be
AWESOME,
and instead of lego, we have access to a HUGE motion picture industry financially
sponsored workshop, with unlimited tools, and materials to work with.....
(we'd still use lego, to model, and brainstorm with.... (heck I'd even let calum add
a cockpit with a mini fig on the final robot)
we'd call our camp Strongbadia, we'd have a little stuffed cheat as our mascot.....
------------------------end dream sequence--------------
ok, I'm done.
Jeff Elliott wrote:
> Heya folks. De-lurking briefly 'cuz I've got something to say :)
>
> I went out to Fontana today, to the California Speedway. DARPA was holding it's
> Grand Challenge QID (qualifiers) there this week, and I went to watch the last
> day (I think) of the quals.
>
> (For those who aren't following it, the Grand Challenge was announced about a
> year ago: build an autonomous robot ground vehicle to traverse a 200-mile desert
> on- and offroad course from Barstow, CA to Primm, NV in ten hours or less.)
>
> website: http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.htm
>
> And you know what my most lasting impression was? "This is *just* like an rtl
> event."
>
> I kept looking for Calum & Chris in the control tower.
>
> I'm serious though. 106 teams indicated interest, of which 86 were permitted to
> compete. (rtl: 30 people indicate interest). 25 were picked to compete (rtl: 14
> robots actually showed). 2 chose to disqualify themselves for not being ready
> (rtl: couldn't get it working at ALL). From what I saw, 6 bots actually
> traversed the test track successfully. Many others had partial success.
>
> There were the startup problems: "Wait - pause the bot, we forgot to initialize
> blah blah" Sound familiar?
>
> Some robots failed to leave the chute at all.
>
> Some robots left the chute - and immediately veered off course and were
> disabled.
>
> One memorable bot was edging more and more to the right (collecting cones as it
> went). It got to the corrugated steel fence-with-gap... and plowed merrily
> through. They paused it, but it seemed to be recovering and heading for the
> centre of the course again. So they unpaused it - and it took an immediate
> right-turn, and crashed head-on into the safety fence. ('Navigator' for those
> who care)
>
> There was even the Dave K entry - a 32,000 pound (15,000 kg, Iain) 6-wheeled
> truck. As it was approaching the final barrier (where it was required to stop),
> the crews all scattered just in case. ('TerraMax' if anyone's looking it up).
>
> But ultimately, there was the same spirit as an rtl event. People scurrying to
> do one last thing. People begging for someone else to go first. People
> forgetting to set things up properly. People with the wrong 'program'. (they
> were still using GPS coords from a test area - so the bot turned right and tried
> to exit the arena) And people with some very, very cool bots.
>
> I hate to say it, but a cheap laptop, DGPS card, Vision command and a couple of
> custom sensors (ultrasonic ranging), and those really big wheels from the
> Hailfire Droid, and we could have done better than about 18 of the teams. The
> course really wasn't that tough. Of course, our batteries wouldn't make 200
> miles, and it'd be more like 200 hours. But 1.3 mile course? The slowest
> qualifer was 2.8 mph. The RC cars are faster than that. Hmmm.
>
> Jeff
Chris
"It is a very clever strategy IMHO, and I applaud Chris for thinking of it." K.C.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: rtlToronto 16: DARPA Eat Your Heart Out
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| (...) Impressed? by line-following? :) (...) But not a real fir coat. That's cruel... (...) You could compete against "Red". He's built like 60 robots in his life. Whatever... I built over 50 to enter in events, last year alone. (...) I think you (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
| | | Re: rtlToronto 16: DARPA Eat Your Heart Out
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| (...) What I picture is the whole group showing up with about a dozen different robots (because everybody had good ideas, and no "best" idea could be settled upon), and 11 of the 12 completing the qualifier faster than any other team. (...) OK, but (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | rtlToronto 16: DARPA Eat Your Heart Out
|
| Heya folks. De-lurking briefly 'cuz I've got something to say :) I went out to Fontana today, to the California Speedway. DARPA was holding it's Grand Challenge QID (qualifiers) there this week, and I went to watch the last day (I think) of the (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
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