

Reminder: The DARPA Car Race is on - plinkplonk

The webcast doesn't seem to be working ( :-(( ), but I am trying to follow the action from various blog posts and it seems that 3 (of 11) robots have already dropped out. The Stanford vehicle (Junior) has completed phase (one of 3).<p>I envy people who can follow the race from the race course - this years challenge is Urban Navigation, following traffic rules etc.<p>I am vicariously following the race from Bangalore by reading blogs on the race (here is the latest post I could find <a href="http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9810371-1.html" rel="nofollow">http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9810371-1.html</a>). <p><pre><code> I thought others might be interested and hence the reminder. please vote down if inappropriate.</code></pre>
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donal
Stanford is the first to finish the challenge. They won't know who the winner
is until the points are tallied.

Carnegie Mellon is the second to finish the challenge.

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arvid
CMU wins on points but they won't say what points.
[http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/422997...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4229973.html)

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plinkplonk
If they don't reveal the judging criteria, how are the teams supposed to
improve?

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donal
Virginia Tech just pulled in to be the third team to complete the challenge.

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donal
The next team has 4 more submissions to complete, so it is going to take a
little more. Current order is Little Ben (Ben Franklin), Talos (MIT), Skynet
(Cornell).

I think to this point there have only been 2 collisions, both involving Talos.
They were relatively minor and clearly did not cause a DQ or cause any
noticeable difference in behavior.

This is an impressive leap in technology from the Grand Challenge. At this
point, I think that the remaining three are going to finish too.

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donal
Interestingly, MIT just got snagged by a gate that had swung open. It was a
very thin gate, like a triangle of pipes. It had been blown open in the wind.

It was interesting to watch because it was clear that the robot didn't know
what to do to get around it. This was probably because it was at an
intersection, so it was seeing the gate and the stop line. The bot had its
turn signal on, so it new that it was at the intersection.

After watching the bots religiously adhere to traffic rules, it was an
interesting comparison to watch the course officials speeding down the road to
remove the obstacle.

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donal
MIT just finished, that makes it the 5th to complete.

Skynet (Cornell) is the final finisher.

That means that ale 6 that made it out of the 1st mission have completed the
course. They'll still need to add up the points to figure out the actual
winners.

More than half finished the challenge. I think that is pretty huge. I can't
wait for better journalists than me to write about this. Robotics took a huge
leap today.

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donal
Sorry...

One more thing before I shut up.

If you only watch a single video about this, look for where two bots are
stopped at an intersection and are in a right-of-way situation.

Only 2 collisions that I'm aware of, and they were very minor.

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joseakle
Champion Robot Car Declared

Carnegie Mellon's computer-laden Chevy Tahoe wins the Urban Challenge and
takes home the $2 million prize.
<http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19661/>

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joseakle
Six teams finished, looks like it will be a close call.
[http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/422974...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4229745.html)
\- Popular Mechanics live blog

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donal
I'm watching the webcast. 6 of the 11 have made it to the 3rd challenge.

Really amazing stuff.

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kobs
Looks as if the UF car didn't finish. Oh well, better luck next year.

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donal
4th vehicle to finish: Little Ben from team Ben Franklin Racing Team.

