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Heavy weight articulating robot, developed by Boston Dynamics under auspices of DARPA
DARPA computer-animated video of Lockheed Martin Skunk Work's Falcon HTV-3X hypersonic test vehicle
Jan
8
The U.S. military is building an ambitious bionic arm that is controlled by thought and provides sensory feedback. Here's the latest prototype, showing the movements of the hand.
Various video footage from the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge Finals, on November 3, 2007, in Victorville, CA.
Google TechTalks August 2, 2006 Sebastian Thrun ABSTRACT The DARPA grand challenge, technical details enabling Sebastian Thrun's win, and an introduction to the next phase called "The Urban Grand Challenge".
Jan
8
The U.S. military is building an ambitious bionic arm that is controlled by thought and provides sensory feedback. Here's the latest prototype, showing the movements of the hand.
Yesterday, a Volkswagen Passat drove around a parking lot in Mountain View, CA, made three-point turns, and followed the rules at a four-way stop--all without human intervention. The computer-controlled car is named Junior, and it's Stanford University's official entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge, a race in which an autonomous car must navigate city streets, obey traffic laws, avoid obstructions, and, crucially, drive well among other cars in traffic. This test run is Junior's first public appearance, designed to let DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) test the car and determine if it proceeds to the next round in the Urban Challenge.
Go to MYRIDE.COM for more car videos. Part one of the historic DARPA Grand Challenge Final.
Go to MYRIDE.COM for more car videos. Part one of the historic DARPA Grand Challenge Final.
Aeros video animation showing the design it developed under DARPA's Walrus programme for an ultra-large cargo-carrying hybrid airship - combining bouyant lift, aerodynamic lift and powered lift to take-off and land vertically without ground infrastructure. The Walrus programme was cancelled before anything was built, but Aeros continues to develop the Aeroscraft
Footage of highlights from the DARPA site visit on June 18th, 2007. More information at http://tartanracing.org
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, offered 3.5 million in prize money to the robot building teams who could build the safest and most precise autonomous robotic land vehicles. The 60 mile course set in an urban environment, had 50 "traffic" vehicles driven by stunt drivers, four-way intersections, blocked roads, sections of unmarked pavement, and other robots simultaneously running. The robots were also required to obey all the traffic laws of the State of California. 35 teams arrived to the qualifying event just prior to the Urban Challenge. There were 20 slots allotted to start in the Urban Challenge, but that was not the number to qualify. By the middle of the first mission of three, as vehicles began to drop from the running, there were rising doubts that any 'bot would finish.
Go to MYRIDE.COM for more car videos. Part 2 of the historic DARPA grand challenge.
NQE Test, Monday, Oct. 29, Course B , Run#2 Boss took a second crack at the parking lot and narrow, winding roads of Test Area B on Monday afternoon. It's proven to be a tough course, with only Boss and three other robots completing it in the first three days of the NQE. This run included a couple glitches and took a few minutes longer than the initial run on Saturday, but, all in all, "it looked pretty darn good," said Chris Urmson, director of technology. The run was delayed for several hours while DARPA officials made changes in the course and because of glitches in DARPA's emergency stop system. Once underway, Boss was its typically aggressive self. At one point, Boss began backing up, eventually rolling up onto a curb. DARPA officials paused the vehicle but, with the road clear ahead of the robot, Tartan Racing members urged DARPA to put it back into autonomous mode. Boss moved forward safely. A bit further along the same street, near a line of parked cars, Boss backed up and moved forward several times, as if trying to avoid an obstacle. The vehicle eventually stopped this maneuver and was able to complete the run. Team members were reviewing data downloaded from Boss to determine what caused the unusual behaviors. "Maybe there's something to fix, maybe not," Urmson said.
The Carnegie Mellon University Tartan Racing team's quest to conquer the 2007 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA) Urban Challenge is powered by a sophisticated array of electronic sensors provided by Continental Automotive Systems. The sensor technology is designed to provide "Boss" with a precise picture of the driving environment as it navigates, parks and handles traffic over a 60-mile course at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif. Watch the video to learn more...
DARPA Director Tony Tether made it official this morning: Tartan Racing's Boss is the winner of the Urban Challenge and will take home the $2 million first prize. This wasn't a surprise to the team. We knew that Boss ran a clean, safe race and Tether was quoted last night to that effect. And we knew Boss was fast. But it sure is good to hear Tether say we won.
DARPA video animation of VULTURE ulta-long-endurance unmanned air vehicle
"Moths are extraordinarily sensitive to sex attractants, so instead of giving bank robbers money treated with dye, they could use sex attractants instead," said [science fiction writer Thomas] Easton. "Then, a moth-based HI-MEMS could find the robber by following the scent." [snip] According to Darpa's description by its program manager, Amit Lal. "The HI-MEMS program is aimed to develop technology that provides more control over insect locomotion, just as saddles on horseshoes are needed for horse-locomotion control." Darpa cites that, historically, elephants have also been used for locomotion in wars, that pigeons have been used for sending covert messages, that canaries have been used to detect gases in coal mines, and that bees have been used to locate lands mines. Now it's the moths and beetles turn to report for duty, just as dogs have already done. Three research groups at the University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Boyce Thompson Institute were awarded funding by Darpa. Previous attempts at controlling the locomotion of cockroaches and rats were based on overly invasive interfaces between electronics and living tissue that were "bolted on" during extensive surgeries, resulting in animals too fragile to be taken out of the lab. HI-MEMS aims to solve the surgery-healing problem by placing the electronics in the insect during an early stage of metamorphosis, allowing the living tissue time to grow around the electronics components before they are ever turned on--the very definition of a cybernetic-organism, or cyborg. So far, Darpa's funded research groups have succeeded in inserting a MEMS chip into an insect's pupae, with the adult hatching successfully. The ability to create true cyborg insects with embedded electronics--where the tissues have had time not only to heal after surgery, but also have grown during a subsequent stage of the metamorphosis to completely surround the implant--is an important first step toward success. Now all they have to do is add a radio transceiver, GPS, probes to the insect's muscles, and sensors for reconnaissance, as well as train pilots to fly an insect by remote control or microcontrollers--a tall order in anybody's book. [snip] "To date, we have demonstrated that we can insert electronics and MEMS in the pupae stage and have the insect emerge. This is a bit like saying we know that if we heat up a wire it glows and can be used to light rooms--it took a while before we had reliable light-bulbs," said Walker. http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202200707
MIT and Cornell vehicles make contact at the DARPA Urban Challenge event on Nov 3, 2007 in Victorville, CA.
Go to MYRIDE.COM for more car videos. Ghost Rider is Team Blue's self-righting autonomous motorcycle.
see http://www.darpa.mil/GRANDCHALLENGE/ for more information
Video about UCF's entry into DARPA's Urban Challenge