DARPA Challenge

[Alex]

As many of you probably already know the Pentagon-sponsered DARPA challenge has been set for November 2007. This will be the most challenging DARPA ever. From DARPA, "Teams will compete to build an autonomous vehicle able to complete a 60-mile urban course safely in less than 6 hours."

Basically, what this means is that the vehicle will have to travel through heavy congested traffic autonomously. If anyone has driven downtown Chicago, you know how nuts something like this sounds! I found a great article really detailing everything involved:

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_4433682

[Alex]

Looks like iRobot is teaming up with The University of Arizona led by Raytheon Corporation:

http://robotstocknews.blogspot.com/2006/10/team-scorpion-and-irobot-selected-for.html

Read the full article here (http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/6/wa/SRStoryDetails?ArticleID=13177)

[Dave]

I'm sure the Grand Challange will be a little less insane than actual city driving. Speaking as a Chicagoan, I don't believe for a second that a robot could do what I do on a daily basis. Too many variables to cope with. People driving like idiots, bicyclists darting all over the place, bums wandering out into the street and either begging or trying to wash your windows...

That being said, I'm hoping for the best. The desert race was great, but this one will be really impressive.