What will DARPA think of next?

[Rich Kressly]

Hey Dave,
Thanks for the clarification on these ever-changing times.
How many days of the year do you actually spend at home anyway?

[mechanicalbrain]

So its not exactly a game like grand challenge but heres one of DARPA's new projects called project Walrus http://www.livescience.com/scienceof...12_walrus.html

[Rich Kressly]

TerraMax is one mile from completing the course.
Stanley and Stanford win the 2M ...
Dave, will they eventually post actual course time for each bot?

[mechanicalbrain]

Originally Posted by Mike

I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Think of all the land vehicles that got software glitches and went off-course during DARPA. Now when they are flying, instead of going off-course they fly into communities and cities nearby.

Actually I did some research into DARPA's research projects and they are funneling allot of money into UAV technology. Considering the potential risk something like the Xrace presented I don't think the implementation of UAV/space competition is that unrealistic. It presents some interesting ideas. would you be willing to elaborate 114ManualLabor?

[Rich Kressly]

It seems as though I got caught up in the Grand Challenge itself here. Imagine that, Kressly excited during a robotics competition. Anyway, it would seem as though I made several attempts to hijack this thread and I apologize.

Now that (edit) FIVE (/edit) have conquered the "Grand Challenge", where do you think DARPA will go next to challenge our best, brightest, and most determined?

No problemo. Maybe the project would be to create an unmanned vehicle that would go up to a certain height, and then have to slove some sort of task, such as go from A to B, while going to an altitude of X. This is more of random idea spewing, but maybe something as complex as going from A to B using altitude X, and when reaching point B, they must deploy some sort of object. Then, travel back to A would be necessary to finish.

The craziness of this idea would cause the robots to have to be able to carry payload, go from one point to another (very far away), and then deploy the payload and return. This could be useful for resupply as well, as a flying project could take items and supplies great distances without the fear of low altitude anti-air.