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Three robotic vehicles cruised
\n past the finish line Saturday in a Pentagon-sponsored race across the
\n rugged Mojave desert, giving scientists hope that robots could one day
\n wage battles without endangering soldiers.<\/p>\n
Also finishing was a converted red Hummer named "H1ghlander" and
\n a Humvee named "Standstorm" from Carnegie Mellon University.
\n The Stanford robot dubbed "Stanley" overtook the top-seeded H1ghlander
\n at the 102-mile mark of the 132-mile course."I’m on top of the world," said Carnegie
\n Mellon robotics professor William "Red" Whittaker, who said
\n a mechanical glitch allowed Stanley to pass H1ghlander.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, plans
\n to award $2 million to the fastest vehicle to cover the race in less than
\n 10 hours. The taxpayer-funded race was intended to spur innovation and
\n development of robots that could be used on the battlefield without remote
\n controls.<\/p>\n
This years results were much improved over last What a difference a year can make. Advances in software So soon we will have robot tanks and other killing story from Business Week<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three robotic vehicles cruised past the finish line Saturday in a Pentagon-sponsored race across the rugged Mojave desert, giving scientists hope that robots could one day wage battles without endangering soldiers. Also finishing was a converted red Hummer named "H1ghlander" … Continue reading
\n year’s inaugural race, which was uniformly derided as a failure when
\n none of
\n the robot vehicles made it even one-tenth of the way to the finish. The
\n "winning" loser, Carnegie Mellon’s Sandstorm, went all of 7.5 miles. Most
\n of the others never got started, and no prize was awarded.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n and hardware, as well as lessons learned, resulted in 8 of this year’s
\n entries finishing the 132 mile course, and most of the others passing
\n last year’s Sandstorm mark.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n machines, capable of acting autonamously, without the need for human direction, and adapting to their environment by learning new behavior. Of course, Sci-fi
\n fans will recognize this as one of the precursors of doom from the Terminator
\n series….<\/em><\/p>\n