DARPA Grand Challenge.com

Meet Junior, Stanford's entry into the 2007 Urban Challenge. Junior is a 2007 VW Passat. As you can see, Junior has already been festooned with sponsor logos -- VW, Intel, Google, and, uh, Red Bull. Guess we know what's keeping their programmers and engineers going through those late-night build sessions.

The official spec sheet explains the basics: platform and drive train by VW, high-resolution LIDAR for 3D imagery, a 6-way camera system, and an Applanix GPS set with 35 cm positional accuracy. Data processing is courtesy of an unspecified number of Intel Core 2 Duo processors. All this hardware probably draws some serious current -- the specs mention that VW fitted a special prototype high-output alternator to keep everything well-fed.

That's it for now; we'll see what we can dig up in the coming weeks. Read more at the Stanford team web site

Gizmag recently discussed the history of government-sponsored contests as a driving force for new technology innovation. The ancestor of today's Grand Challenge was the prize awarded to John Harrison for developing a method for measuring longitude at sea. The prize was open for nearly 60 years; Harrison himself labored on the solution for more than 30. In a demonstration of how such a prize can produce benefits for everyday life, Harrison's ultimate solution was ... a pocket watch capable of keeping accurate time, something I'm sure we all can appreciate. You can read more about the longitude prize and Harrison's work at the British National Maritime Museum site.

Reigning Grand Challenge champion Stanford has been getting the lion's share of the Urban Challenge press, but there are lots of other teams out there working to win some recognition. This recent story shows how the Challenge is helping to spawn new ventures like Blacksburg's TORC Technologies, who are earning their chops as sub-contractors for Virginia Tech's robot team.

Ready for the challenge - Roanoke.com

For those just tuning in, the San Jose Mercury News has a nice capsule reviewing the history of the Grand Challenge events.

A SHORT HISTORY OF DARPA'S GRAND CHALLENGE

While the DARPA Grand Challenge (and upcoming Urban Challenge) are both fascinating tests of engineering skill, there hasn't been much focus on the ultimate use of the resulting technology. DARPA, after all, is the research and development branch of the US Department of Defense. Alternative blog Infoshop is featuring a 2-part analysis of the ethics of using robots for warfighting. No matter what your views on the subject, this is a well-thought-out document; Part 1 leads off with Asimov's First Law of Robotics.

Infoshop News - Social and Ethical Implications of Warfare Robotics