Another DARPA-Sponsored Robotics Competition 56
dexterpexter writes "While some say that DARPA played unfairly in eliminating Grand Challenge teams they deem unworthy, they, the Department of Defense, and General Motors (among others) sponsor an autonomous robotics competition in which they exercise less control over who competes and who does not. The rules are more lenient and the prizes are less illustrious, but this competition still holds the spirit of 'openness' and rewarding innovation that the Grand Challenge seems to have lost. Of course, you must be from a university to compete, but any university-based vehicle passing the competition-day qualifications gets a fair shot at winning. No pre-competition disqualifications. My team has competed for several years."
Re:Robots? (Score:2)
Re:Robots? (Score:1)
Re:Robots? (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:IRRF, for everybody! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:IRRF, for everybody! (Score:1)
Dupe!!!! (Score:1, Informative)
Prizes, less illustrious ?!?!?! (Score:5, Interesting)
I didnt read enough, (I rarley do:) but many of these contests are nothing but brain suckers, like the X prise, unless theyve changed it you are basically sighning away your rights to the tech if you win, even that prise $10 mi, is a joke for the tech to CHEAPLY put someone into space, on the public market a cheap easy way would be worth billions.
What does DARPA have to loose, maybe 50k in all the prizes TOTAL ?
I mean competition is good, the best, but I have a feeling the comercialization of these technologies is much more valuable.
The sad part is frustrated people from the original competiton will see this a a boon and join to do nothing more than expose their innovations to someone that has the ability (read GM) to bring it to market.
Re:Prizes, less illustrious ?!?!?! (Score:5, Informative)
It is true that the universities do tend to want to claim ownership of materials and property, but we get to take with us the learning we gained above and beyond our classmates. I know that this project has impressed two major players into offering me jobs upon graduation, so the reward of a potential job and marketability outweighs the small prizes.
You will also notice that the $1500 was for a single event. There are several ways of getting rewards. One team has won over $10,000, which goes straight to the students.
If we want to take what we learned and go apply that to future robots that we independently want to sale, then that is fine. DARPA cannot claim our technology. Only the university can. And they can't claim lessons learned.
And, as for the GM support, that is because they are working on autonomous vehicle lanes. They already have a test lane in Texas.
Re:Prizes, less illustrious ?!?!?! (Score:1)
Trying to create an anti-free, anti-share/cooperation meme?
There are more important things than dollars. Deal with it.
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Open source works because of simple statistics. There are 6,300,000,000 people in the world. It is a statistical certainty that a small fraction of that population will have both the means and motivation to create free software. And once it's been created it can be copied millions of times. Software per-copy pricing is broken and doesn't recognise this. Reform IP law.
Pah! (Score:3, Funny)
Robot Wars!!!
No seriously, it's open to more than 'just universities' and it's (reasonably) fun to watch. All it needs is a push away from simple remote control vehicles into something more automated (i.e. robotics) and some sponsorship. I know I'd watch more episodes if they let you use projectile, beam and electronic weapons. Sure safety shouldn't be compromised, but there's gotta be a way to let people be just a bit more adventurous than building a wedge shape round an RC car?
I mean, let's be honest - Lego Mindstorms is more robotic than Robot Wars. A proper Robot Wars could eventually yield some useful technology through having fun...
Robotics innovation (Score:2)
Re:Underground scene? (Score:2)
What's fight club? I thought I was at robot club.
Universities only? (Score:5, Insightful)
Many see it as a waste of time and money that could be better spent creating a business, or working on their pet project.
Why should this sort of competition be limited only to those who are conventional enough to find a home in the traditional university setting?
Re:Universities only? (Score:2)
Re:Universities only? (Score:4, Interesting)
Basically, they found a fun way to teach and DARPA and other sponsors saw what the students were able to produce and decided to reward them for it. What a way to learn! Instead of sitting in a classroom sleeping, we get to work toward something great, learning through experience, and we have a chance at getting paid to do so. Neat.
This is just one robotics competition. Another poster has mentioned one that is open to EVERYONE in which the money prize is much, much higher. You are welcome to compete in that if you wish.
Delivering what .EDU isn't (Score:4, Informative)
From DARPA's own statement...
The recent events that have led to the outcry about the fairness of DARPA's management of this contest are truly unfortunate. I'm actually concerned about the viability of this and future Grand Challenges based simply on the number of legitimate complaints that could be brought that may delay the prize award. Yesterday on DARPA's forum a team reported that the "secret" route that was to be announced only two hours before the start of the race had been "leaked" to some teams. If it's legitimate, for teams using a human pre-planning strategy it's a substantial advantage, and thus it's unfair.
When anything in the Grand Challenge is described as unfair, what's really being said is that there may actually be an attempt to defraud the American taxpayer via an unjust award of a million dollars. People go to prison for much less! I think that the organizers did not adequately consider the implications of running a contest such as this, particularly since they (the US Government) is held to a much higher standard of fairness than any private contest organizers.
-sf
Re:Delivering what .EDU isn't (Score:3, Interesting)
Otherwise to me, you are now a co-defendent went this all hits the fan. Basiclly, now the Grand Challenge has be come fixed lottery.
I keep wanting... (Score:5, Funny)
Regards,
Dave
Re:7 years?? (Score:1)
My university has competed in this competition since its first, which I believe was a little over 10 years ago.
-dexterpexter
university only? (Score:1)
Re:I'm involved with these sorts of things (Score:2, Informative)
I offer a $100 reward for the identity (full name and address) of the person responsible for the above posting. If you have such information, please call Team Overbot at (650) 326-3529. Thank you.
John Nagle
Team Overbot
Meta-trolling for $$$. (Score:2, Informative)
FYI, the web site is "anti-slash.org" and judging by the kind of forum postings they have, it's comprised of some pissed off 13-year-olds with too much time on their hands. They archive highly rated postings from slashdot.org and encourage their buddies to repost them as a way to dilute the value of Slashdot's forums. I notice they have archived three of my postings. This is of dubious legality; don't Slashdot posters own their postings?
Incidentally, the registrant is listed as follows, according to a GoD
Re:Meta-trolling for $$$. (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Meta-trolling for $$$. (Score:1, Offtopic)
But it was there when I first heard of it, some two- three days back.
Re:Meta-trolling for $$$. (Score:1, Offtopic)
Thanks anyway.
I'll bite (Score:3, Insightful)
In terms of the actual IGVC events, it's important to note that they are heavily software based. Very little emphasis is placed on mechanical design or aesthetics and for this reason entrants have actually submitted milk crate and plywood based vehicles and other such contraptions that have zero real-world utility.
The meat of the IGVC is in the Autonomous Challenge. It consists of an obstacle course that the robot must navigate without leaving a defined lane or displacing an obstacle. This event has yet to be completed by a robot since it was overhauled a few years ago and made much more difficult with increased complexity and the introduction of a variety of traps.
This post is not intended to put down the IGVC or its competitors. The competition is an excellent way of getting some academic experience in the field of autonomous robotics without the enormous time and dollar committment of something like the DARPA Grand Challenge. At the same time it is important to recognize that there is room for improvement at the IGVC and that other competitions should be encouraged as this field matures.
With what they pulled last time... (Score:2)
Re:With what they pulled last time... (Score:3, Insightful)
1. The IGVC has been around since 1993.
2. DARPA is by no means the main sponsor. The competition is held by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (http://auvsi.org [auvsi.org]) that also hosts an air and underwater competition in addition to the this ground event.
I did this (Score:4, Interesting)
Keep it simple -- make it work. (Score:2)
I worked security for the 3rd contest, and was still pretty surprised by how many entries were failing due to simple problems.
As you stated -- there were a lot of very basic problems with most entries back
The Rest of the Sorry Story (Score:2, Troll)