The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Most people like the idea of robots. We have all grown up watching TV shows and reading books filled with robots waiting to do our bidding. We dream of the day when we will be able to lie on the couch and send an electronic servant to the fridge for something cold to drink. Unfortunately, the reality is that robots in our age are still at the stage of robotic vaccuum cleaners that can silently creep across the floor before parking under the couch waiting for the next time it has to do its job. Toys such as the Lego kits and the Robot Wars geek shows on TV have managed to spur a lot of interest in robotics, and it was a small surprise last year when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the wing of the Pentagon that deals with a constant influx of new ideas, outlined the Grand Challenge race. The idea was that the U.S. military was interested in having robots capeable of travelling across hundreds of miles of unmarked territory carrying a load of some type, and navigating without any human intervention. Basically trucks and SUVs were rigged with hundreds of pounds of computing gear. They were then pre-programmed to follow a set of coordinates. Cameras and other sensing gear on board would lead them across the course to a finish line. When first attempted in 2004, the furthest vehicle travelled 7.5 miles. On a 130 mile course. The Pentagon was underwhelmed, to say the least. The Grand Challenge is to be the beginning of the U.S. government's goal of automating at least one-third of U.S. military ground forces by 2015. So they doubled the money. A $1 million prize in 2004 was doubled for 2005 in hopes of attracting more brain power to the task. Two weeks ago the course for this year's event was unveiled and teams scrambled to program the way-points into their machines. No contact with the vehicle was allowed while it was on the course and no changes to the programming could be made when the race was underway. These vehicles were on their own. This year, success. Five vehicles crossed the 130-mile course layed out across the Majove Desert, and a team from Stanford University with an SUV named Stanley claimed the $2 million, completing the course in just under seven hours. Robotics is finally beginning to come of age. Most major electronic companies have a robot of some type to roll out at trade shows to display their hope for the future, and many of them are quite realistic and talented. Honda's Asimo is a humanoid that once opened trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Some of the short videos posted on Honda's website have to be seen to be believed. The emerging power of this creature is astounding. While The Jetsons have yet to arrive, and it may be a while until I can lay on the couch and wait for my robotic butler to fetch me things, the field of robotics is advancing and changing at an incredible rate. From small household appliances, to robotic planes and vehicles, the field is emerging as a force for the future. ([email protected])
