As the new Grand Challenge approaches

[AzraeL]

I remember watching a Myth Busters show that they made a cop car on remote control.. I think it would be funny as hell to have one, or the bike, and "drive" it around.

i saw that, they didnt do a half bad job either... it shows its easily a possibility to get a motorbike functioning properly

[Blaze]

You should check out Blue Team's site, AzraeL. Getting the bike to maintain balance on its own is near impossible, not to mention it's not even remote controlled. It's fully autonomous, just like all the others.

[Deacon]

Maintaining balance is not difficult on a traveling motorcycle as long as the steering mechanism is fine... Have you never seen a bike or motorcycle roll on its own down a hill or whatever? It does just fine until it starts veering off one way or the other because nothing's steering it.

[Blaze]

Yes, but they also have to maintain the balance on a non-moving and exceedingly slow moving bike sometimes. Also, designing the steering to see both were they need to travel for obstacles, and where they will need to go for staying upright. It's a most perplexing problem.

[AzraeL]

i can understand that. shifting weight is a big part of turning aswell...

[Vektor T. Gecko]

I meant more that BM development was originally rooted in walkers for forestry, mining, and other such utility applications and originally, the first models were refits of these types of units for combat.

More referring to the actual application than the specific technology used to implement said application (since it's sci-fi, you sort of have to take it with a grain of salt. It often gets applications or broad ideas down, but invents technology to make it happen.)

Besides, there is artificial muscle research happening, anyway
Electroactive polymer systems are well into development (although if I'm correct, those will probably not be suitable for industrial use anytime soon, as they're not very tough or strong at the moment) and some form of carbon nanotube technology which I'm not too clear on, but recall reading at least briefly seeing something about.

Anyway, tangent back to old topic done, continue talking about weight shifting and turning!

[mikehendo]

[quote="Vektor T. Gecko";p="467775"]On a somewhat related note:

http://www.plustech.fi/Walking1.html
[/quote]

Arent TimberJack machines cool? The forestry equipment that leaves a small footprint is great. I got to see one of those walking prototypes when i was over in Finland a couple years ago. They are super nifty..

Posted Sun Mar 20, 2005 09:59 am:

before anyone whines and moans that that is plustech and not timberjack.. They are the same thing. and now they are all part of John Deere anyways.

[Zero_Point]

Meh, the walker's cool, a bit too slow for my tastes. That, and they developed a four-legged machine similar to that years ago.

http://www.cpsr.org/prevsite/publicatio ... 7.txt/view

Sucks, couldn't find a picture.

Anyway, the closest thing we have to artificial muscles right now is nitinol, and it's nowhere near strong enough or durable enough for military/industrial applications, though NASA did use it on the Sojourner mission.

And, my money is on Sand-Storm, the modified H1 Humvee that was last years' "winner".

[Blaze]

Awsome new videos from many teams! The teams that made it to the site visit level are all noted (the only ones yet listed in the competitor listing), so they're easy to check out. Many of the teams have made their video submissions to DARPA available for download.

I'm particularly enamoured with videos available from Blue Team, Red Team, and TMT (Two Much Trouble). MANY other teams have highly successful vehicles in their videos as well. Those just seem like the coolest to me.

You can go looking through the teams here. http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/TeamInfo.html

About 6 months to go, and I'm already drooling.

[Zanthra]

Interestingly enough ghostrider was one of the ones that did the worst in the first competition. As I recall they were one one that toppled over before even leaving the starting chute because someone forgot to turn on the balancing system.

My dad is actually collecting servos, cameras, and GPS systems because he has an interest in building his own, however it will probably be a couple more years before he is ready to compete in something like this.

I am planning on going to see the start of the competition with my dad this time around. I have even considered joining the CyberRider team here in Irvine, but have not have the time or energy to actually do that yet.

I even went out to the Slash X cafe when I was down here for the Darpa Grand Challenge convention/thing, and got to actually see one of the autonomous vehicles.

I have higher hopes for the second DARPA grand challenge than the first, because a lot of the teams in the first challenge were not ready when it came, bugs were still abound, there were still tweaks beeing made, and many of them, including the leader Red Team, turned off all their sensors and drove by GPS only because they were not helping. As TerraMax found out when it got stopped on a bush.

[AzraeL]

necro... biiigggg necro..

[Blaze]

For those of you not following, today the list of entrants was cut down to the 40 which are invited to the National Qualification Event just before the GC. The list will be further cut to 20 which will race at that time. Check out the new list! It's short enough to TRULY read up on all the teams, now.