The Robot Race Car Champion

[Evil Enigma]

"Say Hello to Stanley."

 

 

"Stanford's souped-up Volkswagen blasted through the Mojave Desert, blew away the competition, and won Darpa's $2 million Grand Challenge. Buckle up, human - the driverless car of the future is gaining on you."

 

"How Stanley Sees the Road.

 

The SUV's hard drives boot up, its censors come to life, and it's ready to roll. Here's how Stanley works. - J.D.

 

1. GPS antenna

The rooftop GPS antenna receives data that has actually traveled twice into space - once to receive an initial position that is accurate up to a meter, and a second time to make corrections. The final reading is accurate up to 1 centimeter.

 

2. Laser Range Finder

So-called lidar scans the terrain 30 meters ahead and to either side of the grill five times a second. The data is used to build a map of the road.

 

3. Video camera

The video camera scans the road beyond the lidar's range and pipes the data back to the computer. If the lasers have identified drivable ground, software looks for the same characteristics in the video data, extending Stanley's vision to 80 meters and permitting safe acceleration.

 

4. Odometry

To contend signals blocked by, say, a tunnel or mountain, a photo sensor in the wheel well monitors a pattern imprinted on Stanley's wheels. The data is used to determine how far Stanley has moved since the blackout. The onboard computer can then track the vehicle's position based on its last known GPS location."

[wahaha]

Funny, VW had all that stuff on their car already!! LOL, that's probably why they used it. They didn't add anything to make it better. If they really wanted cool tech they should have used a Porsche cayenne.

 

And Audi has had some of that stuff on their cars for the past 5 yrs. Backup sensor tech is the same thing they use for the adaptive cruise control on Audi. They just put it on the front.

 

"3. Omnidirectional Collision System

GM has built an inexpensive collision detection system that allows GPS-equipped cars to identify each other and communicate wirelessly."

 

No wonder GM cars keep crashing into each other.

 

Anyway, I'd rather enjoy the driving experience of my car since it was made for purist driving. If they want to use this for military applications, they better get a clue and add armor, because they're going to be easier targets. The military is just dumb anyway, sending people to war wearing cotton.

[maverick]

lol. number 5 is alive.

 

........need input