Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

Team #30 Oak Ridge Robotics
October 1, 2007

Team #30 on my list is Oak Ridge Robotics, from Oak Ridge, TN.  Their vehicle, CGR2, is named for "Citation and George Robot version 2" since it is a merging of two navigation systems.  There was no million dollar development grant, yet they have made remarkable progress toward the robotic driverless car.  

Perhaps the real experiment in the DARPA Urban Challenge is not the driverless vehicle itself, but in trying out a variety of structures for R&D teams and watching which ones work and which ones do not.  We may discover what term structure generates the best results and copy it for other problems that need solved.

ORR was formed by combining two TN teams from the earlier race, Team Possible and Team George.  Team Possible has an impressive background in machine automation and integration of SICK LADAR data with 2D vision systems while Team George specializes in high-speed, stereoscopic vision systems capable of processing over 324 mega bytes of pixel data per second. The system also tracks 3D objects in space resulting in object identification, location, velocity, and vectors in near real-time. This sounds like a good combination for of skills for the Nov. 3, 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge Race.

Funding is from donations or the sale of ad space on the vehicle in three levels Gold $10,000 or more, Silver $2,000 or more,  Bronze $500 or more, and Visioneer $20 or more.  Has this fundraising structure been effective?  Two Silver, one Bronze, and nine Visioneers.  The trouble is that while a financial report would be nice, really small innovative flexible teams don't publish financial reports or good PR materials.  Those things are for big organizations with large overhead and huge support staffs - the first things a tiny team gives up for the sake of productivity.  A vehicle moving across the ground autonomously is the only measure of success here. 

Nicely done PowerPoint presentations and graphics would make my job easier but have very little to do with making a driverless vehicle work. They are used in large organizations to improve communication among the large number of people involved.  When the entire team can sit comfortably around a dining room table and share a pizza, communications is not a problem and does not require a lot of time an money to be spent on it. From what I have heard, the pizza box itself ends up playing a key roll in hatching new ideas. 

Cummins Engine Company did a study a long time ago and found that when ever a manufacturing plant in the USA reaches the point where they have 5,000 employees the paperwork to support them starts to get out of hand.   So much so that if you need more than 5,000 employees it is cheaper to create a second plant rather than expand the one you have.

IBM discovered that when you have one person, you get one persons worth of work done.  When you have two people, a bit less than two peoples work gets done in a day because part of their time is spent coordinating their work.  It really starts to get out of hand when you add a third person because A can talk to B and B can talk to C and C talks to A about B.... adding a third person only increases production marginally.  Of course the IBM rep was really talking about large organizations but productivity is even more critical in tiny organizations because the margin for success is so narrow.

These elements all come into play as each of the 89 teams attempts strive to answer each of the engineering questions that are the stepping stones to the goal of demonstrating a driverless vehicle.  So how many geeks does it take to bake a driverless vehicle from the ingredients that are available today?  We should know soon, the race is not far away.  Perhaps the winner will publish the recipe so we can each cook up one our own.  I know I sure could use one for those long trips - or to send out on errands. This is going to change the meaning of the words "drive up window".

Several people have asked me recently how driverless trucks will refuel as they criss-cross the USA. Until this race, this question was not on the average persons mind but is now.  My answer?  I tell them that the "full-service" pump with a gas station attendant is going to make a comeback.  I don't tell them that "he" will be a robot too - but that is the subject of a different column.

GO ROBOTS !

Posted by Paul Grayson on October 1, 2007 | Comments (0)