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Team #33 Palos Verdes High School Roadwarriors

October 10, 2007

Team #33 on my list is Palos Verdes High  School Roadwarriors. The remarkable thing about this team is that it is made up of high school kids who are doing a remarkable job.  Palos Verdes High School Roadwarriors were in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and are now back using an Acura MDX from GC2, with new sensors and new navigation suite.  They are collaborating with USC engineering students under the leadership of Professor Petros Ioannou, director of the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology.

There has been considerable buzz about one of their innovations that many of the other teams have say they would like to have.  It is the Ground Mouse.  Johnson Wang is credited with having created the Ground Mouse as a dead reckoning or precision odometer navigation aid based on the workings of an optical mouse.  JW is a Junior at USC  studying electrical engineering with a minor in technology commercialization .   His specialty on the PVHSR team is programming and hardware implementation.  Unfortunately they have not been selected to be in the final 36 teams going to the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge elimination trials in Victorville, CA Oct. 24 thru 31, 2007.



The equipment rack picture, not unlike the other teams with the exception that this one does not seem to be all that comfortable in the back seat of a sedan, but then again this is before miniaturizing the system so that it blends into the interior panels of the vehicle.  The radiation warning sign is of some concern.  Is atomic power really necessary for an Urban Challenge vehicle?



The usual chop and add has been done the drivers position but the co-pilot position is occupied by an interesting metal sculpture outfitted with impressive looking electronics. 

Here is the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge Team picture in front of the pits area at the Fontana, CA Raceway where the elimination trials were held before transporting the finalists to Barstow, CA for the start of the desert obstacle course race.  The course ran 133 miles from Barstow, CA to Primm, NV - officially this could not be called a race because there is a NV law prohibiting "racing" in the desert.  The 2 million dollar 2005 prize was won by Volkswagen’s R&D joint venture with Stanford University.  



Back here at AIM HQ in Traverse City: 

United Way of Northwest Michigan has started an interesting recruiting campaign for volunteers.  They have two parallel programs one begins with "One Hour" and the other program begins with "One Dollar".  The "Start with one" campaign comes with a long list of good that can be done. You can see the this really well done campaign - done by local ad agency artists - by going to their cleverly named website http://www.startherestaynear.com/

This week four more people have expressed interest in joining the AIM Team.  #One is Linda Fabian - who helped put up a Iraq War memorial in Mt. Pleasant, MI's Island Park and maintains it.  She is in touch with the Gold Star Mothers organizations and they have expressed interest in helping save soldiers lives even though it is too late for their sons and daughters.  They see helping AIM as a constructive use of their energy.  #Two is Richard Strauss, who has offered help out on Thursdays.  His next assignment is to finish painting AGV WENDY DARLING before cold weather sets in.  #Three and #Four are a Father / Teen pair.  Scott Smith is going to bring his teen age son Chip over on Thursdays to help Richard paint and gain some resume points for working on a DoD project.  This has worked well for other people who have been hired away from our team to good paying jobs at big companies that want people who have worked on DARPA Urban Challenge teams.  Not a bad trade for doing a little bit of volunteer work.  We will have to see if they can survive the break in period and get settled on the team.  The first few work sessions are the most likely time for a new volunteer to quit.

GO ROBOTS !

Posted by Paul Grayson on October 10, 2007 | Comments (0)