Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

RoboCars - Episode 2
The DARPA Urban Challenge is an international competition to develop a truly autonomous vehicle: a car that can think and drive itself. First place prize is $2-million cash for the winner, Second place prize is $1 million, Third place prize is $500,000.  This is the third robotics competition sponsored by the Pentagon’s research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The first two were desert obstacle courses. This challenge, however, takes place in an urban environment requiring teams to develop more sophisticated driving skills for their “robocars”.  A total of 89 teams entered, including defense contractors, large universities, small colleges and entrepreneurial teams. DARPA announced it would invite only 30 teams to the national semifinals. Teams will be selected based on their performance at site visits conducted by DARPA inspectors, which test the robocars’ ability to demonstrate basic navigation and traffic skills. The 4-hour site visit is a make-or-break event for any team hoping to win the Challenge. This episode follows 6 different teams in the last frantic days before, and including, their critical site visits. The program ends with DARPA’s announcement of the teams that will qualify for the national semi-finals. 



GOOGLE LUNAR X-PRIZE
The Google Lunar X PRIZE competition is now entering it's tenth month, fourteen teams have joined and one has dropped out.  Other teams from the1000 requests for information are expeted to form up and join the competition.  Team ARCA, the Romanian team, is working toward the first X PRIZE-connected test launch later this year. Stuyvesant High School Robotics Team has joined Team FREDNET. The New York students have competed in the annual FIRST Robotics Competition for years and wants to build on that experience by helping the Google Lunar X PRIZE team, FREDNET.   CNN.com and EuroNews attended the Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Summit in May 2008 and have published videos and stories about the Google Lunar X-Prize race to the moon.   



AGV WENDY DARLING
The next public appearance of the AIM Team vehicle is scheduled for Saturday 7-19-2008 at the Alpenfest Grand Parade in Gaylord, MI.  Anyone interestred in helping get the truck ready should contact me.  (Volunteers get to ride in the truck for the parade).

GO ROBOTS !

 

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org  
AIM: http://aimagic.org 
Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/ 
CE Magazine: http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html 

Industries: Machine Control, Motors and Drives , Programmable Logic Controller