AIMing for Automated Vehicles
The US armed forces have had smart weapons for a long time now. It is just recently that they realized they need smart supply trucks. Hi, I am Paul F. Grayson, Team Leader of AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC (AIM), one of last remaining teams of the 390 teams that worked on vehicles for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Grand Challenge series of unmanned vehicle races. AIM is working to save soldiers lives by making US Army supply trucks driverless. AIM is funded by donations from individuals like you who want to speed up the development of this life-saving technology. With this blog, you will be able to look over my shoulder while I work on developing this important technology. You will get a chance to look into the world of unmanned robotic vehicles, see some of the things that I see, and puzzle over the problems of making vehicles driverless. Welcome to my world! To comment on any blog posting, scroll to the "Post a Comment" box at the bottom and post your comment. (The moderator will review your comment and OK it as soon as he/she can.)
High School Builds Electric Porsche; Virtual Reality Progress Rolling on;
Here is how they expect it to look after it gets a paint job. EV CHALLENGE - West Las Vegas High School Students build an Electric Porsche http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLlzDHt-AQk A story on the local TV news led me to check farther and discover that kids all across the USA are building electric cars to learn how they work. The youngest ones are building and racing electric go ...... Read More
Comments (0)Girl Geek; Flashback; 4-H Robot Club;
Hyperactive engineering student Jordan Cochran with one of her overnight inventions in the 1985 movie Real Genius. REAL GENIUS In the teen comedy Real Genius, Jordan is one of those few people who does not sleep and to keep herself occupied at night she builds inventions. The running gag in the film is her going by in the background with a new invention each morning when the others are just ...... Read More
Comments (0)Vegetable oil Hydro-Craker; 4-H Mail;
Typical oil refinery flow diagram VEGETABLE OIL TO JP-8 What great news! You may have heard already that our friends at the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have been busy funding research into how to convert vegetable oil into JP-8 jet fuel. The military is trying to be a one fuel organization. Everything it owns is currently fueled with JP-8 produced fro ...... Read More
Comments (0)The Rise of Machine Intelligence
Zoe-Bot Virtual Reality Avitar / CYLON robot. MOTIVE TO INVENT What drives people to invent? Often we can learn a great deal about the world around us through fictional stories. The TV series CAPRICA illustrates the three essential elements an inventor needs to be successful: means, motive, and opportunity. Daniel Graystone has the resources of a large company at his dis ...... Read More
Comments (0)More Automatic Steering Systems; First Reported Save by Unmanned Truck; 2009 Oil Numbers;
Novarient self-steering mining trucks and their route.MORE AUTOMATIC STEERING SYSTEMS THE SEARCH CONTINUES I am am hunting for technology and equipment that is available off-the-shelf that you can use to create your Automatic Guided Ground Vehicle. The search has taken me to a wide range of places. I have traveled from coast to coast in the USA, kicked ...... Read More
Comments (1)Planet Unstable, Film At Eleven;
Two days before the earthquake in Haiti, I saw a National Geographic special on TV about what will happened in the USA when the earth quake that is overdue in the Midwest finally hits. The story was about all the things that would happen and in what sequence if it is an 8.0 quake. As much as we try to deny the fact, solid ground is not all that solid. Humans inhabit the coo ...... Read More
Comments (0)Picture this; Machine Vision Quest;
IF YOU DRAW IT… YOU OWN IT. I am always on the lookout for things that you will find useful. Dan sent me this picture. It looks like his training conference will be great fun to attend and what you learn (how to solve the worlds problems by drawing simple pictures) could be quite valuable to the company that you work for. Certainly if you are in ...... Read More
Comments (0)Who is doing the steering?; TC Tinkers 4-H Robot Club wishlist
Tractors that steer themselves As always, I am shopping for things that might make the required conversion of 400,000 US Army vehicles to driverless operation a little less expensive and able to be done sooner rather than later. Today nearly every piece of agricultural machinery can drive itself. My guess is that when you boil it all down there are about six main guidance system ...... Read More
Comments (0)Virtual Modeling Clay;
Do this 3D sculpting with Protean (clay) in Virtual Reality at home. . Then 3D print this at work. Software FREE for 90 days. Retail price: $99 You can see Protean, virtual reality clay, in actionHere is the YouTube link so you can see the virtual clay work environment in action http://www.youtube.com/user/tactustech#p/u/1/Wu8umJz4z1A Yes, it does look like magic, does ...... Read More
Comments (0)Precision Farming; Silencers; Protean Clay; TC Tinkers 4-H Robot Club wish list.
Auto Guided Harvester - NASA photo PRECISION FARMING - Off the Shelf Guidance and Control Systems GreenStar - John Deerehttp://www.deere.com/en_US/ProductCatalog/FR/category/FR_GREENSTAR.html —more later. AFS Precision Farming - Case IHhttp://www1.caseih.com/northamerica/Products/PrecisionFarming/Pages/precision-farming.aspx System features: Guidance ...... Read More
Comments (0)Looking Back for New Ideas;
President Harry S. Truman “If you want a new idea, read an old book.” From personal experience I have found this to be very good advice that the President gave us so many years ago. My technical libary is in my barn, is filled with old books that explain long ago solution to problems are still with us. Looking for an inexpensive environmentally friendly refrigerant ...... Read More
Comments (0)Code name: Light Blue Optics;
Light Blue Optics, UK. Consumers on a high speed train shown here using an LBO hologoraphic projector (small cube in the picture) to project an image, onto an ordinary table top, that they can use as a touch screen. You have seen this remarkable stuff before in the science fiction movies, technology shows, high end military applications, now it is ...... Read More
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