IEEE Spectrum story on the challenge in 6/2004 issue.

[link|http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/jun04/0604dar.html|Here].

If Sandstorm is the odds-on favorite, then the GhostRider, an autonomous motorcycle, is the vehicle most likely to fail. Even its creator, Anthony Levandowski, a 23-year-old mechanical engineering graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, thinks so. Spotting some supporters in the bleachers, he tells them to watch the GhostRider make its test run the next morning: "It'll be the only one that crashes without hitting anything!"

The idea behind the bike's steering is that it's constantly falling but correcting itself before it hits the ground, its front tire wobbling back and forth as if in the hands of a first-grader just learning to ride. To date, the farthest the bike has traveled is about 180 meters. But never mind that: Levandowski has a vision. He sees a low-slung, carbon-fiber two-wheeled motorbike that can traverse terrain quickly, efficiently, and surreptitiously. In five years' time, he promises, he'll be able to build such a machine. Listening to him talk, you want to believe.

Nothing like flouting conventional wisdom. :-) DARPA should fund more things like this to get people to tackle new challenges.

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #158,041 by Another Scott 6/1/04 10:01:26 PM Reply	IEEE Spectrum story on the challenge in 6/2004 issue. [link\|http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/jun04/0604dar.html\|Here]. If Sandstorm is the odds-on favorite, then the GhostRider, an autonomous motorcycle, is the vehicle most likely to fail. Even its creator, Anthony Levandowski, a 23-year-old mechanical engineering graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, thinks so. Spotting some supporters in the bleachers, he tells them to watch the GhostRider make its test run the next morning: "It'll be the only one that crashes without hitting anything!" The idea behind the bike's steering is that it's constantly falling but correcting itself before it hits the ground, its front tire wobbling back and forth as if in the hands of a first-grader just learning to ride. To date, the farthest the bike has traveled is about 180 meters. But never mind that: Levandowski has a vision. He sees a low-slung, carbon-fiber two-wheeled motorbike that can traverse terrain quickly, efficiently, and surreptitiously. In five years' time, he promises, he'll be able to build such a machine. Listening to him talk, you want to believe. Nothing like flouting conventional wisdom. :-) DARPA should fund more things like this to get people to tackle new challenges. Cheers, Scott.
Post #158,043 by FuManChu 6/1/04 10:29:49 PM Reply	You want a new challenge? :) [link\|http://www.servomagazine.com/tetsujin2004/\|http://www.servomaga...com/tetsujin2004/]
Post #158,046 by Another Scott 6/1/04 10:42:00 PM Reply	Sheesh! Only 13 days left to enter. Better get crackin'! :-) Neat! DARPA should be an incubator and a technology driver. Challenges should be part of the picture, and maybe a bigger part than they've played in the past. Another story in the June Spectrum magazine (not online unfortunately) covers the attempt to build a 403 GFlop supercomputer at [link\|http://www.flashmobcomputing.org/\|"FlashMob 1"]. They "only" made it 180 GFlops (depending on how you count success on Linpack). Cheers, Scott.

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