Re: robot race

B1ackwater wrote:
> On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 16:11:41 +0200, Borek
> <borek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/10/08/robot.race.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories
>>
>>So they did it this time...
>
>
> Yep. None completed the course last year. Now five did - and
> in pretty much the same amount of time. Next year ...

THEY FLY.

>
> This is evolving very QUICKLY.
>
> No doubt each team used a different approach to the problem(s).
> Interesting that five of them all performed about the same.
> I hope there's more information about HOW they programmed the
> 'bots. Could be that there are multiple paths to this kind of
> 'intelligence' - all just as good as the other. An analogy
> perhaps as to what we might expect if we meet intelligences
> from other worlds - or build our own. Like us - but NOT ...

I understand that a major impediment to success last year was the
inability of all rovers to scan more than about 10 degrees laterally.
Dunno how true that is, but the performance difference between years
*is* almost binary.

>
> How long until self-driving civvie automobiles are a practical
> reality. A lot of civvies couldn't have driven that desert
> test course as is.

I've been wrong before in my pessimistic prognosticating, but...

- The weather was ideal. Add a downpour, dust cloud, or snowstorm and
see how it goes, especially when the bad weather shuts down the GPS.

- The rovers didn't have to worry about running into cars that were
ahead or behind.

- The rovers didn't have to deal with onrushing cars, headlights,
motorcycles, popeye cars, etc.

- The road had no white/yellow solid/dashed lines that are often faint
at best, or occluded by dirt or snow. Nor were the roads multi-lane.
Nor did they have stoplights, stop signs, yield signs, etc, etc.

- The rovers encountered no pedestrians or bicyclists.

- The rovers were allowed to drive over any obstruction.

The rovers didn't have to obey any rules of the road, other than not
falling of of it. That's a far cry from Johnny Cab...

The DoT has spent about a decade looking into the difficulties of
building a partly/fully automated roadway transport system. Given the
need for safety, fully automated cars are probably as hard as strong AI.

Search for "Intelligent Transportation Systems" or "intelligent
vehicles" or "driver assistance systems" for more...

http://www.itslessons.its.dot.gov/its/benecost.nsf/images/Reports/$File/Inventory99b.pdf
http://www.its.dot.gov/index.htm
http://itsdeployment2.ed.ornl.gov/technology_overview/DAS.asp

Randy

--
Randy Crawford http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~rand rand AT rice DOT edu

There are two kinds of people in the world: me, and those who disagree
with me.
.

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