ICAR was the name of a conferenece I had in Seattle a couple of months a go. The second day's planetary talk was by Sebastian Thrun, whom I got to know first when my own professor got very interested in SLAM. What is SLAM? It is to take a robot to somewhere it has no idea where it is, meaning no information is avaliable for the robot about its environment. The robot is said to go around the area, look at around itself and make up a map of what it sees, while it avoids colliding into the stuffs around. Thrun is a well-known face in this field.
Thrun started his speach with: "Who knows what DARPA Grand Challenge stands for?". Some raised their hands, and I wasn't among them! He looked at the audience and said: "To those who didn't raise their hands: WHAT are you possibly doing in the field of robotics!!!". People started laughing but I suppose he really meant what he said.
DARPA is the central R&D organization of the department of defence of the US who holds Grand Challenge; a race between autonomous (unmanned) vehicles sponsored and developed by different teams. These vehicles are supposed to drive a desert road with speed no lesser than 60 km/h while keeping inside the road and avoid any kind of clashing. The winner gets a million dollar prize!!!
Thrun talker one hour to convince us about how uncertain the conditions of this race is and that's why no one has ever ended the race. All the vehicles have been either clashing into something or missing their direction so far.
I received an email by a friend I met at the same conference about this year's Grand Challenge. Stanford University team, leaded by Sebastian Thrun won the race and got the prize! He finally did it!
Now with this new technology, you can sit at the back seat of your car and close your eyes, and the car will take you to your destination through dessert! Isn't it just amazing?! This is where researchers make a good money!
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