Buffalo, New York
Photographed by Ruth Mormon
August 8, 2003
Posted on RoadTrip America 3/04
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Robots on the Road: The DARPA Grand Challenge March 14, 2004—
Robot without a driver:TerraMax,
the 32,000-pound entry from Oshkosh Truck Company
I never need much of an excuse to take
a road trip, but yesterday I had a GRAND one! At 2:00
am we left Las Vegas and headed south on Interstate 15.
It was a beautiful night to be on the road, and our destination
was the Slash X café in Barstow, California. Slash
X was ground zero for the DARPA Grand Challenge Autonomous
Ground Vehicle Race from Barstow to Primm, Nevada.
DARPA, the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency, is the U.S. Department
of Defense's primary R&D organization, and it's tasked
with discovering and nurturing new technologies that can
be used by the U.S. military. This race was one of many
efforts to develop the systems and technology to meet
the Congressional mandate that by 2015 30% of all U.S.
military vehicles be capable of autonomous navigation.
[Read
more]
