Today is

Monday, December 20, 2010

Innovations form a Robot Rally

1) I do not think that it’s the prize money, since they must have spend about that much for the equipments and so on. I think it’s the reputation Carnegie Mellon Universty is trying to keep and thus this makes them so deeply motivated to succeed. Carnegiw Mellon has a good reputation in AI and computer science and has been the number one university in these areas, therefore they do not to lose that.

2) The high school students have developed a unique tracking system which is much safer and less expensive, thus their entry was unique. The other entrants may have more sponsors, so the issue of designing something much cheaper yet safer might not be something they had to consider thoroughly.

3) A single laser can’t manage to navigate the vehicle because it’s not sufficient enough in ‘informing’ the vehicle about its surroundings and environment. Using many lasers is also no good, because many lasers means many more errors and break-downs. So the best approach is to design a single laser who has the ability to turn 180 degress, similar to a neck.

4) Yes, there were foreign competitors in the contest.

5) The point in this competition is to develop a new technology. If the new idea that the losers had becomes important for the improvement of the technology, then they will turn out to be winners in the long run since they contribute to the general aim. The high school students have developed a technology both safe and cheap, thus even thought they couldn’t be the winners, they have contributed to the general aim. If improved, the design of the person who have joined the competition by a robo-motorcyle can be a handy vehicle that we might use in the future. Thus although he couldn’t make it to the desert contest, with its new idea he had contributed to the general aim.

6) If the vehicle leaves the assigned route or does not complete the rout in 10 hours, it’s out.

7) a) No RoboRally had taken place in 2006 and 2008. The one in 2007 was called Urban Challenge and a vehicle called Boss designed by Carnegie Mellon University’s team won.

b) No.

c) The prize remained the same in the second challenge, Urban Challenge, in 2007.

d) No Turkish team participated in the contests.

e) Yes. The innovation systems in taxis and in expensive cars were developed thanks to the technology created in these contests.

f) How can “I” know that?!?! I’m not in the military, and the web sites of USA military doesn’t have a burning desire to inform everyone how they’ve put a commercial product in use or due to which contest the technology that the product has was developed.

There is no commercial product come out recently that military has put to use anyways, so the answer is no.

8) I have come across to a new computer game while seaching. It’s called RoboRally after the RoboRally contests. It sounded interesting that although we couldn’t see new cars, new navigation systems, new technological products around us put into use due the contest, we have a new game created after the contest. One tend to think that all that contest would result more than a new game.

No comments:

Post a Comment