Grand Challenge Hijinks

Reading like a robotic comedy of errors, DARPA has produced a masterfully understated official summary of the performance of each of the teams participating in yesterday's Grand Challenge. Some highlights:

Vehicle 22 - Red Team - At mile 7.4. Vehicle went off course, got caught on an obstacle and rubber on the front wheels caught fire, which was quickly extinguished. Vehicle has been disabled.

Vehicle 21- SciAutonicsII - At mile 6.7. Vehicle went into an embankment and became stuck. Vehicle has been disabled, and the team is recovering it.

Vehicle 5 - Team Caltech - At mile 1.3. Vehicle went through a fence, and couldn't come back through. Vehicle has been disabled, and the team is recovering it.

Vehicle 7 - Digital Auto Drive - At mile 6.0. Vehicle was paused to allow a wrecker to get through, and, upon restarting, sensors were not able to determine the proper route. After sensors tried unsuccessfully for three hours, vehicle was disabled.

Vehicle 25 - Virginia Tech - Vehicle brakes locked up in the start area. Vehicle has been removed from the course.

Vehicle 23 - Axion Racing - Vehicle circled the wrong way in the start area. Vehicle has been removed from the course.

Vehicle 2 - Team CajunBot - Vehicle brushed a wall on its way out of the chute. Vehicle has been removed from the course.

Vehicle 4 - Team CIMAR - At mile 0.45. Vehicle ran into some wire and got totally wrapped up in it. Vehicle has been disabled.

Vehicle 20 – Team TerraMax – Got to mile 1.2. Vehicle then started backing up and after .5 miles, the vehicle was disabled.

You can't make this stuff up!

Robots Candy-05 Wants To Be The Next Tiger Woods

One of the prototypes from the last round of NEDO (New Energy & Industrial Technology Development Organization) funding is Candy-05, who seems to like Golf a whole lot. Looks like he has no problem getting the ball in the hole.

Candy-05 is developed by Nirvana Technology (now the Hajime Research Institute) and stands about 120cm tall. He rolls around on wheels and has stereoscopic cameras which help it locate a golf ball, eye the hole, and putt. His goal in life is to be an entertainment robot for park areas, where golf is popular. Video after the break.

Asimo Brandishes Firearms

A tipster sends us word of this image of impending doom. The translation on the page doesn’t help much, but it may just be an action figure. Dear god let it be just an action figure and not a full sized Asimo with guns! Anyway, apparently Asimo and and a female robot were putting on shows at the National Science Museum in Japan. And judging by that image it couldn’t have ended well.