In January of 2004 I wrote in this space about the Mars Exploration Rover, named “Spirit”, and its control computer powered by a radiation-hardened cousin of the PowerPC chip that powers Apple’s Macintosh computers. Well, it looks like PowerPC-based Macs are going to be the brains behind another vehicle designed to maneuver through some of the most demanding terrain in the galaxy.

Acronym Alert! This week’s acronym is DARPA. It stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA is the central research and development organization for the U.S. Department of Defense. DARPA’s charter is to develop technologies that will give the U.S. armed forces a decisive edge on the battlefields of the future. One such technology under development is the “autonomous ground vehicle”. DARPA doesn’t officially call it an “AGV”, but I will. AGVs will save lives by performing hazardous battlefield functions that would normally place troops in harm’s way.

So, what we’re talking about here is a car without a driver. You’ve seen them on I-295 plenty of times. Seriously, AGVs are designed to follow a pre-programmed route, but also have some capacity to react to unforeseen obstacles that may appear in their path. To promote the advancement of AGVs, and to involve bright minds that might not otherwise become involved in this kind of research, DARPA came up with the bright idea (‘cause that’s what they do) of a competition, called the DARPA Grand Challenge.

This year’s Grand Challenge will take place in October in the desert southwest. AGVs must travel about 150 miles over challenging desert terrain using only onboard sensors and navigation equipment to avoid obstacles. The team whose AGV completes the route the fastest will receive a $2 million prize.

It is indeed a Grand Challenge. In the 2004 event no vehicle made it further than 7.4 miles from the start point before being “command-disabled”. Some never made it out of the parking lot (remind you of the Maine Mall during the holidays?)

Anyway, this year, one of the entrants making the semifinals by exhibiting the ability to get out of the parking lot is Team Banzai. Team Banzai’s blue Volkswagen Toureg, named “Dora”, is driven (literally) by three Mac minis running Mac OS X. The team is also using Macs for scenario simulations and data analysis. A photo on their website reveals one of Dora’s “eyes” to be an Apple iSight camera, as well.

Go, Dora, Go!

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski