What a relief to know Team Jefferson is off. We packed three team members and a giant robot into the RV and they departed Charlottesville at approximately 9:34 AM yesterday morning. Wasn't nearly as chaotic as 2005, time when the RV gods had to race a replacement RV from Richmond to replace a broken one, and we stuffed boxes of cables, crates, and tools under the vehicle in a sprint, so the team could finish building the robot when it arrived in California.
A lot of what we're doing with the urban challenge is very focused on the moment. We have to get the car moving, we have to keep it from running into things, and so on. For the challenge, of course, this is vital. There's only a certain amount of time for us to do things in, and plenty to do. So we stay focused.
Still, for all its complexities, the Urban Challenge is very simple compared with real life. Oh, from an abstract viewpoint, cars are just boxes that move around other boxes, and for the Challenge, we can think of it that way. However, in real life, everyone who's driven knows this isn't entirely true. It's more true in some places than others, but it's still not everything.
Let's take a 4-way intersection as an example, with everyone having a stop sign. Legally, it's a very simple procedure. You drive up to the stop, and see if anyone else is there. If someone was there first, you wait until the people who had arrived earlier go, then you go. Very simple, no problems there.
When you add people into the mix, though, things change.
Many people ask about and are interested in the physical construction and componentry of Tommy Jr. But many know that the 'secret sauce' lies in what cannot be seen: the software. The software behind Tommy Jr. represents the thought process codifying how T Jr. behaves and responds to the world around him.
From our blog at Scionlife.com
Today, I thought I'd tell everyone about some of the hardware that we're using in (and out) of Tommy Jr. But first...
We've made it to the semifinals! Wooooo!
Okay, that's out of the way. John, our "Satanic Mechanic", has told you a bit about what we have in Tommy. Of course, he would know, as he's put most of it in. Let's start with sensing. In order for the car to drive itself, it has to be able to see what's around it, know where it is, and know where it's going. As Tommy Jr. doesn't have eyes and an inner ear for balance, we have to make up for that in a variety of ways.
From our blog at Scionlife.com
What's the craziest modification you've considered doing to your Scion? Full-kitchen with running water and gas stove? Installing a hot tub? Replacing all of the body panels with flat-screen televisions and cameras to make it turn invisible? (That last one's probably a bad idea, if it worked)
I'm a project manager for Perrone Robotics and we, along with some students from the University of Virginia, have decided to modify our Scion xB in a way that is maybe not as crazy as the ideas above, but maybe is a little crazier.
We want our Scion to drive itself around a city.
2007 has just begun and we've been cranking it up a notch on Tommy Junior given new sponsorship support. In addition to Perrone Robotics and BDMetrics having made financial contributions, we've recently gotten support from the University of Virginia (UVa) Engineering School, 45Fix, and TDFund. We've got a larger and more focused ops team this year and it has really helped the team move along financially. We're still working on a small budget, but we've had earlier committments which is of tremendous a benefit.
Welcome to the Team Jefferson blog. I'm the team lead for Team Jefferson and will be blogging here about "Tommy Junior" and Team Jefferson progress and antics.
Team Jefferson was established in 2004 by yours truly in order to enter the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge was a race of autonomous ground vehicles traversing over 150 miles of desert terrain in order to claim a $2M prize. By 'autonomous' I mean no drivers inside and no drivers in control. The cars drove themselves.
