DARPA Grand Challenge

By Noah Shachtman If phase one is any guide, ideas for the long-fliers will be pretty wild. Lockheed’s proposal included a robo-plane with rotating tails that swiveled to collect sunlight. Aurora Aerospace’s Odysseus concept (see illo above) counts on sending three vehicles into the air, and then have th...

By Noah Shachtman Former Darpa director Tony Tether is joining a Washington-area lobbying firm best known for its influence on Capitol Hill. But Tether — who served for more than seven years as the head of the Pentagon’s premiere research arm — says he won’t be doing any lobbying in his new role. Photo: WIRED]

By Katie Drummond How will the user know that those two vehicles highlighted were the probable attack vehicles in the suicide vehicle bombing? How will the user understand the significance of a highlighted facility which may represent a new meeting location for a terrorist group? Users should have full...

By David Hambling Leaping Robot Hops Closer to WarArmy Terminators Walk Like MenHow To: Terminate a Terminator, for RealPackBot Goes Kite-SurfingCompany Denies its Robots Feed on the DeadRobot Three-Way Portends Autonomous FutureRobot + Super Gun = ‘Crowd Control’Armed Robots Pushed to PoliceMil...

By David Hambling And much smaller. The electromagnet for ITER alone weighs 925 tons, so it’s not likely to be made small enough for a vehicle or any other mobile application, Darpa, on the other hand, cheerily indicates that its project will go on to produce “handheld power sources.”

By Noah Shachtman Mechanical engineer and defense entrepreneur Regina Dugan has been named the new director of Darpa, the Pentagon’s premiere research arm. Dugan will now be in charge of more than $3.2 billion’s worth of high-risk science and technology projects — everything from thinking computers to s...

By Noah Shachtman Military-backed researchers have built a tiny drone that looks and flies like a hummingbird, flapping its little robotic wings to stay in the air. So far, the mock bird, built for Pentagon mad science division Darpa, has only stayed aloft for twenty seconds at a time. But that short flight w...

By David Hambling Eventually, the project could lead to a kind of wide-angle helmet cam. Linked to the right image-processing software, it could be a life-saver, keeping a constant lookout in all directions for possible threats. Darpa is already pursing a similiar approach to try to spot RPGs before they a...

By Katie Drummond “We don’t actually collaborate formally with the Department of Defense, but we do think that our work is relevant to them,” says Amato. He runs regular meetings with public health professionals and evolutionary biologists, but the group only puts in a yearly phone call to a Darpa program...

By Noah Shachtman One day, that could lead to “morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves to be comfortable in any climate, and ’soft’ robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.” A soldier could even reach into a can of unformed...

In 2005, one of the competitors in Darpa's Grand Challenge for robot vehicles was an unmanned motor bike called Ghost Rider. This was based on a 90-cc dirt bike outfitted with sensors, gyros for steering and video cameras for eyes. ...

By Nathan Hodge The NetTrack overview on the Darpa website gives few details, but the strategic plan gives a better idea of how it might work. Using software tools, the system could stitch together information from a variety of sensors (synthetic aperture radar, optical, video, acoustic sensors, movi...

By David Hambling GaN technology could give us small, efficient Active Denial weapons –- small enough to be installed as a non-lethal option in existing vehicles (lack of this technology meant the previous small pain beam built for Project Sheriff was not powerful enough). If successful, the technology...

By Nathan Hodge It's significant for another reason: Tony Tether, who recently stepped down as chief of Darpa after almost eight years on the job, was a big fan of ISIS. This ensures that development of the concept will continue in some form after Tether's departure.

By Nathan Hodge It's significant for another reason: Tony Tether, who recently stepped down as chief of Darpa after almost eight years on the job, was a big fan of ISIS. This ensures that development of the concept will continue in some form after Tether's departure.

By David Hambling Darpa is a little vague about what'll become of this technology. "Transition of this technology is anticipated through industry, who will incorporate elements of the technology in current and future weapon system design," the agency notes. Illo: Micro Cryogenic Cooler, Darpa]

By Noah Shachtman The U.S. military is bankrolling a dozen or more programs, to create Sim Afghansitans and Sim Iraqs where they can test their war plans. The problem is, each model-maker uses his own set of country-building software, his own set of data about the country's social, cultural, and political st...

By Noah Shachtman Image: DailyGame] ALSO: The U.S. military is bankrolling a dozen or more programs, to create Sim Afghansitans and Sim Iraqs where they can test their war plans. The problem is, each model-maker uses his own set of country-building software, his own set of...

By Noah Shachtman Darpa Preps Son of Robotic MuleNew Video: Robot Mule Conquers Ice, SnowNew Video: Robotic Pack Mule Leaps Into ActionVideo: Robotic Pack Mule Hits the StreetsDrone Dog's Big Walk We've seen BigDog, the military's alarmingly-lifelike robotic quadruped, climb over hills, stomp thro...

By Noah Shachtman Darpa wants "biofouling"-free ships... New Afghan supply route: via Iran * Darpa wants "biofouling"-free ships... * ...and software that can "explain" its own "anomalous behavior" * Hamas' "medicine grenades" * Video: Tank vs. Ranger Rover (High five: RC)

By David Hambling The volume of data is too great to be completely transmitted, but users will be able to define at least sixty-five independent video windows within the image and zoom in or out at will. The windows can be set to automatically track items of interest such as moving vehicles. In fact, the resolu...

By David Hambling There are plenty of systems out there to identify the direction of a shooter after he has opened fire. But it might be too late by then. That's why Darpa is developing a system to spot a rocket propelled grenade before it's fired. It's a major challenge, but the solution may lie with a swarm of sof...

Engineering education beckons changes subscription) - Engineering schools must offer student competitions (ie Darpa Grand Challenge). Engineering schools must provide global knowledge and experience. ...

By David Hambling Thin steel wires compacted under tension. When deployed the wires expand to assume predetermined geometric shapes formed from a tangle of the wire itself. Expansion ratios of 1:6000 are achievable. The devices could be used to prevent access by vehicles or by personnel to designated area...

By David Hambling Thin steel wires compacted under tension. When deployed the wires expand to assume predetermined geometric shapes formed from a tangle of the wire itself. Expansion ratios of 1:6000 are achievable. The devices could be used to prevent access by vehicles or by personnel to designated area...

By Noah Shachtman Darpa hopes its "Personal Air Vehicle Technology" project, announced yesterday, will ultimately lead to a working prototype of a military-suitable flying car -- a two-to-four passenger vehicle that can "drive on roads" one minute, and take off like a helicopter the next. The hybrid ma...

By Noah Shachtman Darpa hopes its "Personal Air Vehicle Technology" project, announced yesterday, will ultimately lead to a working prototype of a military-suitable flying car -- a two-to-four passenger vehicle that can "drive on roads" one minute, and take off like a helicopter the next. The hybrid ma...

By Noah Shachtman RESURRECT could also do some forecasting, too. Darpa would like the program to include "descriptive and predictive algorithms that can be implemented in an existing simulation software package." Far-off commanders can already watch battles unfold, thanks to spy drones, streaming vi...

By Noah Shachtman RESURRECT could also do some forecasting, too. Darpa would like the program to include "descriptive and predictive algorithms that can be implemented in an existing simulation software package."

By Nathan Hodge Everyone from Darpa to the National Security Initiative seems to be dangling pots of cash in front of inventors, entrepreneurs and scientists to come up with innovative new ideas for defense and national security. Here's another contest to watch.

By Nathan Hodge Everyone from Darpa to the National Security Initiative seems to be dangling pots of cash in front of inventors, entrepreneurs and scientists to come up with innovative new ideas for defense and national security. Here's another contest to watch.

By Kit Eaton It'll have to cope with stairs, water hazards, desert levels of heat and arctic levels of snow and ice, navigate through GPS waypoints, and it'll have to respond to speech and gesture commands—at which point you imagine a soldier commanding it to "sit!" and giggle slightly. But only sligh...

Related articles from Gadgets, Efinditnow, Gizmodo Australia.

By Nathan Hodge Earlier this week, I posted a few excellent pieces of defense swag, including a Hawaiian shirt with an AH-64 Apache helicopter motif; a cuddly hand puppet advertising mine-resistant vehicles; and a mug from the government's top-secret Mount Weather facility. Darpa playing cards

 UK - Oct 10, 2008 the "miraculous things" Google is doing with its search technology as well as the Darpa Urban Grand Challenge in which driverless cars race each other. ...

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By due-diligence@earthlink.net it's just been announced that the tartan racing / cmu team has taken first place in the darpa urban challenge with its 'boss' autonomous vehicle. stanford's 'junior' placed second, in a reversal of the results from the 2005 desert grand ...

By Sharon Weinberger Basically, the vehicle even was equipped very similarly, but in contrast to the Darpa Grand Challenge where the vehicles drive along a track that connects waypoints, defined by GPS navigation, the European Land Robot Trial does not ...

This car can drive itself. It's taking part in the Darpa Grand Challenge, a Pentagon contest to generate ideas for self-driving combat vehicles - ideas which are already starting to be used in cars we drive today.

By Andru Edwards We visited one of the fifty or so groups participating in the DARPA Urban Challenge during one of their qualifying rounds. In case you are unaware, the DARPA Urban Challenge is a charge given publicly to groups who are capable of designing and proving the technology for autonomously drive...

By Andru Edwards Robotics engineer Stefan Schaal so impressed DARPA (the U. S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) with his robotic dog that they have given him $1.5 million to continue his research. Traveling at a speed of only 0.6-inches/second, the toy poodle-size Robo-dog measures position, ve...

By Robert Jaques The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has renewed a $1.5m contract with the University of Southern California to develop smart robo-dogs. The robots were developed by Stefan Schaal, an associate professor in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Department of Computer Sc...

By Robert Jaques Robert Jaques, vnunet.com, Monday 9 July 2007 at 00:00:00 Darpa invests $1.5m in robotics project The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has renewed a $1.5m contract with the University of Southern California to develop smart robo-dogs.... gt;Read the full article

Apparently the folks at Darpa have never seen The Matrix, Terminator or any of 1,000 other movies. Hence the LANdroid project progresses: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to develop a fleet of robots that soldiers can deploy in urban combat settings as they move throu...

By Sam Abuelsamid Red Bull is no stranger to Volkswagen Motorsport; partnering with Volkswagen for the 2007 SCORE Baja 500 is the latest extension of a long relationship between the two brands. In years past, Red Bull has been a key partner for Volkswagen at all four Dakar Rallies that the Race Touareg compe...

By CmdrTaco moon_monkey writes "According to New Scientist, Darpa is soliciting proposals for so-called Chemical Robots (ChemBots) that would be soft, flexible and could manoeuvre through openings smaller than their static structural dimensions. They suggest that it could be made from shape-...

then on saturday at about 4:00 am darpa will give the teams the gps waypoints for this year's route, and at 6:30 am the first vehicle will begin the race. one guy who was at the speedway today and saw a few of the trial runs said “ not ...