Ok, ok, I know
Yeah yeah yeah. Look, I know what you're going to say. Yeah, it's been a long time since I've written anything of substance up here. I mean, sure, the Discovery Channel thing was interesting, but it had nothing to do with the combination of Cornell + cars + city that draws everybody's interest (and by everybody, I really just mean people that read this, all... both of you).
Anyway, the last time I really wrote anything interesting was before we went on break, and before you ask, no, I did not take a month and a half break. It was more like... well actually, it was more of a day and a half break. See that's the problem with zealous perfectionists, we just can't slow down. It's not that we've been on break, it's more that I've been too busy to think about writing.
So what has happened since December? Well, mum's the word on a lot of things, at least until I can figure out how to get video up to the server. Until then, I'll just give you a few of the big highlights.
First off, the car still hasn't driven itself (at least not outside of simulation). Yeah, that's about a month behind schedule. Nobody's really pleased about that (especially our poor mechanical guys that had to put up with a few choice shipping and procurement snafus in the actuator department), but the team is so parallelized that it's not really fazing anybody. (no warm fuzzies yet, but hey, we're patient) That being said, the new alternator and inverter kit have been installed, and our car quite literally has enough power to run a small house.
Second, pose is just about finished. I know just about everybody else would just buy an off-the-shelf unit and be done with it, but I'd like to think that we have more information about exactly what happens to GPS in different urban situations. It gives us a lot of control and better performance, and nobody can argue at the 90% discount over the commercial version.
Third, our mapping and fusion algorithm is getting ported over to the vehicle as I write. We seem to be able to track cars reliably well past 100 meters, and I think the effort we put into it over the past 6 months will prove to be a boon later. I have some nifty videos for you guys, as soon as I can make them manageable without drowning us in bandwidth bills.
Lastly, our planner is..., well, it is. There are of course the rules of the road and the general routing algorithm, but I don't think anybody would argue for them as the tough part of the Urban Challenge. Granted, last week's slug-fest between the sensing team and the planning team was borderline hilarious, but the real problems start to surface when there are other cars on the road. There is no "optimal" when it comes to unpredictable drivers- even the magic 8-ball would say, "ask again later." I find it humorous that DARPA emailed out a surveyed list of all the vehicles' bumper heights, and I find it utterly disturbing that the smallest competing car can nearly pass unimpeded under the largest competing car. It just goes to show you that even self-driving cars need a hand once in awhile.
Anyway, the last time I really wrote anything interesting was before we went on break, and before you ask, no, I did not take a month and a half break. It was more like... well actually, it was more of a day and a half break. See that's the problem with zealous perfectionists, we just can't slow down. It's not that we've been on break, it's more that I've been too busy to think about writing.
So what has happened since December? Well, mum's the word on a lot of things, at least until I can figure out how to get video up to the server. Until then, I'll just give you a few of the big highlights.
First off, the car still hasn't driven itself (at least not outside of simulation). Yeah, that's about a month behind schedule. Nobody's really pleased about that (especially our poor mechanical guys that had to put up with a few choice shipping and procurement snafus in the actuator department), but the team is so parallelized that it's not really fazing anybody. (no warm fuzzies yet, but hey, we're patient) That being said, the new alternator and inverter kit have been installed, and our car quite literally has enough power to run a small house.
Second, pose is just about finished. I know just about everybody else would just buy an off-the-shelf unit and be done with it, but I'd like to think that we have more information about exactly what happens to GPS in different urban situations. It gives us a lot of control and better performance, and nobody can argue at the 90% discount over the commercial version.
Third, our mapping and fusion algorithm is getting ported over to the vehicle as I write. We seem to be able to track cars reliably well past 100 meters, and I think the effort we put into it over the past 6 months will prove to be a boon later. I have some nifty videos for you guys, as soon as I can make them manageable without drowning us in bandwidth bills.
Lastly, our planner is..., well, it is. There are of course the rules of the road and the general routing algorithm, but I don't think anybody would argue for them as the tough part of the Urban Challenge. Granted, last week's slug-fest between the sensing team and the planning team was borderline hilarious, but the real problems start to surface when there are other cars on the road. There is no "optimal" when it comes to unpredictable drivers- even the magic 8-ball would say, "ask again later." I find it humorous that DARPA emailed out a surveyed list of all the vehicles' bumper heights, and I find it utterly disturbing that the smallest competing car can nearly pass unimpeded under the largest competing car. It just goes to show you that even self-driving cars need a hand once in awhile.
posted by iceman at 8:08 PM
1 Comments:
you can post videos on rapidshare (high resolution) or on youtube/google video (lower resolution). or you guys COULD invest in an actual website :)
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