Robotic News Roundup

By Roland Piquepaille

What a week in the robotic world! All the media wrote about the robots used as camel riders in Qatar, but other exotic machines were also announced, such as robo-matadors in Spain or the future Picasso, the ART Painter in Hartford, Connecticut. In the medical area, robo-masseurs are helping U.S. golfers, tiny needle-driving robots are developed in Israel while future mobile 'trauma pods' studied in California are still 10 years away. Elsewhere, a robot that could think for itself and solve real-world problems was unveiled in Wales. But my preferred robot this week is TerraMax, a self-navigating robotic truck built in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and which might participate in the second DARPA Grand Challenge in October 2005. Read more...

Below is a photograph of the TerraMax robotic truck in action (Credit: Oshkosh Truck Corporation). You'll find other high-definition pictures of the TerraMax in this photo gallery.

Here are some facts taken from the press release mentioned above.

Oshkosh Truck Corporation announced [on April 12, 2005] that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has chosen the company's TerraMaxTM robotic vehicle for evaluation for the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 -- a 175-mile, off-road race in the Mojave Desert for completely autonomous vehicles. Of 195 teams originally submitting race entries, DARPA, a part of the Department of Defense, chose 118 for further review based on vehicle designs and capabilities.

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 is a field test of autonomous (driverless) ground vehicles to promote the advance of autonomous vehicle technology. Teams vying to compete in the Grand Challenge develop their vehicles without government funding. By 2015, the Pentagon hopes that using autonomous military vehicles such as TerraMax will help save the lives of military personnel.

For more information about this robotic race, please visit the official DARPA Grand Challenge website. Below are quick facts about the race.

The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge will be held on October 8, 2005 in the desert Southwest. The team that develops an autonomous ground vehicle that finishes the designated route most quickly within 10 hours will receive $2 million. The route will be no more than 175 miles over desert terrain featuring natural and man-made obstacles. The exact route will not be revealed until two hours before the event begins.

And don't forget to check the TerraMax home page, which gives some details about the origins of the truck.

The TerraMax vehicle is based on Oshkosh's Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) defense truck platform. The MTVR was designed for the US Marine Corps with a 70% off-road mission profile.

All-wheel drive, TAK-4