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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: JimH on March 07, 2004, 09:28:35 pm

Title: OT -- R2D2 rides a motorcyle across the Mojave Desert
Post by: JimH on March 07, 2004, 09:28:35 pm
I think it was the Gossamer Condor that won the prize for man-powered flight across the English Channel about 15 years ago.  Here's another prize up for grabs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/technology/08robot.html?ex=1079326800&en=335f9e21fe461720&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Anthony S. Levandowski is working feverishly with a team of students from the University of California at Berkeley to build an ambitious robot motorcycle to race without a driver across the Mojave Desert.

They are part of a crowd that has been attracted by a Pentagon promise to pay $1 million to the creators of the first self-guided vehicle to find its way this Saturday along a programmed course from Barstow, Calif., to near Las Vegas.

Mr. Levandowski's robot motorcycle will be joined by pickups, sport utility vehicles, Hummers and other all-terrain vehicles, some with as many as six wheels and all packed with computers and sensors - but with no space for humans.