Originally published December 7 2005
Robot car technology will impact the military
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Artificial intelligence software will be basic in U.S. military vehicles within 10 years, thanks to pressure from Congress and the successful Grand Challenge robot race in the desert this year.
Vehicles powered with artificial-intelligence software and sporting the ability to "see" the road with external sensors will be a staple in the U.S. military within 10 years, under a mandate from Congress that spurred the desert robot rally.
The underlying technology also will find its way into popular cars with features like collision and lane-departure warnings and adaptive cruise controls.
The technology is also relevant, experts say, for the disabled and for automating machines.
That business of development and productization and building an enterprise is a lot harder than creating a technology," said William "Red" Whittaker, a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University.
What's new: The technology behind vehicles powered with artificial intelligence is heading toward popular cars--with features like collision and lane-departure warnings and adaptive cruise controls.
More stories on this topic For Stanford University, the winner of the DARPA Grand Challenge robot desert race and its $2 million prize, the goal has long been to make vehicles safer for the road.
Volkswagen, which sponsored Stanford's vehicle, Stanley, and donated a Touareg V5 for the race, is also developing this technology for its line of cars.
The next frontier will be to develop technologies that can help vehicles improve city driving, as opposed to motoring off-road or on highways, where there are no stoplights or pedestrians.
The race gave the robots a structure for driving the course.
"We've been working on the war on cancer, but with this technology we're a lot closer to saving more lives--young lives--through accidents, by giving attentional aids," said Gary Bradski, a machine-learning expert at Intel who worked on Stanley.
One is RedZone Robotics, which uses robotic machines to make maps of sewer systems.
Whittaker also founded Workhorse Technologies, unmanned robots to explore and make maps of mines.
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