NASA Prizes for Builder and Flyer Robots 74
FleaPlus writes "NASA has recently announced a couple more X-Prize-style Centennial Challenges. The first is a Telerobotic Construction Challenge, for using a team of robots to assemble structures from building blocks with minimal human intervention. The second is an Planetary Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Challenge, to create a robot which can fly a path using visual navigation and hit ground targets with a probe (no GPS allowed). Rules are still being finalized, with the contests scheduled for 2007. Both prizes are for $250,000, the max Congress is allowing NASA to offer."
Fixed prize limit? (Score:4, Insightful)
That may not be the point, but it would sure be nice to at least have the development costs for projects like this covered by prize money.
Matching funds? (Score:4, Insightful)
Should be interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Knock, knock. Reality? (Score:2, Insightful)
I am a high school student (Score:4, Insightful)
First, be forwarned. I don't mean to sound cynical, but there is not a whole lot that has to do with science and technology that would excite most students. Even if it does, a lot of people are too scared of being called a "nerd" or a "geek" and thereby having their social status for the rest of the four years ruined to show that excitement.
There are, however, some. I don't think that a robotics competition is a good idea, however. I don't know about most schools, but at mine there are not a lot of people interested in robotics. Besides, it would take a lot of work, and a lot of the most brilliant people are inherently lazy.
I think the programming fair was a great idea, however. Every time I write a program to do the simplest thing on my TI-83+ graphing calculator (such as convert celsius to fahrenheit for instance) people gape at me with awe and amazement and ask, how did you DO that? This includes jocks, socialites, and various other groups of people who would normally not be caught dead showing an interest in the "nerdy" fields of computers or technology.
If you put on a programming fair, you are not going to be able to teach anyone computer programming in a day, but you will spark their interest. Give away a few CDs with C tutorials on them or something, and maybe, just maybe, a few kids will try them out.
Also, expect the bit-head population to turn out in force at your fair. You can even put some of them to good use, having them help the newbies who have no idea what's going on.
In conclusion, programming fair=good, robotics competition=bad.
Re:Fixed prize limit? (Score:2, Insightful)
Extra points if your design scales to the low-density atmosphere of Mars, and can fly slow enough to do the probe thing.
the only hard part is that it needs to know where it is and what orientation it's in
Well, that pretty much sums up one of the most painful problems in robotics.
Yhe latter is trivial - use a giro like any other aircraft would
No. Gyros drift. Aircraft autopilots rely on other things, like radio beacons on the ground, or GPS. Or the sun.
The former could probably be done by taking either a stereo image from two cameras mounted on the wing tips
To get accurate 3D information out of this, you'd need to be flying pretty close to the ground.
or useing some sort of downward looking radar,
Yes, lookup "IFSARE". Good luck tracking your elevation data while flying over a flat plain or lake - then you need the visual clues too.
AC
Re:Fixed prize limit? (Score:2, Insightful)
Milltary connection? (Score:3, Insightful)
There is obviously a military connection here. For probe, read bomb, or bullet. Essentially, it's designing the next generation of autonomous UAVs. Presumeably, our military planners now believe GPS to be possible to compromise in times of war. (fairly reasonable thanks to the new attention on space war)
What are the ethics of this sort of competition?
I have a shover robot, if they need it (Score:3, Insightful)