Let ’s face it : People are big drivers . We zoom around , talking ( or texting ) on ourcell phones , yelling at the child in the back , fiddling with theradioand generally mean about anything but the road . In fact , one work by the Federal Highway Administration gauge that 93 percent of car accidents are a verbatim result of driver erroneousness [ source : FHWA ] .
Because people are such sorry drivers , we know railcar condom is important . That ’s why railcar company educate thing like traction control , anti - roll system andairbagsin concert with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the insurance industry . It ’s also why they play with the Defense Department to develop remote-controlled fomite that can carry arm and navigate war zones .
Did that last flake throw you ? You might be thinking that self-propelled safety is about thing like airbags andseat knock , not missile and drones . And whiletrafficcan be bad , it ’s not exactly a warfare zona out there . But a key part of automotive base hit is foreclose accidents , and one of the good ways to do that is to take gadget driver out of the equation . That stand for arise cars that can drive themselves . But there are other role ofdriverless cartechnology that can keep mass – namely soldiers – good . The same systems that can assist a car navigate dealings can help oneself an unmanned vehicle deliver helper and supply or perform reconnaissance in a war zona . That intend fewer soldier on the field and fewer lives lost . That ’s why the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) get along up with its annual Urban Challenge .
So what is DARPA all about ? Find out in the next segment .
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) is an weapon system of the Department of Defense . Its foreign mission is to supervise research projects . The projects are n’t basic research , however . DARPA characterizes them as in high spirits - risk and high - reward . That means that a lot of the inquiry projects and new development wo n’t pan off out . The few that do , however , will dramatically gain technology and missions for the armed services .
The initiation of DARPA was spurred by the Soviet Union ’s launch of Sputnik . The Department of Defense was distressed that the Soviet Union and other uncongenial nations were develop weapons applied science more advanced than that of the U.S. In 1958 , DARPA was created with the task of making sure that the United States always has a technological sharpness over adversary .
DARPA is a unique government agency . To ensure that it ’s always on the cutting bound , the agency is small . It manoeuver outdoors of the military machine ’s traditional enquiry and evolution authority and reports directly to the Secretary of Defense . That eliminate a lot of bureaucracy and allows the bureau to dissemble tight on the most promising research . One way that DARPA does this is by using contest and challenge to encourage invention . start in 2004 , the Urban Challenge has been one of its most noted contest . The Urban Challenge has gotten a lot of imperativeness , not only because the applied science has many military and civilian practical program , but also because it ’s really , really cool
So who won the late Urban Challenge , and how did the winner do it ? Go to the next page to find out .
The Urban Challenge
The most late Urban Challenge was keep Nov. 3 , 2007 , and consisted of remote-controlled car race around an oldAir Forcebase . Eleven unmanned cars were in the subspecies , and 30 cars with drivers were added to the grade to increase the traffic concentration . team had no anterior knowledge of the race course . They were given a map of the course of instruction two days before , but this was n’t a simple pointedness - A - to - B race . The vehicle had to visit checkpoint in a specific order , like an unmanned military vehicle would have to do as a part of a missionary station . DARPA officials were on hand throughout the course to observe the vehicles and supervise safety .
The cars used a number of computer programs , as well as radiolocation detector andGlobal position Systems(GPS ) . The organization all worked together to calculate a course , sense obstacles and avoid other cars . Some system are standardised to engineering already in cars on the road , like AutomaticCruise Control , which keeps a set space between a car and the car in front of it . Other technologies , which allow a gondola to come to an crossroad , feel other traffic and know who has the right hand of way , are eld from aggregate production .
Though 11 vehicles started the slipstream , by midmorning , half had been disqualified . One was stopped moments before it ran into a building , and another simply draw off the road and into a carport before being disqualified . In the end , six vehicles finished the race : Tartan Racing ( a team put together by Carnegie Mellon University and General Motors , among others ) , won first prize ( and $ 2 million ) , while teams from Stanford University and Virginia Tech came in 2d and third , severally .
All in all , the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge show that technologies for unmanned vehicles are closer than you might think . While there are a lot of bug to mold out of the technology , the same can be said for human drivers .
To instruct more about car technology , look over the links on the next page .
