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Missed Opportunities (Robotic)

Fellow robot-geeks such as myself were no doubt delighted to hear the news that, for the first time, the DARPA Grand Challenge, a 130-mile desert race for autonomous robotic vehicles, was finally won. Stanford's robot-brained VW Toureg, Stanley, took the honors beating out, among other competitors, a brace of Hummers and a 18-ton robot truck.

It's an impressive feat, which is why I don't feel so bad that my entry was, sadly, unrealized, primarily due to lack of funds. So I'll describe it to you:

My Grand Challenge entry is based on a stock Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow (or similar) limo. The limo is controlled by a single laptop placed on the back seat. The laptop issues audio commands stored in a digital format such as MP3 or a WAV file (i.e. "Finish line. And step on it.") to the bio-mechanical interface device placed in the front seat. This is a commercially available component known as a "chauffeur."

I believe that this single laptop, running the audio-command software, could have directed the bio-mechanical interface to pilot the car to an assured victory. If the judges took issue with the use of the interface's eye-based existing video system, I suppose the chauffeur could be blindfolded and a cheap webcam could be connected to the laptop. In this case, some simple image processing software would be used to allow the laptop to play such audio files as "Left!", "Right!", and "Slow down, you insufferable lackwit!"

But, alas, I never had the chance. Maybe next year.