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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, March 13, 2006 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

photo of robot vehicle

William Whittaker

"Autonomous Robots: the DARPA Challenge"

ABSTRACT -- The success of robots completing the 130-mile Grand Challenge race achieved a leap of technology, inspired the public and galvanized new visions for automation in the world. Breakthroughs from this race catalyzed technology and forever altered the view of what is possible. Never before have autonomous vehicles moved at such speeds across unknown, difficult terrain. This talk will chronicle the technical and human initiatives of the Grand Challenge. A pair of Red Team robots completed the Grand Challenge desert race in 7 hours. Path-centric navigation combined LIDAR and RADAR perception. Pre-planning optimized route and speed. Several thousand test miles achieved reliability and robustness.

SPEAKER -- Dr. William "Red" Whittaker leads the Red Team. He is the Fredkin Research Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and the founder and director of the Field Robotics Center and the National Robotics Engineering Consortium. He has been named Pittsburgh's Man of the Year in Technology and honored as one of Science Digest's Top 100 US Innovators. His robotics endeavors have won numerous awards including: the Engelberger Technology Award and the Laurels Award for outstanding achievement from Aviation Week and Space Technology. He is the chief scientist of Redzone Robotics, a company that pioneers the development of mobile robots for hazardous work environments. He holds 16 patents, has advised 26 Ph.D. students, and is the author/co-author of over 200 publications. Robots are becoming the preferred workforce of choice beyond this planet. They are premier agents for exploration and science on remote worlds. Grand Challenge technology offers the possibility of a huge leap for space robotics.




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