Driving Robots
In case you’re not too plugged in to geek news, this past weekend saw a winner of the DARPA Grand Challenge. The short version is that DARPA offered $2 million USD to the first team that could make an autonomous vehicle that could navigate 132 miles of desert roads.
DARPA, an agency of the Dept. of Defense, is looking to push research into autonomous vehicles for the battlefield. Save lives by removing the humans from overly dangerous situations, right?
It’s not too difficult to find an example of an Army convoy that was attacked, or a Halliburton truck driver that was killed in Iraq. So if you could automate those supply lines with autonomous vehicles, no one would be hurt if they came under attack.
Well, naturally I have a contrary opinion.
A couple things could happen if the supply lines are automated.
First, they could become more of a target than they are now. Just in case the people that attack these convoys were having any difficulty sleeping at night know they are killing people, this will make it a no brainer for them. Attacking an automated convoy is reduced almost to an act of civil disobedience and property damage, rather than a battlefield kill.
Second, an automated convoy will never have the decision making capability of a human. An autonomous system may continue to drive into an obvious booby trap, where the human driver would make a different decision.
Third, unless the plan is to also give the autonomous convoy autonomous weapons, any convoy could be crippled by kids with knives slashing the tires.
I’m not sure what this army of autonomous convoys will cost, but it won’t be cheap.
So instead, why not keep the humans as drivers, and their superior decision making ability, and spending that money on making the convoys more impervious to attacks? From what I have seen, most of the convoy type equipment are not exactly bulletproof. It’s not like we don’t already have the technology to protect a driver and passenger from small arms fire and IEDs.
Of course, there is the best of both worlds in remotely piloted vehicles. We are not only doing this with aircraft, but we are already launching weapons from these unmanned platforms. I see no reason why we can’t do the same with high risk convoy missions. Unmanned remotely driven convoy, and for lower risk missions, armored vehicles that can get there even with an occasional RPG rocket.
I fully appreciate the work that these teams have done to design these systems and platforms to advance robotics, but I just think there are more important problems in the world to solve. So without further ado, I am announcing the Neothings Challenge. I do have a smaller budget than DARPA, so I hope you understand. I will offer $20 USD for the first team to demonstrate an Autonomous Lawn Mowing Vehicle (ALMV). The course is divided into front and back halves, and must be able to navigate from one to the other. The grass should be mulched so there is nothing to dispose of when done. Bi-weekly tryouts are available, and multiple prizes may be awarded. I am particularly interested in entrants that utilize swarms or fleets of ALMVs, so a bonus prize of $10 will be awarded to entrants with 10 or more bots.
Serious inquires only please.