Catching up
So once again, things are ridiculously busy. This is in part due to Rotation (our method for selecting which people get into which houses). Essentially, it involves the upperclassmen spending all their free time during the first week back at school meeting all the frosh and trying to judge their personalities. This does not leave much time for, say, work -- not that I actually came to college to work or anything, but you know, it's just one of those things you gotta do :-p. Additionally, the DARPA project is still ongoing (although not for much longer) and I got sick on Sunday night, so I pretty much haven't gone to class or done any work this week. Which pretty much means that its now almost to the end of the second week of classes out of a 10 week long semester and I've done no work. I am in so deep right now. Still, though, I'm feeling reasonably ok now, so I might be able to catch up to some maintainable level if I can make good use of my time between now and Sunday...
So I've obviously not been doing my work. "Well, what have you been doing?" you ask. Well, let's see...
School and such: So Caltech is back in session again, which means lots of work, so that's been taking up a lot of my time. Actually, I consider myself kind of lucky relative to my classmates, though. Technically, Caltech's core curriculum goes until the end of second term sophomore year (we have 3 terms per year), but most of it consists of math and physics, which I'd be taking anyway, which pretty much means that I'm not going to have to take any more classes that I don't want to/need to for my major, which in turn means that I'll be pretty good at the stuff that I'm doing, which in turn means I'll get to slack more this year than I did last year. Which is always fun :-D. So here's the breakdown:
Math 2 analytical (Differential Equations, Probability and Statistics) <-- I <3 diff eq.'s. So cool :-).
Math 5 (Abstract Algebra) <-- Could be a major pain in the ass. Stupid major requirements...
Math 6 (Discrete Mathematics - Graph theory, coding theory, basic combinatorics, etc.) <-- Anything involving codes is automatically cool.
Phys 12 (Waves, Oscillations, and Quantum Mechanics) <-- Quantum teleportation, and other fun mind-boggling phenomena. Maybe more understandable with a healthy dose of alcohol?
History 135 (War, Conquest, and Empire)) <-- War, conquest, and empire sound like a winning combination
XC/Track and Field <-- I'm able to run again! :-).
DARPA: So yesterday was the last day of the National Qualification Event, the last stage of DARPA's multilevel qualification process for Grand Challenge teams. We started with 43 teams, and after a week of trials on 2.2 mile long course set up at the California Speedway in Fontana, we whittled down the field to 23 teams that will be travelling to Primm, Nevada today and tomorrow to race at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday. Originally, there were only supposed to be 20 qualifiers, but 23 teams actually successfully completed at least one run on the course, so DARPA was generous and let all 23 continue on to the race. I thought that was pretty nice of them. So anyway, it looks like we've got a really strong field this year. Last year at this time, we had robots fumbling around, swerving all over the place, etc. -- it was a near-miraculous occurrence if they drove in a straight line for any appreciable distance (even at speeds as low as 10 - 15 mph). This year, Stanford's robot came off the starting line at the test course and did between 30 and 40 mph all the way around the course while avoiding obstacles and going through tunnels. It was really quite impressive to see how far we've come in just the past year - it's really been a quantum leap. More generally, I'm not sure that members of the general public appreaciate exactly the significance of events like this. If you'll permit me to wax poetic for a moment, I think we're incredibly lucky to be alive right now. We're at the threshhold of a robotic revolution. I've started looking out for robotics-related stories in the news, etc., and it's amazing to see all the work that's been done in the previous 10 years. Within the next 10-20 years, I really think that robots are going to pretty well integrated into normal life (hell, we've already got robotic vacuum cleaners). So this is really quite exciting :-). It's even more exciting to think that I might have contributed in some (very) small way.
So as far as the teams themselves go, we've got quite a lineup. Of course, we've got Team Caltech's Alice and Stanford's Stanley (which had an amazing performace at the NQE - pretty much flawless). Carnegie Mellon managed to get two vehicles in: Red Team's Sandstorm, and Red Team Too's Highlander. There was a team that we saw out in the desert testing all the time, TerraMax, which also qualified, which was kinda cool.
TerraMax is an interesting team, in that their strategy is simply to have a huge frickin' army truck as their vehicle, so that they don't really have to worry so much about obstacles that might hang up a smaller vechicle. Of course, this also necessitates chopping off the top of the cab so they can meet the height requirements, but then again, as there's no driver, this doesn't matter quite so much. And they painted their vehicle day-glo green. Painting a giant robotic army truck day-glo green is just awesome :-). Also, they've got this kickass command center that they haul behind a truck that they can set up anywhere they want - it's got a bunch of computers, air conditioning, etc. inside. It's one of those trailers that have sections that slide out horizontally when they've stopped like some mobile homes have. It's really cool. They've even got some deck chairs and a little railing around the top so they can catch some sun when they're not busy working. Those guys have thought of everything :-).
Caltech's sister team from UCLA, the Golem Group, also qualified. They almost didn't make it - on their first run, they ran right into the middle of a giant piece of corrugated aluminum that formed the side of one of the course gates, and the whole thing just came crashing down around them. It was pretty poor. This was after they had to get pulled off the start line because they couldn't get their vehicle to start. But somehow they managed to pull through, so good for them.
If you guys want more info on the Grand Challenge generally, check out the official site, or maybe Team Caltech's site is more to your liking.
Anyway, it should be quite a show on Saturday. I'll be at the start line all day beginning at 4:00 a.m., so if you guys want the latest news from the front, hit up the cell at (626) 243-3729. Yes, I finally have a cell phone now :-). About freakin' time. Well, I'm getting back to work. Peace out :-).
EDIT: Also, I've got a few pictures from the NQE to post, and I'm sure i'll have many, many more from race day. Stay tuned.