Saturday, March 13, 2004
Doug and I had a chance to interview Warren Williams from Team Phantasm. Their vehicle was designed like a ladybug; in fact its name is Ladibug (Long-range Autonomous Directional Intuitive, Boundary Sending Unmanned Ground Vehicle). The one item that we didn't discuss in the interview that was impressive was that Ladibug was "swarm" enabled. Warren was explaining to the crowd that Ladibug could detect other "swarm" enabled vehicle and communicate with them to assist in force coordination on a battlefield. This was very interesting stuff. I'll see if I can follow up with Warren on what this "swarm" technology is.
 
Doug is reporting more and more emails coming in with questions. I'm off to track down some DARPA personnel and interview some of the teams.
 
Radio is having troubles starting up over my dial-up connection. I've got to get to MoveableType if I am going to do this again. However, using Radio is a far sight better than what the professional journalists have to deal with from the field here in Primm.
 
There are seven teams in from the field so far. All teams are assembling in the parking lot behind Buffalo Bill's Casino in Primm.
 
We are seriously constrained by connectivity here in Primm. There is no high-speed access even for press. The phone lines don't even allow long distance calls. They only way I am able to blog is to use my ISP's 800 number, which is costing me. I've had to help reporters from a bunch of agencies get connected and file their reports from the field. It's kind of funny that an independent blogger has more resources at his finger tips in the field than professional journalists.
 
Doug is broadcasting our coverge from Primm. He has reached a few hundred listeners with the web cast and received a few dozen complementary email for the coverage. Apparently we have put together the most comprehensive coverage the event so far, even with CNN and NBC covering the event.
 
The rest of the afternoon will be spent waiting. The vast majority of the press have not yet arrived. The official press briefing is at 1800 PST. I guess I'll just have to go and spend some money at the craps and blackjack tables.
 
As of now, all teams have either been disabled or withdrawn from the race. The farthest any single team has penetrated the course is seven miles of the 142 mile course. The top three teams are Red Team from CMU (7 miles), SciAutonics II (7 miles), and Team Dad (6 miles). The only other teams to get off the starting line were SciAutonics, Team TerraMax, The Golem Group, and Team Caltech. All of the remaining teams never got off of the starting line: Virginia Tech, CIMAR, Palos Verdes RoadWarriors, Team TeraHawk, The Blue Team, Axion Racing, Team CajunBot, Team ENSCO. The Blue Team and Team TerraHawk have officially withdrawn from the race.
 
While registering for media passes in the back parking lot, I over heard a US Army Major explaining to his boss, a Colonel, what had gone wrong with a number of team. His explaination was that there were a "bunch of smart guys" working in the teams but none had real world experience and this was their first time racing like this.
 
We arrived in Primm this morning at 11:30am PST to a quiet arena. We had received various updates via mobile phone regarding the status of the race from colleagues at the starting line and at various point on the course. The latest update upon our arrival was that The Golem Group was in the lead.
 
I'm leaving my hotel now for the four hour journey to Primm, Nevada. I'll hopefully be able to compose some posts on the way, but connectivity between here and there is non-existent. See you in Primm!
 
I've created a new category for those of you who just want to see posts from the race today. The DAPRA Grand Challenge category can be found here and the category RSS 2.0 feed here.
 
Coverage of the DARPA Grand Challenge is going to be streamed live over the Internet through IT Conversations, thanks to Doug Kaye. I'll be covering the finish line out in Primm, Nevada. A few others will be covering the starting line and the teams. We have pulled this together very quickly. It should be very interesting to see how this ad hoc coverage of this sporting event turns out. Who knows, this might be the start of a new sports column on IT Conversations.

CNN has an article on the race today.

You can listen the coverage all day here.
 
Friday, March 12, 2004
I’ll be in Primm, Nevada, tomorrow blogging from the finish line of the DARPA Grand Challenge. I hope to publish pictures, articles, and posts in between playing craps and blackjack at Buffalo Bill’s. Some interesting news has been coming in on Slashdot about the race. Here are some of the articles:
 

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