ATI’s FireGL™ Technology Implemented by Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute for Visualization and Routing Applications in Robot Race
Imagine being able to have your car navigate through rush hour traffic, carefully dodge oncoming cars, sense and avoid a pothole and have you safely at your office by 9am while you drink your latte and read the paper. Or perhaps exploring an environment even harsher than that of your daily commute, like the ocean floor, the Arctic, or another planet. Certainly few humans would volunteer for the task, which leaves robots as the perfect candidates for the job. Today’s robotics technology has only touched the surface of what is possible, however a revolution led by Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute is underway.
As a pioneer in robotics technology, Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute is paving a path towards the future and relying on advanced ATI FireGL™ technology solutions to help get them there. Led by Professor William Whittaker, who has developed more the 60 autonomous robots, the Institute believes they are on the cusp of widespread adoption and use of robots.
DARPA’s $1 Million Grand Challenge
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has developed “The Grand Challenge” to spark innovation in self-driving vehicles, where endless possibilities ranging from military functions to common every day applications are foreseen. However, it was the scientific challenge and the wide-ranging effects of the competition and not the generous prize money that kindled interest in the project at Carnegie Mellon.
Intrigued by DARPA’s $1 Million Grand Challenge, Carnegie Mellon’s “Red Team” has developed Sandstorm, a modified Humvee set to compete in the 210-mile driverless race from Barstow, California towards Las Vegas. Twenty race teams will be given the course details just two hours before the start of the event. The unmanned off road race for autonomous robots requires extensive mapping and route planning to successfully complete the course in under 10 hours, as teams will not be able to communicate with their vehicles once the race begins. The various different obstacles that Sandstorm may encounter include surfaced and unsurfaced roads, overpasses, water and other natural phenomenon, manmade creations such as fences, power lines and even other vehicles.
The team has worked on highly sophisticated projects in the past, but never a challenge with so many variables thrown into the mix. To conquer a course that is unknown until two hours before the race, the Red Team has relied on ATI FireGL graphics technology to help them develop extensive 3D terrain maps, forming a database for the robot to refer to come race day.
Developing Sandstorm
In 2003, the Red Team went to task, compiling data from aerial and space imagery, GPS co-ordinates, and topographical maps of the course area, and then employed ATI FireGL technology to develop the most complex maps ever created of the Mojave Desert. As Prof. Whittaker explains, “By integrating these various data sources and utilizing ATI FireGL’s onboard graphics memory, we can now easily create and manipulate very detailed 3D maps of the course.”
In compiling these exhaustive maps, the Red Team is attempting to plan every scenario the Sandstorm may encounter along the way. Once the race begins, the Red Team’s vehicle will maneuver without outside assistance or human intervention, using laser scanners, radar sensors and stereoscopic cameras to continuously correct its steering and adjust its speed. Based on the terrain data assembled on ATI FireGL based workstations and its real-time visualization systems, Sandstorm will be free to decide on alternate routes as it avoid obstacles and other vehicles.
Never before has a robot traveled so far, so fast, but Dr. Whittaker is no stranger to a challenge. Dr. Whittaker’s other projects have included unmanned robots to explore planetary surfaces and volcano interiors, automation of mining machines and farm equipment, remote work systems for nuclear facility decommissioning and mobile robots for hazardous waste site investigation.
Race Day
Like any scientific experiment, the route to Las Vegas contains so many unknown variables that the team’s goal has been to give Sandstorm as much information as possible to rely on for race day. Among its significant benefits to the team, the stability and power of ATI FireGL technology has enabled the Red Team to develop a sophisticated navigational and mapping systems gathered from a large range of sources.
On March 13th, somewhere near Barstow, California, the culmination of a year of dedicated work and years of accumulated knowledge and experience will be put to the test as Sandstorm competes in the DARPA $1 Million Grand Challenge. By providing Sandstorm with a vast bank of knowledge to reference, it is fully equipped to deal with the unplanned obstacles waiting for it in the Mojave Desert.
It will then only be a matter of time before this technology is advanced enough to deploy in everyday situations, just as PC’s have become an integral part of life as we know it today. The possibilities and applications are endless and are bound to have a major impact in the years to come. ATI and Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute are working together to make this vision a reality.