CG Class 21, Wed 2018-10-31

I've mentioned DARPA several times; they funded research into computer graphics starting in the 1970s. So here's some enrichment material on DARPA and autonomous vehicles. This shows why the US is the best in the world at R&D.

Autonomous vehicles make a marvelous example of a successful engineering project. Many different parts all have to work to make the total project succeed. They include laser rangefinding, image recognition, a road database accurate to the specific lane, and GPS navigation. This is also a model for government - university - industry interaction.

DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) started this concept with a contest paying several $million in prizes. (DARPA started connecting computers in different cities with phone lines in 1968. This was the ARPAnet. They funded computer graphics in the 1970s and some early steps in virtual reality in the 1980s.)

In the 1st contest, the best vehicle failed after about 10 miles. Five vehicles completed the 130 mile course in the 2nd contest. The winning project leader was Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford CS prof. He quit and moved to Google, who has now been funding this for several years.

Finally, Dr Tony Tether, Director of DARPA when this happened, is an RPI BS EE grad. (He went to Stanford for his PhD).