50 Years of Real-Life Ray Guns
- 5:40 pm |
On Oct. 8, 2005, a Volkswagen managed to drive itself 128 miles across the Mojave Desert, to win Darpa’s “Grand Challenge” robot rally. Without lasers, that robo-SUV, nicknamed Stanley, never would’ve left the starting line. Perched atop the vehicle were five LIDAR (LIght Detection and Ranging) units. Shooting out laser pulses — and measuring the return — five times a second, the machines helped assemble an image of the course for the robot. Then Stanley could drive, without getting stuck in the sand. Troops use similar laser rangefinding techniques every day, to pinpoint targets’ locations. But for now, at least, their Humvees still have to be driven by human hands.