While The Great Robot Race features background on many contenders, including ...

We all know the basic factsabout the DARPA Grand Challenge that pitted over 20 autonomous vehicles against each other and the elements out in theMojave Desert last October. After watching the NOVA special The GreatRobot Race on PBS last night the entire enterprise has taken on a whole new dynamic thanks to the excellentbackstory provided by the program that reaches all the way back to the first DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004.

While The Great Robot Race features background on many contenders, including a "nobody" darkhorse teamfrom New Orleans that finished fourth overall just weeks after Katrina blew through its hometown, the main push of theprogram centers around the two teams from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon. Sebastian Thrun heads the Stanford team, whichis actually comprised of Carnegie Mellon defectors including Thrun himself, and they enter Stanley, a Touareg donatedby Volkswagen, in the contest. Red Whittaker, an ex-marine turned college prof who presides over an army of graduatestudents and a pair of autonomous H1 Hummers named "H1ghlander" and "Sandstorm", leads theCarnegie Mellon team.

Read on for more of the gritty details that led up to a showdown of these two teams inthe desert.

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