Robots, start your engines

AMONG government organisations, America's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has always been somewhat unusual. As the research arm of the Department of Defence, it is akin to a high-stakes venture capitalist, gambling large sums of money (its estimated 2004 budget is $3 billion) on risky technologies that will probably fail, but could pay off in a big way. It has had some stupendous successes, such as the internet, the Saturn rocket and micro-electro-mechanical systems (tiny machines that work at the scale of a human cell). There have also been some resounding duds, such as the Total Information Awareness project, a Big Brotherish plan to spot terrorists by combing through databases of personal information, which was swiftly abandoned. But what is arguably DARPA's most outlandish scheme yet will start rolling on March 13th, when a gaggle of strange-looking vehicles will line up in Barstow, California to make a wild run across 250 miles of scrub and desert.