Robot Race Backgrounder

A milestone in robotics history was left in the dust last October as four autonomous vehicles met a Grand Challenge set by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). By driving themselves without any human guidance over 132 miles of desert trails, through narrow tunnels and down a treacherous mountain pass--and doing so at a pace that suggested they could take on even tougher courses--the machines surprised some veteran roboticists, who had predicted the Challenge would stand unanswered for years to come. On March 28, NOVA will broadcast an in-depth television documentary covering the 2005 Grand Challenge on PBS stations nationwide. The documentary features the commentary of Scientific American Senior Writer W. Wayt Gibbs, who covered the Grand Challenge for the magazine by embedding himself with the Red Team at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the leading competitors. Attracting aspirants from high schools to corporate skunkworks, the Grand Challenge produced many stories of dogged persistence, wrenching turnabouts and visionary ingenuity.