ROS Programming: Building Powerful Robots

History of autonomous vehicles

The concept of automating vehicles started long ago. From 1930, people have been trying to automate cars and aircraft, but the hype of self-driving cars increased between 2004 and 2013. To encourage autonomous vehicle technology, the U.S. Department of Defense's research arm, DARPA, conducted a challenge called the Grand DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004. The aim of the challenge was to autonomously drive for 150 miles through a desert roadway. In this challenge, no team was able to complete the goal, so they again challenged engineers in 2007 (http://archive.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/), but this time, the aim was slightly different. Instead of a desert roadway, there was an urban environment spread across 60 miles. ...