| Subject: Re: Groom Racetrack = Autonomous Vehicle Testing? |
| From: "miso@sushi.com" <miso@sushi.com> |
| Date: 06/07/2009, 21:15 |
| Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.area51 |
On Jul 6, 7:44 am, obviouslydelusional <obviouslydelusio...@gmail.com>
wrote:
On Jul 5, 10:23 pm, "m...@sushi.com" <m...@sushi.com> wrote:
But the big question would be why do this at Groom? Nothing you said
really has to be done at the Groom Lake facility. But having another
player at Groom will disrupt their testing.
Exactly, and that's what makes the racetrack so intriguing. Groom's
historical mission has been essentially radar and aircraft testing.
Have they picked up something new in testing AVs (and if so, why?) or
is there something ground based that has to do with their traditional
callings?
A track is a track is a track. This is not a challenge, as you pointed
out. They can just bury a cable in the track, have the vehicle sense
it and thus follow it. That is how the Sandia security robots follow
the perimeter.http://www.sandia.gov/isrc/perimeterdetection.html
Following a cable isn't "autonomous". And autonomous is a big deal.
The fact the perimeter lengths of the three courses are so precise and
are multiples would indicate a focus on ground vehicle testing. We
have stealth aircraft and ships, could vehicles be next? That would
fit in with Groom.
I think the real key regarding the tower rotation will be to compare
photographs from Tikaboo. Over the summer, we should get a few shots
of the tower at different times.
And you'll find it rotates. Comparison of the two satellite photos
pretty much cinches it. Also, note that in the new DLR image there is
now a lack of stuff around the base of the tower, indication that
construction is over. What's not obvious is where's it controlled
from. There should be evidence of trenching for waveguides that feed
it (buried waveguides??)
I understand what the A in AV is, but that technology on pavement is
at least a decade old. I was thinking of the cable under the ground
more in terms of moving targets for UAVs.
The next obvious question is if the tower rotates, then how fast. That
is, do you rotate it to position it for a test, or do you spin it? I
think we need a Tikaboo tag team observation project.