Army of None?

ARMY OF NONE?

THE Challenge, FIRST-EVER laid GRAND on by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), was a flop, at least for the only motorcycle entered in the desert competition.

University of California Berkeley industrial engineering graduate student Anthony Levan-dowski, along with fellow students, created the Ghost Rider Robot, a Yamaha TT-R125 employing all manner of electronics intended to allow the machine to navigate the approximately 142-mile course from Barstow, California, to Primm, Nevada, autonomously.

Citing a mandate from Congress to save soldiers’ lives, the Pentagon wants onethird of its trucks, tanks and recon vehicles to operate on their own by 2015. It even offered a hefty incentive to the winner of the competition: $1 million.

While other players chose fouror six-wheeled platforms, Levandowski says two-wheeled vehicles cost less, are more efficient and can traverse more extreme environments because they only have to conform to the terrain in one axis. Of course, achieving stability is much more complex. Initial tests were disappointing. “It’s driving like a drunken teenager,” Levandowski told The New York Times. At the actual event, held this past March, the Ghost Rider Robot was withdrawn prior to the start. Yet Levandowski remains undeterred. His company, Robotic Infantry, hopes to develop commercial and military applications based on the Ghost Rider.

Matthew Miles