October 31st, 2007 by J
Categories: Development & Testing, Network Monitoring
Go Pack!
A few of us here in the development team are graduates of NC State University. We are excited to hear that the “Lone Wolf” is continuing to qualify for the Urban Challenge Final Event at the DARPA Grand Challenge. Be sure to follow them at the Insight Racing Blog. The finalists will be announced Thursday. Eliminated yesterday were some great competitors:
Georgia Tech/SAIC Sting Racing, Atlanta, GA
Ody-Era, Kokomo, IN
Princeton, Princeton, NJ
SciAutonics/Auburn Engineering, Thousand Oaks, CA
Team Berlin, Houston, TX
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
In a lot of ways we face some similar challenges. We send our NOCs out into a variety of environments, from pristine “by the book” networks to test labs where devices are expected to malfunction. We must ensure that the NOC operates properly in all situations. This is similar to the Lone Wolf’s release into the DARPA Courses, where the Lone Wolf must drive the route without any advance knowledge of the traffic situation layout or route.
I’m not going to brag and say that the NOC is equivalent to these vehicles. The NOC has a much easier job. The Lone Wolf drives because its sensors tell it where the road is, what the traffic signals say, where pedestrians are, where other vehicles are, etc. The sensors provide data regarding distance, speed, etc. to allow the driving algorithms to operate.
The NOC is more like the sensors of the Lone Wolf. By providing information about outages, service performance, traffic, etc. to the you, it apprises you of the road ahead. You can then make the decision to buy new equipment, move a virtual machine, etc. based on this data.
Go Lone Wolf! Go Pack! Congratulations on making it to the Urban Challenge Semifinals.
J
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