Customer Reviews

NOVA: The Great Robot Race

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Great Robot Race follows the ups and downs of teams competing on an immensely difficult challenge: to develop a driverless robotic vehicle that can race 212km in the California desert. The highlights of the story are the contrasting personalities, engineering philosophies, and remarkable technological advances just a year after the first race ended in failure.

I was a bit dissapointed that more of the extras on the PBS.org web site - such as extended interviews - didn't make it on the disc as DVD extras.

I rated the DVD a 3 because the expected extras, such a subtitles in different languages, and DVD extras, were not present. That's why 4 stars instead of 5.

That's the only complaint I really have, the video on the disc itself is good. It's the story of the human teams and the science and engineering behind the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. The Grand Challenge is a race across the desert in California and Nevada, where only robotic control is allowed. It is told in an engaging manner.

I recommend this disc for robotics enthusiasts, people interested in engineering, teachers and people interested in using robotics to help math, science and software engineering education programs.

The storytelling and video work made it an interesting broadcast.

My eight year old son and I watched this together when the rest of the family was out. I work as a software developer and also have a limited knowledge of electronics, so technical issues are generally pretty accessible to me. This movie was enjoyable and accessible for both of us. My son -- who can be easily bored -- had never turned away. At the end of the video he was cheering on his favorite team and was interested in getting involved in robotics projects. Viewers will definitely appreciate the scale of the work necessary to accomplish this feat, but may not see how technologies like adaptive computer vision and lidar might apply. Other than the fact that the Stanford team was software-focused, even the highest level detail about the software used was omitted. Viewers will need to seek other sources for technical detail. People who enjoyed this movie may also enjoy the Spring 2008 issue of Robot magazine, where the Darpa Urban Challenge is covered.