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Racing to build technology that saves soldiers lives. | GO ROBOTS !
  OUR DEFENSE MISSION
Our defense mission is to rapidly design, build, and demonstrate an affordable driverless truck to replace soldier driven trucks which are targets of enemy forces.
AIM's Automatic Guided Vehicle AGV WENDY DARLING
Our work is intended to pave the way for larger companies to meet the goal Congress has set for the US armed forces: US armed forces have been ordered to convert 1/3 of their ground vehicles to driverless operation as soon as possible before 2015. (Just in the case of the US Army's one million vehicles, that would be 333,333 conversions.) This is an effort to save lives. Our job is to figure out how get a truck to drive itself and pass the California drivers test. To do this takes a team made up of scientists, engineers, and the staff that support their work.
THE QUESTIONS DRIVING THIS PROJECT:
How does a supply truck that drives itself work?
What should an automatic guided robot truck be made of?
How do we get it to follow the California Rules Of The Road? Who do we need on our team? Where can we get the Money, Manpower, and Materials we need?
THE NEED:
Can you imagine what it would be like if cars, busses, and trucks had enough built-in HorseSense to refuse to run into each other? -- There would not be any traffic accidents.
For the Department of Defense (DoD) estimates are that taking the driver out of the vehicle will save one soldiers life a day in war zones (that is 30 soldiers lives a month or 365 soldiers lives a year).
Department of Transportation (DoT) believes systems like what the AIM Team is working on may save as many as 5,000 lives a month on US roads (that is 166 lives a day or about 60,000 lives a year). As a public health issue Center for Disease Control (CDC) ranks preventing traffic fatalities as more important than curing cancer for the age group most affected by traffic accidents, ages 0-49. By working on this project - the life you save, might be your own.
You get an education. The volunteers at AIM are some of the few people in the world that know how these things work and they have learned that here, by doing. The education available ranges from shop math to doctorate level robotics, the troops are counting on you. Some sponsors offer college credit for training they provide to team members. You get work experience. Volunteer work counts as work experience on your resume and here you can do things that a normal employer would never let you try. Only your successes count here so there is no penalty for trying something and failing. We have found that here people discover that they are capable of more than they realized. Jobs. Employers are looking for people who have worked at AIM. Many of our past team members have been hired away to go to jobs with high pay and benefits. You can build your job skills and your reputation as a worker here.
AN UNUSUAL APPROACH IS NEEDED:
It is a well known fact that normal channels for Research and Development (R&D) have been slowly grinding to a halt since WWII and are today, much like the rest of government, broken. The USA has lost its technological edge, the things around us were not invented here and this is a very serious defense concern. To get things moving again, Robot Club of Traverse City MI (RCTC) has been asked by the Department of Defense (DoD) to work outside of normal channels to develop an automatic guided truck. They want to see if volunteers can do what bigger companies, because of their size, have been unable or are unwilling to do.
To limit the liability of Robot Club members working on the driverless truck project we have formed AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC. The AIM workshop is a place where the American spirit for inventing things is alive. Stop by to see us in action and maybe you will find the possibilities exciting enough that you will want join in the fun. (As part of the job, you get to play with really cool toys.)
THE BENEFITS: You get to save lives. Sponsors and team members, both local and distant, are donating their Money, Manpower, and Materials, to demonstrate how the technology on an automatic guided robot truck (Advanced Active Safety Systems) can save lives (improve vehicle safety) for both the military in war zones and for the rest of us on US roadways.
NEAR OR DISTANT - YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
We do amazing things here at AIM, picture yourself being on the team that does all that! If you want to be on the team contact me, Paul Grayson - AIM Team Leader pgrayson@aimagic.org, and I will find a way to get you on the team where ever you are located.
GO ROBOTS ! Revised 6-3-2009 22:58 pfg | 
