Although spacecraft instruments are set to return photographs and compositional data, the encounter primarily is a test of Deep Space 1's autonomous navigation system, the last of 12 technologies the mission was designed to pioneer.
It's not the miniature robotic space shuttle that NASA's planning to send into orbit this month, but another of the space agency's unmanned vehicles has edged closer to its beginning its mission, with the "nearly autonomous" Global Hawk aircraft having completed a key test flight bright and early on April 2nd.
In November, DARPA put street-level robots to the test in its Urban Challenge, a race of 12 autonomous cars through simulated city streets populated by obstacle cars.