Sparkfun has posted rules, walkthrough video, registration for the 2013 AVC.
Both air and ground competitions should be really interesting. The ground course is slightly shorter than previous years, and features fixed, known locations for barrels, the bonus hoop, and the ramp (my robot Data Bus is going to to *love* that feature)
Air competition is primarily over water! And features a wicket hoop thingy to fly under for a bonus, required autonomous takeoff, and a bonus autonomous tennis ball drop.
Scoring is points based with a starting pool of points to which bonus points are added, and time (seconds) is subtracted.
Comments
@Daniel -- Deadline-- don't know. You'll have to email them or post on their forum.
See you all there!
I logged in with my normal sparkfun account. Try setting up an account on their main site.
I didn't see it. I tried to register , but I'm getting a 404 error on the new account page.
i want to go to there!
My day job is at Scion UAS -- though, with all the fun things I work on it's hard to call it a job!
The video is of the SA-400 Jackal - it's got an experimental rating from the FAA. The powerplant is a 150HP turbine engine (An R22 uses a 4-cylinder lycoming engine). rotor blades are 20ft diameter. Should have a 5-hour endurance with a 100lb payload once we're done with modifications. (All of this is on our marketing brochures, I'm not giving away any secrets).
It's got an ECU right now and requires a person for start-up and shut-down. But it will be fully automated soon, from engine start to landing.
Dang Phillip!
Are you going to integrate a FADEC with the autopilot, or have a human monitor start-up/shut-down etc.?
Wow is that a kit? Is it listed as an experimental lightweight aircraft under the FAA? The power plant reminds me of an R22. Can you share any details?
I don't see anything in the rules about aerial vehicle size :)
@Josh - The 700 did pretty well - I was having some issues with an altitude oscillation at the time. There's results from last year's fly off if you can track down the right thread. The heli is completely disassembled at the moment, but shouldn't take too much time to get it back in the air.
Sparkfun says there isn't any restriction on the type of vehicle this year -- I wonder if they'd let me bring my latest project? It will be autonomous by the time the competition rolls around...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2gE2rDQjlc
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