Highlights (and lowlights) from all three heats of the PBR class of the 2014 Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle competition. Won by my "Driving Miss Dizzy" ArduRover, thanks to Tridge and Tom Coyle for coaching and code. Thrills, spills and some very close calls!
Comments
A suggestion would be in the Carolinas, sorta a half-way point for those in the upper North and deep South.
Timing it with some sort of STEM based even might be an idea with merit. On the other hand, most of those traveling to such an event are involved in some form of indoor robotic challenge like Legos. If held at a university, planning around football games would be needed. Junior colleges often have large parking areas and usually don't have issues with football games. Some high schools have adequate facilities for ground and air events.
How many 'East Coast AVCs' would it take to determine if folk want to play?
If we build it, will they show up? I've got a rover project semi-started...as well as a bunch of others started too.
Busy people are those that gets things done... and some things put off as well.
-=Doug
@Kirby,
I was thinking exactly the same thing so that the event would be 1/2 year out of phase with the Sparkfun AVC.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
@Thomas
Hold it in the winter and I would come
@Acom,
I have been trying to get a Sparkfun AVC style competition going in Florida, but so far no luck.
I live in Ft. Lauderdale and we have a nice park south of the US 595 that would be perfect for an AVC style competition, however most competitors would probably like to stay in Orlando so they could go to the theme parks after the competition:-(
I would not mind traveling up the East coast for a competition.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
@Kirby,
That is one of the problems with being a competitor: you spend more time in the pits fixing or programming than watching the other competitors.
Maybe Sparkfun needs to give points for spending the least time in the pits:-)
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
Yes, Chris did an excellent job of programming his waypoints and maintaining the physical integrity of his rover during all three heats.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
@Dave,
I think most of the competitors had trouble hitting the ramp as far as I remember.
I was running in the Peloton Class and had both the hoop and the ramp dialed in during the morning practice.
However as the day wore on and the number of sats acquired increased with an improving HDOP, the improved positional knowledge had the rover running to the left of the ramp instead of the center.
Unfortunately there was not much time to correct the waypoints between the heats so I stayed with my original mission waypoints.
Last year I hit the ramp two out of three times.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
Here's my crash reel. Next time i need to keep the camera on at all times. I missed some good ones that Cheesehead had.
http://youtu.be/cClEm1OyV7I
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