Podcast Episode 19 - Nathan Seidle, CEO of Sparkfun - Blogs

Very nice podcast as usual. I would like to give a suggestion for the Sparkfun competition.

In the podcast it is mentioned the problem of big ground robots in the Sparkfun competition. Instead of limiting their weight, and also limit the variety of designs as N.Seidle said, there could be a limitation to the combined momentum of the vehicle. For example you can have a total of 1000 N.s (newton.seconds) that equates to a 1000kg vehicle that moves with a maximum speed of 1m/s or a 10kg vehicle with a maximum speed of 100m/s. The numbers and the units doesn't matter in my example, just the basic idea, to limit the maximum damage if something goes wrong. The damage is proportional to the momentum, not just the weight.

Maybe you will find it useful. I would love to attend or even compete but I am in the other side of the planet, maybe next year :D

Thanks again Chris and Tim for the great podcasts!

http://competition.In/

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David Ankers March 10, 2010 at 1:01am

One funny thing, the Quad Copter from German that you guys think would walk away with the contest, actually it has imposed limits to its waypoints and could not complete the test circuit due to these limits deliberately placed in the software! It can also not auto-take off or auto-land.
IKE March 9, 2010 at 2:15pm

Very nice podcast as usual. I would like to give a suggestion for the Sparkfun competition.

In the podcast it is mentioned the problem of big ground robots in the Sparkfun competition. Instead of limiting their weight, and also limit the variety of designs as N.Seidle said, there could be a limitation to the combined momentum of the vehicle. For example you can have a total of 1000 N.s (newton.seconds) that equates to a 1000kg vehicle that moves with a maximum speed of 1m/s or a 10kg vehicle with a maximum speed of 100m/s. The numbers and the units doesn't matter in my example, just the basic idea, to limit the maximum damage if something goes wrong. The damage is proportional to the momentum, not just the weight.

Maybe you will find it useful. I would love to attend or even compete but I am in the other side of the planet, maybe next year :D

Thanks again Chris and Tim for the great podcasts!

http://competition.In/

See related links to what you are looking for.

This reply was deleted.