Andrew Tridgell, Linus Penzlien, and myself are beginning to prepare for the autonomous ground vehicle competition at the Sparkfun 2014 AVC to be held at Boulder, CO on June 21st.
The picture above is that of our Traxxas E-Maxx 1/8 scale 4WD Crusher autonomous rover that is guided by a 3DR APM2.6 and employs a 3DR GPS/Compass module along with a 3DR 915MHz telemetry radio.
The video below will give you an idea of the performance of the Crusher. The rover reached a speed of around 7 m/s in the straightaways and negotiated three chicane waypoints while traversing a 1/8 mile test course. The Crusher can easily reach speeds of ~28 m/s, but I am shooting for good performance in the straightaways and chicanes at 10 m/s.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
Comments
@Mike,
I have my waypoint radius set to 2 m so the rover will vary within that 2 m radius as it navigates the waypoints.
There is no base station as they are presently not allowed at the Sparkfun AVC. I am just using the stock 3DR GPS/Compass module which incorporates a uBlox LEA-6 GPS. I usually have 10 or more sats and an HDOP as low as 1.2 on some days.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
Is the gps accurate enough that it won't hit the curbs? It looks like the rover hits the corner of the grate a few times, but at around 3:20 goes over the middle of it. Are you using a basestation or any other corrections? Looks good!
@John,
I bought the roll cage from rcraveninc on eBay: RCRAVEN
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
Tom, very nice setup and video!
I'm also interested in that roll cage -- could you share the name of the company or their eBay name? Thanks!
Hi Tom,
I hope the software is good for a few medals, looking at your vehicles i have no doubts at all :)
looking forward to see many rovers like on rails and some wild excursions of course :)
Regards
Linus
Thanks Swift, much appreciated.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
@Gary,
Thanks for the kudos, much appreciated.
My two Traxxas Slash rovers are 1/10 scale SC truck chassis and the E-Maxx is definitely taller and heavier than they are and seems to me to be closer to 1/8 scale.
Actually the roll cage came from a small shop in Fresno, CA that specializes in quality roll cages. I found them on eBay:-)
Basically I started with less than a E-Maxx roller chassis and used Traxxas' exploded chassis diagrams and parts list to build the rover with parts off of eBay:-).
My chassis uses the Castle Mamba Monster ESC and the accompanying NEU brushless motor. The chassis is pretty much stock as I don't plan to go bashing around on your typical dirt course. Haven't broken anything yet as Traxxas makes quality chassis.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
Hi Tom,
Thats a really nice and very serious looking looking truck you have there.
And a very clean setup.
A couple of questions, Traxxas doesn't show an 1/8th scale Emax only 1/10th scale.
Although it is interesting they show my Stampede at 1/10th scale too and it is at least 20% smaller than the EMaxx - somebodies fudging somewhere.
Is yours the brushless version?
I'm guessing that really neat aluminum sub-frame came from that giant hobby shop just up the street from where you live, I remember they used to have really nice custom frame bits for RC trucks there.
Really like those 6" tires too.
Would like to know the full build mods and specs for your truck.
Best Regards,
Gary
TC - Very cool! I don't really know much about ArduRover at the moment, but I am keen to learn. I love your E-Maxx. Inspires me to breath new life into an old friend.
@Hugues,
Actually, both. The faster you can traverse the course can make up for not jumping the ramp, hitting a barrel in the barrel chicane or not negotiating the hoop which require accurate guidance.
I won the Peloton course last year with a final speed of 3 m/s, jumped the ramp, negotiated the barrel chicane, but missed the hoop.
I hope to run the course between 7 - 10 m/s this year.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next