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3D Robotics

T3-Round 5: Virtual Sparkfun competition!

Posted by Chris Anderson on January 20, 2010 at 2:00pm


For the fifth T3 (Trust Time Trial) contest, we've got an easy and fun one: set the best time for a virtual Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle Competition course. The real Sparkfun contest will be held on April 17th in Boulder, Colorado, and is simply the fastest time for an autonomous vehicle to do one lap around the company's headquarters (shown above). The DIY Drones team won it last year in a time of 35 seconds, and we (and other DIY Drones community members) will be entering this year, too.

Your mission is to program your UAV to fly a pattern around a rectangle the size of the Sparkfun HQ (dimensions shown above). One lap, fastest time wins. The rules don't say anything about takeoff or landing, so you can cross the start line (shown in the picture) at full speed and it doesn't matter what happens after you cross the finish line. Altitude is up to you, but stay below 400ft, as always, and I'd recommend staying above 100ft to avoid the evil trees!

I expect that competition will come down to fractions of a second. Since most GPS loggers only record a position once per second, you'll need to interpolate between timestamps for both the start and finish time. The way to do this is to draw a line from the pointy bottom tip of two adjacent Google Earth pushpin markers. Estimate how far along that line the start or finish lines cross, and apply that fraction to estimate the real time. This illustration gives an example:


Please show these calculations on your KML path image.

BTW, it would be cool to have a model of the Sparkfun HQ to place in Google Earth so you can display your path around a "real" building. Your Chief T3 Judge, Gary Mortimer, has issued a call for a volunteer to make that model, so when one of you rises to the challenge I'll post it here for all to use.

Same submission rules as always. Submit time, autopilot and airframe, and KML track (both screenshot image and raw data) as evidence in the comments below. Video very much appreciated but not required.

Deadline Wed, March 14th, 12:00 midnight PST.

Gentlemen, start your engines!
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Comments

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson February 1, 2010 at 12:21pm
    We haven't tested elevons recently, but I'll do that over the next few weeks now that I have an elevon plane.
  • T3
    steve kloppenburg February 1, 2010 at 12:19pm
    oh too easy... thanks chris, one more stupid question... is the code functional for elevons? I think I remember Jordi had it on his fun jet. I want to change my platform.

    thanks guys!
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson February 1, 2010 at 11:55am
    Yes, it's all here. Just search for T3
  • T3
    steve kloppenburg February 1, 2010 at 11:51am
    hey guys is there any way i can re-read the previous competitions? i never got a chance to look at the entries and comments...

    thanks!
  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer February 1, 2010 at 11:30am
    Blimey the entries are pouring in for this one.
  • brakar January 28, 2010 at 12:14am
    Mark, there was a misspelling, should have been "yield". Aparantly even those native to the english language have not agreed on this.

    From Wikipedia:
    "In road transport, a YIELD (Canada, Ireland, and the United States) or GIVE WAY (Hong Kong and most Commonwealth countries) traffic sign indicates that a vehicle driver must prepare to stop if necessary to let a driver on another approach proceed."
  • T3
    Mark Griffin January 27, 2010 at 2:12pm
    Does it mean "Give Way to UAV's"
  • brakar January 21, 2010 at 5:35am
    I suggest you put up a few of these signs :-;
    (Yild way for UAVs)

  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer January 21, 2010 at 4:51am
    Rewind the clock, I suggested we do that ages ago, so good plan! As long as the course is flown it matters not what you chose to put in the middle and in fact the more original the model perhaps the higher it will score ;-) But for those going to the event it might prove useful training to have a detailed model, in fact that would apply for the vehicles as well.

    Somebody out there has the smarts to make a great model for everyone to use.

    It must include a Jordi plane catching obstacle ;-)

    Cheers

    G
  • T3
    Krzysztof Bosak January 21, 2010 at 4:14am
    Why around stupid flat building and not around Statue of Liberty or Arc de Triomphe (similar size).
    Also it should be quite easy to find a model of Eiffel Tower - the structure has well defined 4 corners...
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