Is it me or are those lines significantly greater than 1 inch wide? The resolution of the Youtube image is not the best but when I loaded a snapshot into an image program and did some measurements I get something closer to 4 inch wide tape.
Any route? It's very short from pin 4 to pin 8 to pin 3 along the 555 square. Don't make this sound too easy. I really don't have time to get sidetracked on a diversion like this
Not any route. The "route" will be disclosed at Race Commissioner Daniel's whim.
Another idea: take a cue from Mr. Carlson from the late-70s TV show WKRP, and drop live turkeys from the quadcopters. "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
I think my robot's in trouble... Just took a peak at the course, after the rain evaporated from it.... The black top is a lot less "black" than my driveway... It's going to be dicey...
Thank you very much Parallax, and specially Daniel Harris,
The line Following event was great!, A good time was had by all!..
I have no idea who the "official" winner was, as I had to get on the road before it was over.
My vote for the most determined contestant is Mathew...
His Stingray managed to navigate the entire perilous Robot eating asphalt course as laid out by Daniel,
Well done Mathew, Hope to see you at next years contest...
I 2nd that Thanks to Parallax and Daniel. It was a lot of fun. Within the next week I plan to share some code and information about how I tackled the problem and why I ran into problems... It was an awesome day weather-wise so that made it all the more enjoyable. I plan to be back next year and participate in both contests. I hope that people were excited about the StringRay platform. It was the perfect bot that that challenge.
Nice pic Tommy, I plan to throw that up on my blog...
That was the course from "Heck". Thanks Daniel! Can't complain too much because I did snag second place (don't ask how many contestants there were).
But, my bot did actually follow a line for a few feet, after a couple hours of desperate tweeking...
If I brought a few cans of black spray paint with me, I might have had a slim chance...
Was expecting black asphalt... I did look a bit black when it was raining. But, when the rain stopped it turned more gray with lots of white rocks thrown in...
Anyway, the Stingray appears to have the advantage of a sensor array that moves up and down. That may be important in a crazy course like that one...
My poor bot had sensors that were screwed in to wood blocks, so I had to move them without drilling holes for them first (the desperate part).
In the end, I'm glad my bot at least went a few feet in right direction...
Considering I built it last Friday and programmed it Saturday, I guess it did OK...
Had some Mechanical problems, Daniels devious use of boulders and tree limbs embedded under the line tape,
reeked havoc on my completely unprepared QTI suspension system.
The bright sunlight was the first obstacle, but a local coffee wagon had an easily adapted solution...
Each improvement made it go faster...and the faster it go, the harder it hit...
Tore a small piece of the solder ring right off of the QTI...
No problem, I thought, I can just jog over to one of the solder stations in the activities tent.
But the tent was swarming with kids, and all the solder stations were occupied...
I'm pretty sure I could have taken one of them kids in a fair fight,
But there was just way to many of them, and I didn't want to get rat packed...
next year water will be an integral part of this challenge.
1) fly the course
2) pop the balloons
3) Water landing
4) winner is determined based on time under water and weather you Quad works after the drying out period
Wow! That's fantastic. As long as yours was submerged, I was beginning to think you were a wanna-be submarine like Rick's :-) I'm amazed that everything works after drying out - very encouraging since I live near water and I'll probably eventually try some expeditions down the shore to spy on neighbor's docks. I don't think any of them have paint ball mini-guns and I'm not too worried about that anyway since the ELEV-8 seems to be fairly resistant to paint balls (yellow ones at least). But, I will eventually goof up and drop the thing in the water... Hmmm, how about putting those foam floaties on the gear for pontoons?
I think it was Matthew Stemple that won. He had a much more expensive looking robot than mine, so I guess it's no surprise. Daniel is the Parallax guy that hosted the event. There were actually several people with robots out there testing the track. But, I think most had even more problems than me... You can tell from the pictures that the ground was closer to whitish gray than it was to black. That is real trouble for a lot of setups, I think.
Matthew had a linear array on the front of a Parallax StingRay. I guess that's more of a tried and true technique than my improvised 3-2-1 method.
I'm not sure I've given up on my approach yet though. But, I do see the need to move up and down. Also, with a bright ground like that, I obviously need shading around my sensors so that scattered sunlight doesn't mess them up.
If they do the same course next year, I'll try to put up a better fight...
Actually, if the course is going to be on the same surface next time, I think I'll switch to either analog sensors or a serial camera. Serial camera might be best option so I can use it's AGC to get the best contrast between metal line and asphalt...
Everyone that entered a contest won something. It is surprising to me how few people enter contests like this. Maybe more people would enter if there were more levels of prizes or something like; every entrant gets a Ping))) or QuickStart or maybe a crash pack?
I agree, it is surprising. I thought about LFO, but didn't enter since I knew I had to leave by 2 pm. I totally dig contests. From experience, though, people need access to the course WAY early to practice. The rain made practice for both outdoor contests impossible on Friday. Next year, indoors if possible.
Looks like this guy might have done well in the LFO assuming he could read the line properly. At the 1:00 mark, he follows a zigzag section remarkably like the resistor symbols used on the LFO course.
Comments
John Abshier
That's 1" wide masking tape. During race day, it'll be 1" wide masking tape, with an overlay of 1" wide AC tape (like what Daniel described earlier).
-Matt
Not any route. The "route" will be disclosed at Race Commissioner Daniel's whim.
-Matt
Hey Race Commissioner Daniel - where do you want to meet for lunch?
I've almost got it together:
-- Gordon[/QUOTE]
But they do fly. Just not alot.
The line Following event was great!, A good time was had by all!..
I have no idea who the "official" winner was, as I had to get on the road before it was over.
My vote for the most determined contestant is Mathew...
His Stingray managed to navigate the entire perilous Robot eating asphalt course as laid out by Daniel,
Well done Mathew, Hope to see you at next years contest...
-Tommy
Nice pic Tommy, I plan to throw that up on my blog...
Also, thanks to Parallax for a great time.
But, my bot did actually follow a line for a few feet, after a couple hours of desperate tweeking...
If I brought a few cans of black spray paint with me, I might have had a slim chance...
Was expecting black asphalt... I did look a bit black when it was raining. But, when the rain stopped it turned more gray with lots of white rocks thrown in...
Anyway, the Stingray appears to have the advantage of a sensor array that moves up and down. That may be important in a crazy course like that one...
My poor bot had sensors that were screwed in to wood blocks, so I had to move them without drilling holes for them first (the desperate part).
In the end, I'm glad my bot at least went a few feet in right direction...
Considering I built it last Friday and programmed it Saturday, I guess it did OK...
reeked havoc on my completely unprepared QTI suspension system.
The bright sunlight was the first obstacle, but a local coffee wagon had an easily adapted solution...
Each improvement made it go faster...and the faster it go, the harder it hit...
Tore a small piece of the solder ring right off of the QTI...
No problem, I thought, I can just jog over to one of the solder stations in the activities tent.
But the tent was swarming with kids, and all the solder stations were occupied...
I'm pretty sure I could have taken one of them kids in a fair fight,
But there was just way to many of them, and I didn't want to get rat packed...
This is not over Daniel Harris... I'll be back!..
-Tommy
Third place went to Rick G, Second to the gentleman who's name escapes me (he had an unintended water landing), and first went to Rich H.
1) fly the course
2) pop the balloons
3) Water landing
4) winner is determined based on time under water and weather you Quad works after the drying out period
MINE DOES
Now I am left to assume that in LFO, young Daniel Harris came in first, Rayman came in second, and dunno 'bout third?
Matthew had a linear array on the front of a Parallax StingRay. I guess that's more of a tried and true technique than my improvised 3-2-1 method.
I'm not sure I've given up on my approach yet though. But, I do see the need to move up and down. Also, with a bright ground like that, I obviously need shading around my sensors so that scattered sunlight doesn't mess them up.
If they do the same course next year, I'll try to put up a better fight...
Actually, if the course is going to be on the same surface next time, I think I'll switch to either analog sensors or a serial camera. Serial camera might be best option so I can use it's AGC to get the best contrast between metal line and asphalt...