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2012 Sparkfun AVC (Autonomous Vehicle Competition) — Parallax Forums

2012 Sparkfun AVC (Autonomous Vehicle Competition)

shimniokshimniok Posts: 177
edited 2012-06-19 10:07 in General Discussion
Last Saturday (6/16) was the annual Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle Competition where ground and air robots run a timed race around the Sparkfun Building in Boulder. What a show! (I saw some of it but was mostly stuck in the pits trying to get my robot to work)

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The ground winner, Team 0x27, 1/5 scale buggy

Pics my friend took: http://susanbrady.smugmug.com/Events/2012-SparkFunAVC/23626357_VmgGB5#!i=1911719671&k=dS2vs63

Here's a write-up for my robot, Data Bus: http://www.bot-thoughts.com/2012/06/2012-autonomous-vehicle-competition-avc.html

I am collecting AVC videos on this playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL890A8244F3EE6DC5

If it wasn't hard enough to build a robot to drive itself 270 meters around the narrow parking lot of a large building, giant red barrels were added on the first leg. A hoop was situated in the center of the path; robots passing through it earn a 30 second time deduction.

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But a misstep a few meters later could land a robot off the curb and down into the pond! If the robot makes it this far, on the next leg, curbs jut out waiting to grind unlucky bots to a halt and, surviving this obstacle a giant pothole awaits robots as they approach the last turn.

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I counted 34 ground vehicles out of 50 entrants that actually made it to the event. Of those I think something like 7 or 8 made it around the building. The air vehicles -- well, doing this in three dimensions isn't just 3 times harder. I have no clue how many made it or didn't...

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Comments

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-06-19 10:07
    Congrats Michael! That looks like a whole lot of work and you should be quite proud. Sorry to hear that Team 0x27 took you out at the knees, or rather ankle. They obviously sensed that you were a threat!
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