April 15th, 2009 10AM - Rain, shine, or snowCreate a vehicle that can autonomously navigate around the SparkFun building
$300 cash first prize
A Welsh outlet of Tesco, the UK mega-grocer, has instituted a no-pyjamas policy for its shoppers. A year ago, I may have applauded, but that was before I got a wicked set of checked flannel PJs and dipped my toe in the PJs-in-public waters by taking them with to wear on long flights. Now, I say br... More.
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I say GPS! (is that autonomous?)
Will you be around after 1:30? I'm going to try and make it over there.
-Carlos
from the roolz:
* No base stations allowed. All computation must be made from within the confines of the mobile platform (think DARPA).
* No environmental modifications allowed. For example, you cannot install IR LEDs around the building or put a 3" wide strip of tape on the asphalt
Rules are subject to change on a whim - or if one of the SparkFun engineers (Chris Taylor) tries to cheat.
Autonomous means your bot/car/plane/heli has to drive itself. You press the start button, three seconds later the robot begins navigation under its own control. There can be no human interaction. The car cannot receive any commands over any medium from a human operator. It is allowed to transmit debug information and receive any other signals (GPS, proximity, etc).
If the weather decides not to cooperate (if it snows more than a few inches), we will move the competition indoors. Don't depend on GPS too heavily...
There are updates on Twitter. Search for "Sparkfun"
Awesomeness.
I see there are a bunch of UAVs in there, too.
Oh, and live feed here.
Here' some pictures -> http://www.circuitsathome.com/uncategorized/sparkfun-autonomous-vehicle-competition
/felis