Autonomous Vehicle Competition continued ...
Figure A. Elmo was popular!
Autobahn finished third.
Figure D. Aerial winner, Team Robota.
2. Bon Scott, 3 minutes 12 seconds
3. Autobahn, 3 minutes 14 seconds
4. Autocrusher, 3 minutes 27 seconds
5. BlueBot, 50% complete
6. Buzzbut, 30% complete
7. Project 240, 25% complete
8. Geeknight Avenger, 25% complete
9. Jaunty Python, 25% complete
10. Sharcbot, 22% complete
11. Tinkerbell, 20% complete
12. B.O.B., 10% complete
13. Diminished Expectations, 3%
complete
Figure B. Ground-based winner,
Team Tobor.
There were also some special awards
given to competitors whom the judges
felt deserved recognition for efforts or
results above and beyond the call of
sleeplessness:
Figure E. The SparkFun employee band:
Miles Per Gallon.
Engineer’s Choice Award: University
of Arizona Robotics
Kill Switch Award: B.O.B.
Rookie Award: BlueBot
Best Dressed: SharcBot
You might have noticed that the winner of the aerial competition had a
negative time. Some explanation of the rules is in order to explain this oddity. For
the flying competitions there were two special rules that could modify your time:
1. If you land autonomously, 15 seconds is deducted from your time.
2. If you land autonomously within the yellow tape rectangle in front of the
judges stand (loading dock), 30 seconds is deducted from your time.
The first, second, and third place teams all landed autonomously. Team
Robota landed in the taped rectangle and it was pretty amazing to watch!
When the judges were busy, SparkFun kept the crowd entertained with their company’s impromptu band
(Figure E). These guys sounded great and kept the energy levels up when folks might otherwise have gotten bored
and wandered off in between events.
There were a few humorous moments in the competition. The robot B.O.B. (Bounces Off Bumpers) had an
electrical failure resulting in some smoke which required a quick
application of a “kill switch” (earning him the Kill Switch Award), which
prompted the band to declare a possible name change to B.I.F. (Bursts
Into Flames). One of the aerial entrants searched for his flight path, but
apparently got bored and flew off towards the foothills to the west of
us. We learned later that the robot landed on the roof of the museum
down the street. The plane was damaged during the landing, but the
team came prepared with a spare. Another “interesting” event occurred
when one of the robots landed on the roof of a nearby military
aerospace contractor. This was a more touchy moment and required
calls to Washington, DC to get permission to remove the plane from the
roof of the facility. The contestants did get their plane back and went on
to have more tries at the prize.
Figure C. Everybody go!
16 SERVO 07.2010