Sparkfun Electronics (SFE) held their 2012 Autonomous Vehicle competition last weekend. Hobbyists and engineers from all over the country came to send their terrestrial and aerial charges, guided only by their programming and sensors, around the Sparkfun building. To make it more interesting, the winner is decided by the fastest time, upping the speeds at which the robots collided with the course obstacles!
The full day of racing was well organized with everything you would want, with my favorite place being the staging area for the inventors to prep their machines (and for us gawkers to speak with them about their designs). There were bleachers at the finish line, a few food trucks, and a booth giving out free swag! Of course the most important part was the track. Sporting many barrels (which were light enough to be pushed all over the place) and a hoop that gave those bots that went through it a 30 second time reduction, there was plenty for the cars to worry about. Believe it or not, the surrounding creeks and pond was as big of a concern for the airplanes as it was for some of the cars. But my personal favorite part of the course was what I call the 'Danger Zone.' As the videos show, we were standing where all of the navigation failures occurred. Nothing better than being chased down by one robot, only to be run down by ANOTHER robot! But I'll let my favorite videos take it from here (all of my videos can be found on my youtube channel).
One robot 'reconfigures' the course boundaries while Team Tobor completes an excellent run:
A great aerial run (with landing!)
Another great aerial run, with an unexpected landing in the creek!
A stellar ground run (with a hoop!) and me almost getting run over:
One robot tries to take a swim:
This robot was programmed to steal a barrel for a souvenir:
Once again, Sparkfun succeeds in making Colorado's front range that much more fun for those interested in electronics. Well done!
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