I am willing to help with all the mechanical stuff. Just send me a PM or something when this thing gets underway because I am very interested.

About navigation...
All of these ideas about using GPS are great because it gives you the information in a nice preformatted way, but the other ways might be more stable and reliable. In order to make the best possible competition autobot, there needs to be redundency in the naviagation methods by using several of methods to find location. The ones I like...
1. GPS - nice and clean, it directly gives you your position
2. Visual Landmarks - find path rather than direct position by using pre0set landmarks.
3. Compass - use a digital-output compass and an odometer and plot course (remember boyscouts? <not to exclude all the female engineers here, but I have no experience with girlscouts>

My favourite is the third because it relies on the earth rather than satellites, so it"s base for positioning is more stable. The only dillema is that the odometer could be wrong and thus the positioning would be completely off and the autobot would get more wrong as it progressed.

As to locomotion...
It must be a ground vehicle, but it would be much more agile if it had something to augment its wheels. It would probably be difficult, but it would be really cool to have some sort of explosive propulsion on it to (kind of like a MechWarrior 'jump-jet' or the StarFox64 tank that could get a little bit off the ground to overcome obstacles.)

looks like a bit more than $2/100, so my unofficial opinion appraises it at $.46

Reply
 

Still working on a proposal,
maybe 5-17/18 or there abouts
Geo.

Hey, George! I know I already told you this, but just so everybody else knows, I'm in too!

--Mandy

Grand First Team
 

Hi,
These are some of the thoughts I've had and some proposals
to go along with them,

Create a Team of students, Mentors, Ex FIRSTers (FIRST-a- holics!) etc, etc, (oh yea, FIRST teams TOO!)
To enter, design, build, test, AND WIN this race.
To Promote FIRST on a national level.
To tap the fantastic Brain Trust and NET WORK that is being
created Thu the FIRST program on a REAL WORLD bases.

Think of this endeavor like the international space station,
large & SMALL contributions adding up to something beyond
individual efforts.

Structured after the FIRST "Team Model"

PRIZE MONEY to be donated to FIRST
(after reimbursement for supples, at coast, as needed,
just like your FIRST team dose)

The most giving reason for not participating I have heard is time,
But small contributions ADD up, could you or your team, class,
mentor, spend an hour or two researching a sensor or product?
Could you ask a colleague/teacher/professor About a system
or a program?

For the more dedicated, could you manage a web page?
setup and run a forum?

Speaking of time, I'am out of it.

Please think about this,

Please Comment!!

Your input is NEEDED!

Next post will be the fun stuff!

Geo.

I would be more then happy, to help in any way I can. Although I live in Indiana, I can still help you with the programming. If you guys need help with it, I am you're guy.

Fun Stuff
 

Greg,
Indiana is not too far....Nor is NY, MA, WA, or AK

I purpose a Target Date of 4/05 if possible for a first attempt.

This gives the Team time to organize and setup communications
Research systems and components (also see a "first Run" -think scouting-)
**Arrange Financing and Donations**
Expenses will probably TOP $150,000 in parts alone.

PLANNING

This endeavor is More than just "BUILD-A-BOT"

And thats not counting promoting FIRST !

Please add your Ideas!!


OK, Lets start with a small used 4x4 truck (Ford or Toyota)

Auto trans, Gas with fuel injection, auxiliary gas tank, batteries,and power takeoff generator,

I think a Truck is a must, we will need the extra space for
processors, sensor, and other equipment (don't forget vibration
damping, this one could win or lose the race.)

No refueling-- no driver is approx 220lbs payload savings
= 30 gal gas with fuel cell + stock tank

Power requirements are dictated by equipment, but we are going
to need to generate, store and condition power,

I think this can all be fit in a truck bed with a camper shell.
and still have room to work

I left the cab Open for readouts and Manuel operation

Out of time again,

Any one Interested yet?

Please pass the word !

Lets get started

Geo.

P.S. I ran across a system that uses laser mapping ,sonar and
can be used with GPS , "off the shelf" and is not a "fly-by-night"
Is any one else Hunting??

As much as I think this would be totally awesome, I think that any effort to enter this competition and finish will fail without massive corporate backing. As I said earlier, I think it will cost almost as much, if not more to try and do such a thing.

Even so, Im in :D

Cory

The only thing about GPS that I see as a problem is that the government only allows commercial users to fix their position with 3(I think?) satellites, which gets you fairly close to where you actually are, as opposed to military GPS, which I believe uses 5 satellites, and can get you to within a few meters of your location. What I am getting at is what if some sort of environmental feature were in the way, and the GPS is not accurate enough to stay away from it. This would bring up the need for redundant systems of tracking location/terrain avoidance as others have said.

My 2 cents.

Cory

{edit} probably should have edited those two posts into one but oh well...

If you guys want, I can set up a website with a separate message board, so we don't have to go back and fourth on Delphi. I can also set up info on the program, and anything else you guys want on there.

let me in
 

hey goerge!

i just wanted to say I'm in too! the only thing i need is a little bit of instruction. let me now what you need me to do.

Chris here from team 696.

Count me in for this project. I have three years exp. in FIRST and have mechanical knowledge.

From what I can gather from these posts, there are loads of people willing to supply there little bits of help (or large chunks of help), but in order to actually use this help, we need an organized administration. If any of you have any experience with businesses or leader your FIRST teams or anything else, please offer this to PsiMatt and help him organize who from where and how they want to help (sorry, I couldn"t think of a good way to get when what and why in there). Also Matt, I"d be willing to help with a bit of organizational crapand I have a teamate (VincentChan) who will also offer his life for this.

I think that if we want to organize anything, we need to talk to George... he's the one who wrote the proposal...

Sorry Matt! (didn't mean to step on any toes here)

The biggest functional difference between civilian and military GPS is that the civilian signal may be "degraded" (called selective availability) at any time the government deems it necessary. When selective availability is in force, the satellites transmit intentionally misleading information. The effect is that the position calculated by the receiver is only within about 100 meters of its actual position. Selective availability was disabled on May 2, 2000. Since then, the acuracy is supposed to be within 20m.

There is no limitation on the number of satellites that a GPS receiver is allowed to use. (Other than the number of satellites that are "in view" at any one time.) I think the civilian and military signals are carried by separate constellations of satellites, so it may be that the military constellation has a larger number of satellites, and so a larger number of satellites may be visible at any given time. This could be where you got the idea that civilian GPS could only use 3 satellites at a time.