[Adam Shapiro]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

I haven't been tracking this closely enough to know, but I do have a question: how hard would it be to start a DARPA team at a school that doesn't have one? What is involved? Obviously a corporate sponsor; what else?

JBot

There have been a number of threads in the past about just this. In fact, there is a recent thread in which a number of people have expressed interest in creating an entry by joining skills from a number of FIRST teams.

Personally, I would say that it is a very difficult task for anyone, and would be rather difficult for a FIRST team to undertake. I'm certainly not saying that it couldn't be done, and if you are really interested in it then by all means go ahead, however from my experience it would be near impossible to find enough hours in the day to work while still in high school (not to mention still having to work on the robot!). Our team consisted of about 13 members, each of which worked at least 20 hours a week on the project. In the last 6 months before the event most of the team worked on the car full time, putting in about 12-16 hours a day of straight work to get the project completed. A few team members even had to take this semester off to finish the AI and prepare for competition.

The complexity of the software required to control the car also makes it a very hard task. Actuating the car and running the wiring is a minor task compared to the work that goes into making the car think and drive on its own. Our own pose estimator (position and orientation) took about a year and a half to get fully functional, and required processing and fusing two different GPS units, a missile-grade IMU, and local world data from a number of sensors on the car.

That being said, the DARPA competition is an amazing event and if you're still interested in entering (if there is another one) I say go for it. I guarantee, if nothing else, you'll learn a ton and have a great time doing it.