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Now, I'm east coast, and can't do much as per this competition, but I do have a few ideas. I've seen lots of object detection technologies out there, including radar (think weather radar maps), proximity sensors, even optical recognition (cameras which can sense and analyze features). The only real programming language I know is BASIC and PBasic, so I'm not quite sure how data can be collected and organized/processed in any other languages, but it seems it shouldn't be that hard to compile information like that together.
All one would really have to do is create a model (either 3d mapped, or just in variables/numbers) of objects relative to the vehicle itself, then compare with input data from one (or a few, with the average used) GPS's, such that if an object is detected in the path of it's current motion, software will turn the vehicle until the object is no longer in it's path, analyze similar sensors on both sides of the vehicle until no further hindering objects are detected, then resume the pre-set course (via preset waypoints, etc). Again, since I'm not a real programmer, I have no idea how hard this would be to create, nor how well input data can be manipulated to produce the desired output.
Thinking logically though (and in relation to our own IFI robot controllers), let's say you have 3 GPS's on the vehicle, one in the front left, one in the front right, and one in the rear center. The output data (usually NMEA) can be averaged between the three of them, to produce more accurate positioning than any one of them individually. This average becomes two variables, an X coordinate and a Y coordinate. Any sensor input data would be defined in relation to the GPS coordinates. If a radar detects an object directly in front of the vehicle, say, 9 meters directly ahead, and the vehicle is traveling in the positive direction on the Y axis, the computer can input the 9 meters given from the radar as Y + 9, and create a plot on a preset map (if the general location of the course is known, e.g. a block of space between LA and LV with known coordinates.) The computer should be scanning it's position based on the GPS data, and it's relative location to mapped objects (Detected by scanners). Add in a cushion for the size of the vehicle, and it shouldn't bee too difficult to get it to turn if objects are mapped directly in it's path.
Again, I'm not a programmer and have no idea what would be involved in this, but thinking in terms of PBasic and the IFI equipment, it's really not too hard (on a simpler scale, e.g. optical sensors, yaw rate sensors, etc).
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