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I think some of you are missing the point. While you could technically convert a 4x4 to an autonomous device, why would you? anything meant to be driven by humans will be big, will have safety devices which aren't needed, and will have wasted space. Look at nasa. when they want to design a moon rover, they don't convert a commercial vehicale! Nor do firsters take an RC car, swap out some parts and call it a robot.
If you truely plan on doing this (which I think is great, but i'm on the wrong coast), then use a bottom up aproach. maybe not from scratch, but dont just modify someone else's creation. Be creative, dare to use your imagination and think outside the box. small example: lots of ppl suggest putting a large gas tank on the 'bot so it has all the fuel it needs, with no stopping. problem with that is it adds weight, which lowers efficaincy, which in turn requires more gas. if you are allowed to refuel, take advantage of it. it isn't hard to build a homing beacon and put it at the checkpoint (legal, according to the rules). have the bot dock, swap fuel cells/batteries/fill up/whatever and go on its merry way!
Also, combustable materials in purely autonomous vechiles is not such a hot idea. pretend the purpose of the bot is to scout out potentialy hostile territory and take that into consideration. anything that can explode is bad!
just my .02
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