Robot to Lead Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Walk

[Tom Line]

Soooo tempting.... must make dozer bot....

Watching them put this together was pretty awesome. We've never made anything like it before that is on/offroad capable. It's pretty happy climbing curbs, and they did a lot of testing (and jogging) to make sure that it could travel the right distance at the right speed.

It even has cruise control - with a deadman switch for safety.

They're using an on-board laptop and a wireless x-box controller to control it during the walk. The bonus is that if it goes out of range or the controller is disconnected, the driverstation automatically disables. Safety FIRST.

I know we've had 8 batteries on it (it's designed to actually have more, I believe), and it's perfectly happy driving with someone on top of it because the drive hardware is steel and well supported.

Bonus points if you can spot the error on the robot in the picture.....

Fun fact: According to the design and build teams the the solar panel can supply something like 60% of the power required to drive on level ground on a very sunny day.