Back in June, we held our fourth annual Autonomous Vehicle Competition (AVC) - it was possibly the best competition yet. Today we wanted to share with you our full AVC recap video - check it out:
Vimeo version here.
In case you missed it in the video, here are the winners:
Air:
- 1st Place: Team Overhead, with an official time of 36.62 seconds
- 2nd Place: Team Robota, with an official time of 44.50 seconds
- 3rd Place: Lost in Air-Space, with an official time of 1 minute and 54 seconds
Ground:
- 1st Place: Team 0x27, with an official time of 2.08 seconds (yep, you read it right -- the robot nailed the hoop time deduction)
- 2nd Place: Team Minuteman, with an official time of 9.46 seconds
- 3rd Place: Team Databus, with an official time of 37.16 seconds
Crowd pleaser: Die!Wheel!
Rookie Award: Short Circuit
Best Dressed: Kegbot
Water Hazard: Viator
Engineer's choice: Namniart
Kill Switch: Snobbotics
Thanks to everyone that came to watch or compete - we are already looking forward to next year! Cheers!
This video is fun, but I was really hoping for more detail than a montage. Something like showing the complete run and a short interview of all the winners. Is there anything like that out there?
For a less frenetic video you might want to view the version on engineering TV:
http://www.engineeringtv.com/video/SparkFun-AVC-2012-Autonomous-Ve
Had a great time as a spectator this year, hope to compete next year. And next time I'll bring the sunblock too - I came down from Vancouver prepared for everything except scorching sun (yeah I had an umbrella with me, and I really felt silly in the 100 deg sun baking in the parking lot).
Awesome video for the Best Ever AVC! Nice work you guys!!
I want to personally congradulate all who competed and especially those who won, and ESPECIALLY Michael from DataBus: he has helped me get a start on my (possible) entry for next year.
Yes, Michael is very inspiring and open in his processes. I talked to him via email briefly as I am still considering an AVC entry for next year. I definitely think this is a cool project and I need to carefully evaluate the time commitment before I make the jump.
Wow, thanks so much you guys! I am humbled. Always happy to talk AVC and help! :) I think communication and discussion amongst AVC competitors generates better solutions for everyone and big heaping piles of Goodness result.
Another amazing AVC! This one had everything - Action, adventure, romance... well, two out of three ain't bad. Thanks to everyone at Sparkfun and all the competitors for another great event!
Sparkfun, not to be a Negative Nancy, but it looks like every year the competition is becoming more and more hazardous. Some of those ground vehicles are getting pretty high powered and heavy and could really hurt someone. Some kind of kill switch or actual physical barriers between the course and the crowd really seem to be in order, or even a weight limit. I won't even mention how I feel about the air vehicles. This is a great competition, but all you have to do is seriously injure one person and it'll all be over. Safety should come first, and should be promoted. There's a reason FIRST requires safety glasses in their pits, has a fully barricaded arena, and promotes safety above all else. That's because it's important, just my two cents...
autonomous air vehicles look really hard... congratulations to everybody who managed to get one off the ground...
YAY!!! Crashing vehicles!!!!
Hey if team 0x27 had completed their run in under 30 seconds real time would their official time have been NEGATIVE? (That's normally not possible without using flux capacitors.)
...It was really difficult to overcome the temptation just now to make a "Flux Capacitor Breakout Board" product page...
DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!
Maybe for early next April......