Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!mwtilden
From: mwtilden@watmath.waterloo.edu (M.W.Tilden, Hardware)
Subject: Re: Aeriel Robotics Competition
Message-ID: <1990Nov22.044743.4739@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <1990Nov20.165303.26874@cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 90 04:47:43 GMT
Lines: 51

In article <1990Nov20.165303.26874@cs.cmu.edu> mkb@rover.ri.cmu.edu (Mike Blackwell) writes:
>...first international aerial robotics competition...in Atlanta...
>
>unmanned, autonomous 
>air vehicle, must fit inside a 6' side diminsion cube. Computation need 
>not be on-board: wireless data links are permitted (but no tele-operation, 
>obviously)...
>...idea is to move the disks, one at a 
>time, from the one ring to the other, without touching the ground ...
>
>This is a really interesting competition. I can think of many possible 
>solutions, involving helicopters, planes, and blimps... Should be fun, but 
>not much time left.

Is it just me or does this sound like one of the toughest competitions
ever devised by man?  Holy cow!

Any device you build would have to have some extrordinary stabilizing device
just running background to steady the outfit in three dimensions, and
if you're using a balloon then wind turbulence from whatever propulsion
you devise would play a significant part in fouling up your stabilizers.
Not to mention the problem of building a device which can lift both
motors, circuits and batteries in that small a volume.  Hovering is 
no small feat, and any helicopter device would have the added problem
of scattering your rings long before you got to them, or destabilizing
them during transit.

I've played around with robot flying machines before and was always
knocked down by that damned old 10m^s^2.  Does anybody know of 
any similar competitions in the past where such a device has been 
successfully made, or maybe even a commercial unit which does 
sorta the same thing?  I'd like to see the specs on the 
materials/airfoils/controls that would make such a thing work.

Don't get me wrong.  It sounds like a fantastic competition and I 
wish someone would pay me to build an entry for it, but 
I really think it's a toughy.

(By the way, if anybody saw that brilliant NOVA blimp documentary on PBS
about a month ago, I'd really recommend it as a good design reference for
this competition.  Check your library)

Is all.



-- 
Mark Tilden: _-_-_-__--__--_      /(glitch!)  M.F.C.F Hardware Design Lab.
-_-___       |              \  /\/            U of Waterloo. Ont. Can, N2L-3G1
     |__-_-_-|               \/               (519) - 885 - 1211 ext.2454,
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