GMU Grand Challenge

What is this site for

This section of the wiki is being set up to help us all co-ordinate tasks as well as post what parts of the project we are interested in. I will also be adding some documentation for you guys to view.

What is the GMU Grand challenge.

The GMU Grand Challenge is an autonomous robot challenge. It is going similar to the Darpa Grand Challenge. The objective is to have a robot start in an arbitrary location on campus, then be given a goal location which it must reach. The robot must perform all path planning, obstacle avoidance and motion on its own.

This is a very ambitious project and it success will say a lot about the team that helped to complete the challenge.

The rules

So far these are the rules that we have come up with:

1. The robot must run autonomously.
2. The robot must avoid obstacles.
3. Their can be no assistance given to a robot to put it back on course or avoid obstacles.

There may be other rules that are added along the way to help make this a fair competition. We do want to make this as official as possible to try and make it a competition that George Mason can sponsor in the future.

The Competitor

Pioneer P3AT-SH

• Drive System
  • Differential-Four Wheel Skid Steer
• Sensors
  • Sonar ring for obstacle detection and avoidance
  • Wheel odometers
  • Magnetic compass
  • Firewire camera
• Localization
  • GPS (Inexpensive unit with WAAS accurate to 2.5 meters at best)
• Computing power
  • It will be using a Laptop affixed to its top deck (Dell Inspiron 700m)