Darpa Grand Challenge

[LucidGuppy]

The new darpa challenge is up on their website and I was thinking - even through the rules exclude it - if a hovercraft could do a better job than the last batch of atv's did. It would have to have better obstacle avoidance but it would be much more mechanically simple. If I built one I wouldn't mind trying it out there.

[unimogster]

Matthew,
A hovercraft is actually an excellent idea, and the terrain handling is typically better in some aspects than ground based, but also has a few drawbacks. My company has built a few hovercraft surveillance models for various customers, and here is what our experience has found.
It is explicitly forbidden by the GC rules. Great speed and minor terrain flaw abilities. Capable on almost any terrain including water and deep snow. A few drawbacks are that the great speed comes at the loss of maneuverability at speed (wide, sliding turns), long stopping distance, less power to weight (payload to chassis weight), massive terrain disturbance, poor incline traverse (and even worse decline control). They are also easily defeated by trenches and similar obstacles (loss of ground-effect obstacles).
The design of hovercraft is perfect for quick recon and deployment, but also is poor for weapon and spotter designs. The military has fielded several designs, notably the LCAC and RCAC, with limited success. There is a place for them as sprinters, but stay away from turbines, they eat fuel like crazy.

[LucidGuppy]

I can now see why darpa wouldn't want a robot that screams "HEY I'M OVER HERE!!!" when it kicks up all that dust. But anythings going to be visible when it travels at top speed (just like road warrior ). And the payload would be low to boot with the Hcraft. I guess it would need some kind of turbofan jump capability for ditches (which would be nice for any bot that sees too much hash in front of it). But it would be nice to see how far one could get in the challenge. Thanks for the reply.

[unimogster]

2005 will be our second year to enter the competition. If you look into our history, you'll see that we entered last year but withdrew once our vehicle was sold. Long story, see our site for more info. This time we plan on some more innovation, maybe fuel cells and more interesting locomotion. I hope to see more posts about that sort of thing here.