NASA Centennial Challenge
My Senior Year of College I was trying to decide if I wanted to get into Robotics or something else. My employers had seen the 2007 Regolith Excavation Challange and thought it would be fun to sponsor a Cal Poly team to win. The goal was to build an autonomous robot that would dig Regolith (moon dirt), navagate a 3m x 3m box, avoid "bowling ball size" rocks, find a ramp, and dump the regolith in a box at the end. I was involved in the 2008 and 2009 challenge, winning second place with SLObotics in 2008. The 2009 experience wasn't so successful despite having a much better machine.
Frankie
Our first attempt at winning was the result of a lot of experimentation. We first tried to navigate around by using a Wiimote and three known IR sources at the ramp. We were successful indoors but outside had too much IR interference. We had to scrap that idea. Our second attempt used a pulsing IR as a beacon at the ramp and our robot would find and use that to dig and dump. We had wire "whiskers" that would tell us if we hit a rock or the edge of the box. I never got too far into the dig and dump routine because the digging machine was still being wired the morning of the competition. Frankie was, however, the only robot to leave the starting square and the only robot to "find" and go up the ramp from the sandbox. We won second place, losing to the team who flung about a handful of Regolith into the box.
C2D2
Our second attempt was much more focused. The SLObotics team had graduated, and we formed a new, self-funded team: C2 Robotics. The rules had changed so that we started on the ramp, which made it a much easier problem to solve. We built a robot that could autonomously dig 2-3x the "winning" amount regularly by essentially digging a trench in front of the ramp. I had all the software running weeks before the competition and the hardware had been finalized. However, the day of the competition our digger motor didn't start up. We only got one chance. I had put in most of my savings and this taught me some solid Robotic lessons.
Tractor Hacking
Around 2017 iFixit decided to sponser a Cal Poly project to hack John Deere tractors.
I was invited to act as the Project Mananger. I went onto the Cal Poly campus and explained the project details to a class.
Some students decided to work on the Project. I set them up with requirements, a budget, and let them set sprint goals and general milestones.
I would sit in on meetings and give technical advice & offer potential solutions to problems.
I've since moved on from Cal Poly and the project, but it has grown into a potential company.
