WARG Strives for Learning!!!

The Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group is determined to help provide students with learning opportunities that are exciting, involving, and interesting. Our main goal is not to create a highly successful competition UAV (although this is still achieved with our amazing students), but instead, our highest priority goal is to teach students that wish to learn. WARG leads are dedicated to helping students learn about all aspects of mechanical, electrical, software, and system design. We want to provide students with a project that can help give them focus, and a purpose for learning. In order to help further our mission in providing students with this environment, WARG has created the R/C Car Competition.

WARG has created the R/C Car Competition and implemented it for the first time during the Fall 2014 term, and we could not be happier with its current success! During its first installment, the competition attracted over 30 students, creating a competition of roughly 10 teams. Students have access to (currently) 2 R/C Cars that have been outfitted with the exact same equipment that was used in Project SPIKE. The car is equipped with a development board for processing, a GPS, and a Data Link in addition to the components used to steer / drive the vehicle. Background information on the competition is provided below, and the full layout of the competition can be found in the document entitled "R/C Car Competition CONOPS."

If you're interested in supporting this competition with prizes for the students who compete, PLEASE CONTACT US FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES!

If you're a student interested in competing in the competition, send us an email! Students can always use more competition!

 

Competition Introduction

The goal of the RC Car competition is to motivate potential recruits to participate in the normal activities of the Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group (WARG). The team leads of WARG have come to realize that it can be difficult for recruits to immediately jump into the day-to-day activities of WARG without having any prior knowledge or experience with the technology. It's a very common occurrence for new recruits to come to the team with very little to no knowledge of the skills needed to immediately contribute, but WARG has a fundamental goal of teaching any student the skills, if they wish to learn.

This competition has been developed by WARG as a tool to teach students about the following:

  • Basic Programming Skills
  • Control Theory
  • Problem Solving
  • Gain Tuning (Stabilizing a Controlled System)
  • Path Following and Path Planning
  • At the end of the competition, it is WARG's goal that each participating student has learned how to perform a majority of the topics listed above. The competition has been designed to guide the recruits through the process, and for this reason, each phase of the competition relies on the previous phase to a certain extent. In other words, as the recruit proceeds through each phase of the competition, they are in fact building further upon their control program. Once the last phase is reached, the recruit should have a fully functional control program. How well this program functions will be based on the recruits time, effort, and general understanding of the skills WARG is trying to teach over the course of the competition.

    Furthermore, the skills that students develop while participating in this competition can be immediately transferred to the normal activities of WARG. As well, these newly acquired skills can be advertised by the students during interviews, where they can inform the employer on what they've accomplished while participating in the competition.

    The end goal of the competition is to develop a program that will make the RC Car autonomously follow a predetermined path. This is in fact exactly what is done by our aircraft in order to complete its competition. Our aircraft can always be improved upon, and it is our hope that students become interested in assisting the team with the skills they acquire through this competition.

     

    Documentation

  • R/C Car Competition CONOPS - Rev2.0