Hello mbeach:Originally Posted by mbeach
As a car enthusiast, I agree with your comments. I hate to see any car cut up for any reason. After having owned our VehiCROSS "robot" for the past 2 months, I want to buy another one just for myself :-) One of our self-imposed criteria is to "show respect" for our VehiCROSS. We are saving and carefully labeling every nut and bolt and piece of trim we remove from the car. After the race is over, our goal is to be able to assemble the VehiCROSS back to as close to mint condition as possible.
As far as using a retired dune buggy, you are right. The crux of the matter is software, machine vision, and control theory. We could conceivably strap our cameras and vision algorithms to a beat up Ford pickup and do just as well as with our VehiCROSS. Did you ever see the movie "Back to the Future"? In this movie Marty asks Doc why he used a DeLorean? To which Doc replies: "--If you're going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?" I think the same applies to us :-) If you are going to go through the immense trouble of building a robotic car, why not use a head-turning bad-*** looking little SUV like the VehiCROSS? We are very happy with our choice... and we are doing our best to show it the respect it deserves :-)
Jorge
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