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Week 7 (Oct. 10, 2018): Podcar Location Tracking & Collision Avoidance Research


This week, I looked more into the. I have used a GPS module before (the GNSS GPS GLONASS module from AliExpress), but it was a bit finicky due to its relative cheapness, and there’s no telling how it would send and receive the satellite signal at Maker’s Faire, on the day of. There are other options, though: Mini GPS GPRS Tracker SMS Network Bike Car Motorcycle Monitor GPS Locator; Adafruit Ultimate GPS Breakout - 66 channel w/10 Hz updates; Adafruit Ultimate GPS Logger Shield - Includes GPS Module; GPS Receiver - EM-506 (48 Channel). There are GPS applications, such as the one found on this DIY project on Instructables, called PayAsYouTrack. There is also a possibility of adding a GPS amplifier, though it seems the only place to purchase affordable ones is eBay.

Should we choose to forgo the idea of using a GPS module that would both keep track of the location of the podcars and avoid collisions, we could still implement a vision sensor, such as an array of IR sensors, using a “time-of-flight” sensor attached to a servomotor, or adding to the already installed ultrasonic sensors.

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