Up until now, I've only been talking about the Hovercraft as an entry for the Sparkfun AVC, but not necessarily going into too many details about that. This update is mainly to clear up a few things.

First off, when I decided to turn this into an AVC entry, I already knew that it was an excellent candidate for Non-Traditional Locomotion. In fact, I think that's what some of the CURM robots were going to do as well, but I'm not sure.

As time has gone by, I've also been trying to get this design to fit within the dimensions for the Micro/PBR category as well. It's requirements mean that I need to fit within a 4"x6"x10" box, which while I'm not quite there, I'm close.

One of my "bag of tricks" involves using Bluetooth for my communication between smartphone and firmware. I looked through the rules, and while it does not allow wireless communication during the match, I was able to get a clarification from the Sparkfun peeps saying that my specific design was alright, since the communication did not extend past the robot. They did recommend against using Bluetooth since the spectrum would be hella-crowded, but since my application has the antennas only centimeters away, I think I'll be fine. I did want to use USB, and did manage to get it working at one point, but since time is getting short, I don't think I can implement it and log enough hours with it to be comfortable with it.

The second trick was my choice of Smartphone. I've owned an HTC One S before until I lost it to a swimming accident (ziplock bags can't stop water. Who knew...). What I love about it is that for its generation, it's quite the powerhouse while at the same time being small. Although there are faster and more powerful phones available on the market right now, I'll gladly take the performance hit as a tradeoff for a smaller size.

As of right now, the Hovercraft is a bit too big to fit in the dimensions. There's simply too much stuff to fit it all in with the way that I've arranged things, but I do have one final trick.

It doesn't look like I'll have enough time to use Computer Vision in the project (walk before running), so my last trick will involve rotating the phone 90 degrees, and securing everything on the outside wall of the hovercraft.

Oh, and I've also started looking into making a skirt for the Hovercraft. Hoboy...