Project Inanna Introduction

Project Inanna is my currently-active project to retrofit autonomous controls and a hybrid-electric power system into a mid-sized gas-powered RC hovercraft I built during high school, 6 years ago (2005-2006).

The current plan is as follows:

1. Rebuild superstructure with lighter materials and better design, to avoid the issues that plagued the previous generation of this vehicle.
2. Convert to electric brushless DC motors for lift and thrust.
3. Enable rudimentary RC functionality using the existing Kraft system.
4. Enable rudimentary RC functionality using the new autonomous hardware.
5. Develop software to run the vehicle autonomously.
6. Develop generator and management circuitry.
7. Project completed, all documentation released as Open-Source Hardware and Open-Source Software, the latter most likely under a BSD license.

Posts here will be sporadic as I have time, money, and energy to make progress on this project.

The goal is to get to at least stage four by July 21st, 2011. Provided time, money, and a successful final year at school, I may take this vehicle to the Autonomous Vehicle Competition (AVC) sponsored by Sparkfun Electronics (SFE) in Boulder, CO. Should things go well there, and the rules permit it, I may also enter the vehicle into the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), held at Oakland University near my folks' place in the Rochester, MI area.