Preparation is key

Two months prior to the race, students drove the 2,400 route in a vehicle equipped with two donated Topcon GMS-200 receivers and an OmniSTAR HP subscription. On the race course, they marked data points – latitude, longitude, quality of the GPS signal, the locations of hills, traffic lights, and traffic conditions.

Data from the receivers was output over an RS-232 (serial) connection to a laptop, where software developed by the team recorded the GPS data to the hard drive and post-processed the information. The head strategist was able to use the information to recommend a vehicle speed conducive to making the most efficient use of the available sunlight.
Budgeting energy

Traveling the right speed at all times was a key to winning the race. If the car would travel fast under clouds, for example, it risked drawing down too much battery power. On the other hand, running fast under clouds – say, at the speed limit – could help win the race, and move the

car into sunny weather faster, where it could gather energy. There was not enough solar energy to permit the car to drive the entire race at the speed limit.

“With the help of the Topcon GPS equipment, we knew what terrain lay ahead of us, and we could budget our energy better,” said Alex Dowling, head strategist for Continuum. “The Topcon equipment performed as expected.”
The win

Continuum finished first in 51 hours, 41 minutes, and 53 seconds, an average of 46 miles per hour, beating the second place winner by 10 hours.

Fifteen solar cars from universities in the United States, Canada, and Germany completed the 10-day race. Auletto said, “We were happy to help the students in such an important endeavor and what’s even better, their preparations and foresight in using GPS technology truly paid off - by 10 hours!”

Topcon’s GMS-200
GIS Mapping and Navigation System

The Topcon GMS-200 is a modular high accuracy real-time solution well suited for both navigation and building and maintaining a high accuracy GIS database.