A circular ultrasonic transmitter consisting of twelve ultrasonic transducers by Polaroid is located onboard. Eight receivers are positioned at the border line of the competition arena such that at least three of them will always receive a signal from the transmitter. The blimp's position within the arena is determined through triangulation. The system is accurate to a few centimeters over the whole arena, which is 20 m times 40 m in size. The four computers involved cooperate on the task of guiding the blimp according to the variety of sensor data.
Every computer runs different specialized processes.
A carefully tailored real time multi-tasking system takes care of invoking the respective routines in time and implements the communication among the processes and the computers. The majority of sensor data are generated onboard and are, therefore, processed at that place. As early as April 1995, a TubRob prototype presented at the Berlin booth at the Hannover Industrial Fair attracted considerable attention. The final version took the second place in the copetition in Juli 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia. Only Standford University came in ahead, while others, like MIT, were surpassed.