Robotics game as fundraising ideas

[Coach Seb]

Looking for inspiration to develop a robotics game that we can use to engage and raise awareness around robotics.

I really like the Krazy Kubes developed by the Lazybotts, my only issues with it is the cost to build each robots... is there other ideas out there ? somewhat of a game that can be setup rather quickly that will let people either play and/or compete during fair and other events?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

http://www.lazybotts.com/krazy-kubes.html

[Sperkowsky]

If you want something really cost effective try brissel bot racing.
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/scienc...ics_p010.shtml

You then can set up some wood tracks and call it day.

[MikLast]

Next month we will be hosting a small game for our city's Founders Day, we are working on the gameplay right now. Once we get more things hashed out ill come back and update this. We will be using the Vex Clawbots (which we have a few of) and they will be fighting for water bottles. This is more oriented to elementary/middle schoolers, but we are allowing anyone to try it out. We wont be charging anything, as its more for publicity of the club.

[Billfred]

4901 has a couple VEX IQ robots we use for demos, and we built a simple game for Relay for Life on our FLL table where people tried to herd ping-pong balls over the hill. For a game we basically free-handed the night before so we didn't have to build anything fancier than a BLT, the strategy was surprisingly deep!

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/43831
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/43830

[Jalerre]

At the Vex Championship in 2013 there was a game of sorts with simple vex robots with a bumper switch on the back. The goal was to drive around and hit another robot's bumper switch to disable it (stop it from being able to drive). If the bumper was hit again then the robot was reenabled. You could make this into more of a game by having two teams and seeing which team could disable the other teams robots more times in a limited amount of time. Or you could see which team had more robots enabled at the end of a set amount of time. To get your own robot reenabled during the game, your teammate would have to press your bumper switch. It would work similar to freeze tag.

[Munchskull]

Originally Posted by Coach Seb

Looking for inspiration to develop a robotics game that we can use to engage and raise awareness around robotics.

I really like the Krazy Kubes developed by the Lazybotts, my only issues with it is the cost to build each robots... is there other ideas out there ? somewhat of a game that can be setup rather quickly that will let people either play and/or compete during fair and other events?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

http://www.lazybotts.com/krazy-kubes.html

If cost of bots is the main issue then try doing it with Bluetooth controlled lego NXT bots. Might ended up being cheaper and easier to build.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Munchskull

If cost of bots is the main issue then try doing it with Bluetooth controlled lego NXT bots. Might ended up being cheaper and easier to build.

We have a couple EV3 kits for FLL, but we never saw any controller other than LEGO's Commander app (which is pretty gutless for real control). Is there a better option out there?

[GKrotkov]

Here's something that Dawgma created from revamping our "Portable Inspiration" project.

It may or may not fit your particular criteria wholesale, but something similar may be appropriate: http://www.team1712.org/summer-camp-kit/

[gblake]

My experience with this idea (public, drive-a-robot, for fundraising) taught me to expect elementary school children, and an occasional middle school student, if the robots are smallish VRC/FTC or FLL/VIQ sized.

Choose a game, and especially a transmitter set-up that is dead-easy. Very young children will ask Mom & Dad for a chance to drive a robot, and for many of them Tank Drive controls are impossible (their brains can't tell their two thumbs to move in opposite directions, yet).

Choose a game that doesn't require N players to all start at the same time (people straggle up and leave at their own pace, not yours), and that doesn't require everything to halt for field-resets.

Pick a surface that is absolutely flat, or expect game pieces to have all run downhill about a minute after your guests start, and to stay there for the rest of the day.

Make the price really low. Don't shut out the people who need inspiration the most.

Selling cold bottled water (get permission), and giving away time with the robots might be a best business plan on a hot day. Setting up several sturdy chairs/benches for adults might make you popular also.

Have a way to track how long each guest (individually) gets to use a robot before the next guest gets a turn (cheap stop watches work well).

Have at least one roboteer per guest-robot, and have roboteer replacements for them. Also have a well-equipped pit crew for repairs, and for battery charging (borrow as many batteries as you can from other teams).

Have a method for queuing if you attract a crowd.

For the "game", I suggest creating an obstacle course that has small resetable chores spread along the course. Maybe keep track of the fastest times or high scores on a large whiteboard that you reset hourly. The chores can be simple pick-and-place, pushing, or driving tasks. Expect many guests to ignore the tasks.

If you are using VRC/FTC robots, don't think you have to deploy a typical FTC/VRC 12x12 field. With the typical tiles and walls you can vary that some. With more tiles and walls (or with replacements for either) you can build bigger and/or unusual shapes.

Giving out tiny prizes can be good for customer satisfaction.

Vary the robot designs a little bit. Big wheels, small wheels, mechanum drive, tricycle, bulldozer blade, arm+pincer, etc. Maybe an immobile crane or two?

Test drive the set-up before deploying it. What sounds good in your imagination, often flops in real life.

Remember ... Tiny kids who ignore everything you planned are likely to be your most numerous customers; and everything takes twice (or 4X) as long as you think it should.

Blake

[Bpk9p4]

My team has been working on this same project over the past year. We have developed small robots to teach programing with. To make it fun for the kids we made some simple games around it which they have to learn how to program. Here are some examples

1) Pushing a tennis ball through a maze. Faster one wins

2) Fastest around maze wins

3) They put an arm on the robot to play a modified version of 2015 games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llu7zepKHXU

4) Sumo Wrestling bots
- Put a bump switch on the back of the robot and 3 LED light. The goal of the game is try and hit the other robots bump switch 3 times without them hitting yours

5) Mario Kart
a. This one we have not finished yet but the idea is
b. There are RFID tags on the floor and when you run over them your robot get some benefits
i. Benefits
1. Speed boast
2. Turtle Shell (there is a laser tag gun on top so you can attempt to hit another robot. If they get hit they will spin out)
3. Star power (if you hit another players bump switch they will spin out)
c. The goal is to get around the track X amount of times before other bots do

6) Laser tag
a. This one is also in the works

7) This year game with just shooting no defenses
a. This is also in the works

If you guys have any other ideas please let me know. We would love to make them and post a video of it. If you are interested in these bots here is are release video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFmnmp_VHHU

[EricH]

Here's one I've seen used:

2-4 BLT-type bots (VEX size)--maybe have some extensions to help herding and/or some bump switches for a temporary disable. This is simple robots here.
A bunch of golf balls and some floor holes (try the local sporting goods store, they might even have a full set--the one I've seen was a "putter pool" set).
FLL table, empty and on the ground (Could use something like a VRC or FTC field with just the border, though).

Place golf balls in the center, two minutes to herd as many as possible into one set of pockets (yours, preferably--but there's a LOT of variations possible with how to run the game).