Smaller Cheaper Robots

[phrontist]

A member of my team (1418) knows Mark Tilden the guy who invented BEAM and really showed what you can do with simple parts and logic. He's also the guy who made those neat toys.

[Dick Linn]

cHECK OUT
www.sozbots.com/

http://cws.gateway.tec.wi.us/program...h/sumobots.htm
AND
http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/r...comparison.asp

AND i JUST FOUND THIS LIST OF DIFFERENT ROBOTICS-RELATED COMPETITIONS:
http://robots.net/rcfaq.html

And there's BattlebotsIQ http://www.battlebotsiq.com/

[[527]phil]

Try micro mouse competitions. They use a "neural net" so theres no programming required. I've competed when i was younger and it's actually quite fun, but if you really wanna go overboard some guys use ultrasonic sensors and stuff. Another cool competition is Beam drag racing. I've built 2, accept for a capacitor array for the motor and solar panel, there aren't any electronics. If you want a guide i suggest the book "junkbots, bugbots, and bots on wheels", the first couple of chapters are for people who have never soldered or don't know how to use transistors, capacitors, etc. but it gives you many schematics and instructions for Beam robots. It gives detailed instructions for mini sumo, solar rollers, bicore headbots, etc. Who knows maybe we can even have mini competitions at regionals and at the nationals. O and about sozbots, I'm building a robo-one robot and so far I've spent about 400-500 dollars, but thats nothing to what sozbots are charging for their khr-1 kit ($1,650). So if anyone is planning on competing in Robo one, i suggest that you build your own.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by [527]phil

Try micro mouse competitions. They use a "neural net" so theres no programming required...

A lab technician I knew about 15 years ago inisisted that his favorite programming language was solder.

[[527]phil]

ROFL!! I'll use Solder over anything out there now. theres always a mechanical way to make things. Like the "night rider" LED thing i made for my team's robot. It was pretty much a servo which turned a metal arm which came into contact with metal pins which completed a circuit, and then turned on a certain LED. No relays or circuit boards necessary.

[MikeJ675]

Smaller robots can be really fun. Here's a 1lb combat bot I'm making for the RoboNexus expo in October.



It uses 60:1 copal gearmotors ran at 14.8v off of two LiPoly packs in series, and a micro reciever from The Robot Marketplace

The speed control is an Ant-100 from Barello.net

The chassis is a milled block of UHMW

The tires are from a local Slotcar Track

Beyond that, all you need is a transmitter(75mhz, normally) and it's ready to go.

Note: this was milled on a mill from harborfrieght, and all the dimensions were figured out on the spot, so it is a bit sloppy, but perfectly fine for it's purpose

[[527]phil]

Hmmm, i wish there was a robotics convention in NY. Robonexus is just too far away to go to.

[MikeJ675]

Bit of a follow up on my last post, here's the thing in action, but with one dead motor.

Angry Little Person drivetest