Smaller Cheaper Robots

[[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.