Society of Robots - Robot Forum
General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: Canabots on November 22, 2009, 08:45:28 PM
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Hey all,
I just wanted to share a robot with you guys.
It's name is Short n' Feisty, and it's a mini sumo I entered in the Canadian National Robot Games this weekend.
The initial goal of this robot was to make it less than 1.5 inches tall. That was a fail :P The final height was around 2-2.25 inches tall.
Here's a few specs:
2 GM20s
1 GP2D15
PIC16F684 as MCU
Solarbotics Compact Motor Driver
Aluminum Scoop and Cover
Sintra Base
And here's a couple pictures:
(http://canabots.webs.com/CNRG09/DSC_5955s.jpg)(http://canabots.webs.com/CNRG09/DSC_5965s.jpg)
The robot won 2nd Place in the Regular Mini Sumo Category. Now here's the story...
So I arrived in Toronto the night before the competition, and inspected the robot for any possible damage that my have occurred during the drive. Some sensor wires had snapped, but a quick solder job in the morning should fix it.
Well, that didn't work. I messed up the sensors, so I had to do without them.
So I started going back to the old tracking algorithm with 2 GP2D15s.
Well, that also failed. A pull-up resistor I was needing was missing...so I was now limited to one sensor.
I Then re wrote the code. That wasn't too hard, just a modification from the old algorithm, it worked.
Then the parts were hot glued together again. Time for competition.
At weigh-in my robot was only 230g. Less than half the max! My robot would be at a disadvantage, fortunately, someone from my robotics club had some spare lead fishing weights. I also had some AA batteries that I wrapped in electrical tape and jammed them inside the bot.
Yay! It now weighs 411g, perfect. :)
Competition time! I was eliminated first round. The power connector I used to turn on the robot was hard to access through the cover. So I had some false starts. :(
BUT. They called the competitors to a meeting. See, they needed to fill in the afternoon, SO, they were willing to regard the morning as a practice competition, and restart the whole thing. By then, I had cut an opening in the cover of my robot to access the power connect. Everyone was fine by the restart, especially me!
My robot went undefeated until the last round.
I would like to thank all who helped me with this project. I would have never been able to compete without all this assistance, on the forum and off it!
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*only* second place! No SoR member should do less than first! :P
hehe
Got video?
When I design my robot, I always ask myself "what can go wrong?" Shake your robot and see what breaks. Wiggle your wires and see what disconnects. Make sure all solder joints are good. If a wire can come loose, it will.
Still, it seems you pulled a last minute all nighter to save it, and did a great job!
I remember when I arrived at a robot competition and forgot the camera lens on my ERP . . . I finally managed to borrow one last minute from some guy 3 hours before the competition and got it working for the first time only an hour before the competition started. Not sure if I was lucky or unlucky . . .
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Good Lords of Heaven! Glad you did good Canabots! Congrats!
I didn't do good myself, but more on that on my own thread. Too bad I was busy working on my bot until one hour before the Fire Fighting competition on Sunday to get there on Saturday to see you. Maybe next time. Or at the Western Canadian Robotic Games perhaps?
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congrats canabots, another great, high acheving sumo bot to hit the forums. good job too.
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*only* second place! No SoR member should do less than first!
ROFL Next time...next time...and maybe not just in sumo, but others, like firefighting, Search and Rescue...
I did take some video, but it's not of best quality, I'll see what I can do...
Maybe next time. Or at the Western Canadian Robotic Games perhaps?
Yes, perhaps next time...as for Western Canadian Robot Games those are in Calgary? Hmmmm...might not be able to...but would extremely love to!
All in all, thanks for all guys. I`ll try to get some video up.
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What motor did you use?
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I used 2 GM20s from Solarbotics. The Wheels were the Solarbotics Rubber Wheel with the silicon tire upgrade.