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
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:
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!
