Posts Tagged Robot Games

2009 Western Canadian Robot Games I

Posted by Roko in Mini Sumo v6, Robotics on May 5th, 2009

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The HC12 Motor Controller Board modified as a sumo controller

I spent the second half of last week scrambling to get my mini sumo robot, 1.21 Gw into a working condition for the robot games. I populated the circuit boards mentioned in an earlier post but as I grew low on time I decided to put those aside for this year. Instead of trying to teach myself a new architecture (LPC2138), I decided to concentrate on programming the robot using a board I was familiar with, my HC12 based motor controller design. (This was the prototype motor controller for my Quadruped walker, so I had some base code already written for it, which went a long way towards getting my sumo robot programmed in a little over a day)

May 2009 Weigh In

331 Grams!

I made the decision to forgo edge sensors for this competition, and instead chose to make the robot as aggressive as possible, the theory being that if I push the  opposing robot off the edge before my robot gets to the edge, I won’t need edge sensors. In the end, I managed to get a working robot, measuring 98mm wide by 97mm  long, and weighing in at only 331 grams!.After I finish the actual controller board I intend to use on this robot, I’ll have to make some weights to bring it closer to the 500 gram limit.

In the end, I placed first in the advanced mini sumo category, though I had some good competition! For more videos, check out the WCRS website. I will try to post my own pictures and videos when I get a chance.

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Upcoming 2009 IEEE Robot Games

Posted by Roko in Robotics on February 2nd, 2009

The 2009 IEEE/WCRG Robot games have been announced for May 9th, 2009. I used to be an avid participant, but first school and then work travel got in the way and as such I’ve only managed to make it out once in the past few year.

This year, I’m hoping to have a mini-sumo ready in time, one that I’ve been designing in the back of my head for several months (years?) now. I’ve had some tiny Maxon motors sitting around that I bought a year ago with the hopes of finding time to start this robot, and today took a break from the quadruped to finally start machining the wheels. I’ll try and post details later.

Anyways, if you can make it out to Calgary for May 9th, it’s definatley worth checking out the Robot Games. If you have spare time, make a robot to compete! It doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s more fun building a robot than winning…

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