Subject:
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Re: the BEST two days of my life.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
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Date:
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Sun, 14 Sep 2003 17:40:48 GMT
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Viewed:
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465 times
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In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Chris Magno wrote:
> Sure, the day I got married was neat.....
> Watching the Birth of my daughter was way cool....
I hope Kate never reads rtl...
> BUT Between Fridays NG posts and all the other surprise(s) of
> today...... I just have to say that this day will go down in infamy.
> not only did I achieve a personal victory condition, BUT that Punk Kid
> (tm) showed up along with a few dozen of his friends.
I thought you wanted to beat Wayne:
http://news.lugnet.com/org/ca/rtltoronto/?n=8934
I realize you tied with him, but for that to happen the scoring system must have
been seriously flawed. Its just not right for your robot that has a success rate
of 1 BRICK PER DAY to have equal standing as Wayne fabulous "factory on wheels".
> Well, it looks like its been many hours since the end of R14 (the rice
> game) and I've waited long enough for others to post results. Clearly I
> have silenced the group. So I'll talk about the GREAT day.
It was a good day. I had fun because my robot worked. And I loved seeing the
other concepts people had. Heck, I even offered a few compliments to Chris. I
think the counter rotating tread design had potential. And I liked the shoulder
design using turntables. Chris objected when I asked who he copied it from ;)
====8<----
(snip all the Bruce bashing...)
> for the record, bruce has now NOT even entered a
> robot for our two hardest games (project X, and Rice Picker)
I agree that these were the two hardest games we have done. I think building the
rice robot was mechanically the most difficult thing I have ever done with Lego.
> So Punk Kid(tm) turns to bruce, asks about ~MY~ old robot, and (this is
> the part I still cant understand) claims to tell the kid that HE made
> it, and look how it climbs up stuff. (its original purpose) the kids
> actually LIKE the robot, and run off to play with it.
Congratulations, you have redeemed yourself. No more "hey mister, your robot
sucks", but now its "hey mister, your robot's cool!"
> the kids LOVED it. this is where the day got really good. that Punk
> Kid, and several of his friends say this, and I QUOTE
>
> "hey mister, we want to be on YOUR team!!"
>
> just to make sure every blue shirted RTLer in the room heard, the kids
> said it a few more times.
It was really funny. Chris MADE them repeat everything nice they said about the
robot or him just so we all could hear.
> on to the game.
>
> we had 5 official entries.
> Rob brought a fantastic articulated arm with a scoop. if anyone from
> John Deer or CAT need a nice guy to automate your back hoe, Rob's your
> man. this thing was just nice to watch. it was efficient, scrapped the
> top well, and he won ALL or most(?) of his match's. Rob came in
> First. he had an on board sorter that as a final insult would "plop"
> bad bricks onto the opponents side, and graciously back away as a final
> taunt.
I should clarify: I collaborated with a friend of mine, Michael Purvis. I met
him while working at the Children's Technology Workshop in the summer. (for
those that don't know, its a camp where kids build Lego robots and stuff). When
we discussed working on this robot together, we split it up into two parts: the
arm and the base. I built the synchro base with the sorter, and Michael built
the arm. I made a few modifications to the gearing and the rake, but it is
essentially all his design (and a very good one I might add). Michael also did
all of the programming for the arm. So he deserves a good chunk of the credit
here.
> Wayne, was the second person to show up in the morning, and helped me
> hump that stupid heavy 2 sheets of ply playfield down a flight and a
> half of stairs. then he dropped off his robot. it was this HUGE beast
> of fear. if it was made by lego and had a hole or stud, I think Wayne
> had it on his bot. like rob, Wayne had an arm that would scoop up
> bricks, but waynes secret weapon was this "vibrator" attached to the end
> of the arm that would allow the scoop to jiggle into the rice.It was
> just the nicest thing to see. his on board sorter was.... well, all I
> remember was this flat surface that was a solid grey ~thing~ that had on
> the bottom of it the neatest rube goldberg sorting mechanism. I think
> it was Rob who said it was powered by a polarity switch that Wayne
> constantly rotated to get a back and forth washing machine motion.
> Wayne (and I) tied for second.
Wayne's robot was amazing. I thought the strategy of approaching the box from
the side was very clever. It meant the robot didn't have to steer at all. The
arm was quick and well designed with a combination of motorized and pneumatic
control. Anyone who uses pneumatics gets extra points in my book. Unfortunately
the turntable was a weak link and it popped apart a couple times during
collisions with other robots. But, the vibrator to help the digging was just
brilliant. As was the hopper. I was surprised more people didn't build hoppers,
but I guess the awkward shape of the bricks made it very difficult to prevent
jams. I know I had a REALLY tough time with that.
> ME. I had a very simple design. I took 2 separately powered counter
> rotating treads and placed then side by each, vertically. as they
> counter rotated, it would "suck" itself into the rice, and over the
> course of the day managed to pull up a brick. (once in actual game,
> and twice in practice runs)
> a light sensor at the "top" would detect the brick, and choose to
> process it, or dump it back into the pit. this was placed on a long
> arm, and pivoted with 2 turntables (one on either side). this arm was
> placed on a simple base with treads. all powered with 2 RCXen.
Quite a dismal success rate, but I think the design had potential.
> Ka-On. had this robot that is beyond description. the only way to
> describe it would be to have you picture a four petal flower that has
> all petals close to the centre at the same time. inside this EOAT he
> placed a light sensor for in pit processing. I'm sorry Ka-On, but I
> never manage to spend enough time learning about your robots.
Yes, his claw was very much like a flower. It sure was neat to watch. And Ka-On
had a linear joint to extend his arm which was very smooth. He also had a nifty
base with two sets of wheels at 90 degrees to eachother. Much like what Ivan
built for the capture the flag game.
> Greg. Dear sweet, simple Greg.
> Even though Greg's pay check has a lego logo in the corner, (sometimes.)
> greg did not follow all the rules. never the less his robot was more
> substantial than anything Iain, Calum, John, Ivan or Jeff brought so we
> were more than willing to let him play in the rice. he had a 6" high
> platform that delivered a double wide tread "base" into the pit, where
> like the mars pathfinder robot, would extend a row of spikes into the
> rice, and lift them back up.
I think attempting to drive in the rice was a very difficult prospect.
> 1. I built a robot. Bruce did not.
In Bruce's defence, I think his concept had WAY more potential than your
"finished" robot. I think building a gantry to straddle the entire box would
have given him excellent coverage, and I'm sure he could have easily managed to
extract more than one block over the course of a day.
Yes, it was a fun day.
Rob
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 | | the BEST two days of my life.
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| (LONG) Sure, the day I got married was neat..... Watching the Birth of my daughter was way cool.... BUT Between Fridays NG posts and all the other surprise(s) of today...... I just have to say that this day will go down in infamy. not only did I (...) (21 years ago, 14-Sep-03, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
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