Subject:
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Re: Alternative Mindstorm Robotwars
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 14 Jan 1999 20:21:44 GMT
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Original-From:
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Daniel Miller <danielmi@ecn.purdue.eduSTOPSPAMMERS>
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Viewed:
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1279 times
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In my misspent youth I saw a competition on PBS which was a robot
competition at (I think) MIT. The point of this particular contest was
not unlike Hungry Hungry Hippos, but with ping-pong balls.
The court was about 3' by 6', and it sloped toward the center so the balls
would tend to pool there. One bot got each side of the court, separated
by a black line which they could not cross by more than a few inches (to
retrieve balls that might be dead center or on the far side of the line).
The bots had to gather balls behind a rail at their end of the court.
The bot that had more balls when they ran out won.
Viable strategies were many. This was apparently before the MIT
fascination with LEGO, and each team got a different random assortment of
parts. One contender used a vacuum cleaner strategy to suck the balls in
one at a time and shoot them to its end of the court. Another
accomplished the same effect by throwing the balls between its wheels like
a dog throws dirt between his legs when he digs. (Bad dog!) There were
several rakes that would roll down to the pool, lower the rake, and roll
back to their end of the court to drop them off.
Here's another idea, a Purdue tradition: A Rube Goldberg competition. All
that's allowed is one RCX, three motors, and three sensors, but the
machine must have at least twenty distinct steps to do something so simple
you would never have even considered it before. For instance, put a coin
in a bank. It must be entirely LEGO (except, perhaps, for the objective).
Goldberg contests are somewhat difficult in that they must be judged,
because there are so many valid ways to meet the objectives. Time limits
should be in place for running and resetting the machine, and rules like
no fire, no live animals, etc. should be enforced. Extra complexity and
humor should be encouraged.
Daniel "Dan'l" Miller Senior, School of Aeronautics and
danielmi@ecn.purdue.edu Astronautics, Purdue, Indiana
"Stadtluft macht frei." - German proverb
--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Alternative Mindstorm Robotwars
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| Daniel Miller wrote in message ... (...) That was probably the MechE competition 2.670 or, now, 2.007... we got a bunch of random parts, and then had to machine them into a robot which is remote-controlled. The EECS students get a bunch of Lego and (...) (26 years ago, 14-Jan-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Alternative Mindstorm Robotwars
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| MIT has an autonomous robot competition (it is in fact being held later on this month). The goal of the competition varries from year to year, but it's usually "easter egg"ish. The competition is only open to students... It's really a (...) (26 years ago, 14-Jan-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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