Big Changes All Around

Ok so first off, at the Bot Pop competition at the local science museum Batbot recently outfitted with razorblades and sharp scrap metal won two out of four matches. In the competitions we had to pop ten balloons of our assigned color and pop the white balloon attached to the back of the opponent's robot. It was double elimination and although we lost, we aren't discouraged because the two matches we lost, were very close just a balloon difference.

Now onto the big change. We are no longer doing a 15 pound robot. We are going for the heavy metal... 120 pounds of pure amazingness. As of now we are keeping the design we had for the smaller robot and just modifying it for a larger one. Our first move however is to network and find sponsors in order to pay for our expenses in actually building this monstrous robot.

Thirdly, one of team members resigned and two more have been added making a total of 5 members on the Mechanical Misfit team. More might be on the way but that depends on how well one of our fellow teams holds togther.

Exciting News!

Well first off, Batbot is going to be competing in a small competition in a local museum. We do however have to modify him so that he can pop ballons since that is the competition.
In any case the real news is that our final design for this year's fifteen pound robot is decided. Hopefully you can bear with me and understand that the actual design must be kept top secret for now but just be asured that it is very exciting.

Youtube

So soon if not later my team is hoping to start putting up youtube videos documenting our progress this year. We will include time lapse videos of our designs and building of the robot. As well as videos of the competition once the time comes. I'll give more information once we get that in order.

Robotics Camp

So this past week was spent teaching kids robotics. At my school volunteers would come and be couselors and teach the campers how to build a trebuchet (a catapult that works using counter wieghts and gravity) and also a robot that pops baloons. On Friday there was a small competition against the robots and my camper won. I mean the robot was a beast; it had spikes and used pneumatics to bring an arm down that would pop every balloon in its way.

Additionally in the afternoons after camp, we would help this group of kids that are part of a program for low income students. Another member of my team took place in this but more invovled with the afternoon program. All in all it was a fun week and the students were all very nice so it was a good experience. Also, being able to teach other people engineering skills is really important.

Next Steps

Our goal is to compete in the 15 pound battle competition in 2010. This is just a glimpse of what the battle bots can do:




This is a saw pinned against a spinner robot.

The Trip

We arrived Monday, April 20th on my birthday in hot San Francisco, prepared for cold weather mind you; luckily it cooled down a couple days later. Anyhow, after signing in, doing some sightseeing and a couple intense card games we got down to business because the competition was soon to start.

Mare Island, an old abandoned naval base (the “Mythbusters” have held some of their experiments here), is where the competition took place. All around people were preparing, tweaking their bots here and there, and just buzzing with excitement. Camera crews were there to document the event which was to premier on a show somewhere around November. Although most of the coverage went to the 120 and 220 pound robots they definitely captured the spirit of the whole event. It was kids ranging from all ages exhibiting their skills in an exciting way.

Now, onto the actual competitions.

The task oriented completion in which our Bat Bot competed was not the most exciting of the events but the main idea was to show us the principle skills of robotics. The teams competed with driver controlling the robot with a remote, a coach who told the driver what to do and, a human player who could pick up and load ping pong balls onto the robot, and shoot any available balls into the basket at the last ten seconds of the match. I was the driver for my team, and let me tell you it is stressful because you might have a real top notch robot, but if you can’t drive it the robot is useless.

The crowd favorite seemed to be Rolie Polie Olie team because it was a really cute robot even though wasn’t the most effective one. It looked like an upside down metal bowl painted yellow with red arms that would essentially hug the ping pong balls and then bring them to the human players. If you’ve ever seen the cartoon from Playhouse Disney, let me tell you this robot was a splitting image.

Next comes the 15 pound battles. The main robots seen here are wedges, plows, drums, saws, and spinners. Wedges and plows work in the same way in that they have a piece of the robot that is flat to the ground that can get under other robots and flip them over. Drums and saws are attached weapons that spin at high velocity; they can move vertically or horizontally and create internal damage to robots as well as flipping them very high into the air in some cases with the vertical ones. Lastly, spinning robots are like metal spinning cakes with spikes and other accessories that spin at high speeds and send robots flying all over the place. Robots with hammers are not seen often because they are not very efficient.

The 120 and 220 pound matches were held in the same arena equipped with immense hammers on each corner that make deafening booms when they hit the ground. Also saws pop up at different of the arena floor and revolving saws lie on each side of the arena. These matches were the most watched and most fascinating and for good reason. The best match was a pink spinner against a wedge. The team Fuchsia Fusion, a senior team from my school, tore apart the wedge in two seconds flat. Boom! One panel flew off and hit the opposite wall. Boom! There went another. By the time the opposing team tapped out all that was left was the metal frame and the wires. It’s easy to say they were annihilated, and not to mention the team that was beat was a huge all guy team that lost to a three girl team.

The Results

We came in fourth place nationally in our division and came in second for documentation a seemingly small but huge part of the competition. We received an award that was made up of a broken saw piece and to my team seemed beautiful in all its grunginess. My school also placed first and second in my division and ranked highly in others. All in all, the reputation of my school was maintained and we had fun so the trip was a success as was the experience.

The BotsIQ Competition

What Bots IQ is
After the TV series “BattleBots” became a hit, the producers created Bots IQ. It focuses on teaching the youth of America important skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through a fun hands-on experience. The corporation targets students from middle school and onward. Students benefit immensely from this course by becoming critical thinkers and by being able to learn while having fun and creating something.

Bots IQ is separated into three main competitions, the first being the task oriented or table top competition. Here, students develop their skills and are forced to build a robot that can be maneuvered in a way where it can complete a mission. The second variation is the well known battle bots scenario where students build robots that are put the test of endurance, strength, and agility. Here, the creations of the students have compete in head to head combat with other robots to see which is the better design, build, and driver. The third completion type is the Grande Challenge IQ where robots are made to move through obstacles and other such challenges autonomously. Bots IQ is an innovated curriculum centered on teaching young people to be well rounded critical thinkers that are engineering savvy.

My Part in Bots IQ
My team, the Mechanical Misfits, took part in the Bots IQ national competition held on Mare Island in California. The competition included professional battle bots league, where robots weighed 220 pounds. High schools participated in the 120 pound battles as well as the 15 pound ones. The other competition held was the task oriented, also known as the table top, competition; we participated in this category.

Our task consisted of picking up ping pong balls and shooting them into a basket. It was staged in a round robin format with two teams competing at a time. Each team had its loading station where the human player could pick up balls that were in their square (loading station) and place them in the robot’s shooting or dumping mechanism. Our robot, Bat Bot, used a paint roller, a rubber band, and a motor to sweep in balls like a vacuum would. It also contained a dumper fashioned out of a metal plate that like a draw bridge would be lowered over the basket and drop the balls in, a point a piece. The teams also each had a different color—either red or white—and would only get points if your color ball was thrown in.

Meet Bat Bot:

How We Got Here

My team the Mechanical Misfits is a four girl team from our all girl school, Carrollton. Our school also happens to be very well known for doing well at competions and we are proud of it. We went from robotics naiveties to knowledgeable engineers. It began by taking classes that taught us the basics in tools, machinery, and design. We then moved onto developing our robot and designing it to complete the task of that year’s national competition. Then the building began.

We disassembled two power drills, attached them to some scooter wheels, and used them as the back motors that would steer the robot. We then added the metal pan that would hold the ping pong balls our robot would collect as well as the brush from a vacuum. After some wires were connected our robot was up and running but not before some problems presented themselves including a malfunctioning brush and slow drive.

Later, at a practice competition our brush was deemed useless when it broke off during a match but at least our dumping mechanism used to score points worked. We replaced our brush with a paint roller and were on our way to California for the nationals. Of course, to get there we first raised some money to pay for the hotel and rent-a-car. We held garage sales and went to companies and accomplished our goal. And sure enough none of that would be possible without the help of our biology teacher and the owner of the shop where we built Bat Bot—the name is a long story—as well as his wife who helped us with our sponsorship, organization, and communication problems.