Up Dates

Ok so this might end up being a very long post... my fault for never updating.

Anyways, we did build a 120 this year, but not exactly the way we expected. For most of the year we worked on a shell we found at the shop and stripped it of all its parts. We were going to re-purpose it weapon-wise by giving it a spinning eggbeater type weapon rather than a drum. Unfortunately we ran into financial issues and that led to time management issues because we lost time trying to find a good price on good metal. We ended up just buying the cheapest steel we could find but as things usually turn out for us we backed out of the competition, not having enough time to finish.

I mean, we would normally just build up to the last second, but we would also have to pay up 500 dollars if we didn't finish because of registration. Most of us weren't willing to risk it and tensions boiled. Several fights broke out but at least everything is all peachy keen now. But back to February.

So there are four days left until check in for the competition and we have no robot. Our teacher suddenly informs us that we need to finish up a hammer bot (sound familiar?) that our friends had been working on but couldn't finish. Although I'm not sure, I don't think we would have been penalized the 500 dollars for this robot if we didn't finish.

We got to work immediately, rewiring the entire robot. Two huge motors, another one that would spin a bar that would lift the hammer, and four lead batteries; the robot is old, I know that. Most of our money raised at our garage sale went towards Watson (named after the jeopardy robot). The last night we had to work on him we stayed until midnight and got everything to work... miraculously. We still had some issues. Because of weight issues we had to forgo two of the batteries, giving us very short running time. The hammer was extremely faulty and the bar kept slipping on the shaft, but we didn't care. It worked!

At competition we got both Watson and Kanye past inspection... it's possible the baked goods we brought with us might have helped... just kidding.

Kanye by the way received a steel bottom plate and an aluminum top. Much better than the plastic we'd originally been using. No zip ties either, we actually tapped the holes this time around to get the top on.

Competition didn't go too well unfortunately. Kanye's motors got stripped two minutes in... we've replaced them three times. I think it's safe to say we won't be buying those ever again. As for Watson, the batteries kept getting disconnected because of our carelessness. It was a bummer because our first match was against Fuffy del Large, our friends from Ransom's robot.

That thing is insane. A quick recap of the competition: this robot went undefeated to the finals where it competed against El Cholo, Ransom's other robot. Fluffy beat El Cholo and then had a match against Witch Doctor the first place winner of the professional league and WON! I'm proud to be their friend.

And back to the Mechanical Misfits (sorry I'm all over the place). We lost our first two matches in both divisions and one of our motors on Watson fell completely off the shaft. At least it's only up hill from here. Yes, I'm disappointed with our losses because we might have had a chance if only we'd been more responsible. There were a lot of things I should have done like check the connections and the motors but oh well. I have no regrets... or at least I know I shouldn't have any. I definitely have hope!

We got ourselves a mentor with the help of our baked goods and are already working on our robot for next year. We're beginning with solid works.

Oh, I almost forgot, we bought a team fish named the Littlest Misfit. I will upload photos when I can figure out how to.

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.

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.