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 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: