Solarbotics held a few workshops and lectures at the MAKEr faire April 22/23rd. After giving a workshop, a nice man from Microsoft invited me over to see their BEAM robots. Obviously intregued, I found their display at the Microsoft pavilion where Microsoft encouraged all their engineers with "MAKE"-style hobbies to exhibit, including this squad of […]
Back from PDXBot04
Dave Hrynkiw
June 8, 2004
Grant and I are back from Portland. Nice damp city, that one...reminds me of where I grew up in B.C.
We had a great time under the hospices of Monty Goodson and the rest of the PDXBot crew. We had a good time seeing cool new custom robots by Josh Triska (1st place Advanced Mini-Sumo with "Lo-Bot") and Daryl Sandberg ("Slik", who was out for StrongBad blood this year!). 2Strong2Bad was a bit outclassed this year by really, really fast robots, although it was still the only 4WD mini-sumo there.
We were a bit ambitious with the sheer number of robots we entered:
- 4 Mini-Sumo (2Strong2Bad, StrongBad, Sumovoracious, Ender's Wraith)
- 1 Micro-Sumo (Microvore)
- 2 Nano-Sumo (Princess Becky and BittyBad)
- 2 Walkers (Servocore and ScoutWalker2)
- 2 Line Followers (Herbie and Atmel Sumovore)
- A Family (8?) of Herbies for the Robot Talent Show
How'd we do?
- 1st and 2nd in Nano
- 2nd in Mini-Sumo (Grant's own "Ender's Wraith" - Yaaaay Grant!)
- 3rd in Robot Talent Show
- An unnofficial 2nd in Beginner Line Follower (we just demo'd a Line Follower Herbie)
- 3rd in Micro-Sumo (Grrr...We'll get you Mouse-Trap!)
- 3rd in the Walker Race
Not only that, but Sumovores placed 1st (Kris Miles) and 3rd (Leif Bowlin) in Amateur Mini-Sumo!
In other news, the Calgary Flames fought the honourable fight, but Cinderella was finally handed back her broom by Tampa Bay. Nice work guys! Not many teams can go from last place to almost first place in one season!
MORE POSTS
MIT's Rod Brooks papers
Just a quick addition for now - there was a link submitted from the BEAM mailing list regarding Rod Brooks' papers at MIT. Some very worthwhile reading for those long, summer afternoons in the shade... Read More...
New GM11-14 mounting screws
BOY those are strange little screws on the face of the GM11-14 series of gear motors! 1.7mm diameter x 0.35mm thread pitch ain't a common bolt, but we found some 4mm long that we've made available for those of you looking for a precision method of mounting the motors. Check out part M1.7x0.35!
Yumpin' Yimminy - No SolarSpeeders?!?
Due to the unusual circumstance of several large volume orders coming through, SolarSpeeders are sold out! Our apologies - we're working on getting more together ASAP. Hopefully by the end of July.
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Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.