Mmmm.... blockstacking. This was a really fun Lego robotics competition in the Toronto area. The challenge was to drive around and gather and stack blocks into towers while competing against another robot. We did the same competition twice, so I got to spend a lot of time on this robot. Usually a robot needs two motors to drive and steer, so with only one RCX, that leaves the third motor to do all of the gathering, stacking and deploying of the blocks. This was very challenging indeed. I can't say I did any better during the second round, but my mechanism was a whole lot better... Trouble is, I never leave enough time for programming. Oh well.
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Nice perspective shot. |
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The blocks were grabbed with a pair of ratcheting wheels. They could roll down over the sides of the block, but when the mechanism lifted, the wheels could not roll back, and the block was lifted. To release the tower, the wheels were spread apart. |
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Front view. In theory, this robot could stack 11 blocks. In practice, it never actually found that many blocks, nor could it deploy them due to a stupid programming glitch :( |
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Side view in action. If you look close, you can see the Lego resistor that I talk about in my ideas section. |
I learned a lot at my first two robotics competitions: Spend way more time programming and testing! I wish I could have another go at block stacking, but it likely won't happen.
Thanks to Calum Tsang, Dave Koudys, and Dave Schilling for the pictures.
See Dave Koudys' pictures of the first blockstacking competition here and his pictures of the second round here
