Having watched robot wars as a kid to be told that the mini sumo robot must not destroy the other robot was a bit of a disappointment. We had great ideas for robots that would cut, throw flames and flip the other robots over…. Unfortunately we can only use the flipping parts of those ideas.
To begin researching what is feasible to do we looked towards the Irish Mini Sumo competition for post-primary pupils. Although this event has only been running for a few years the standard being produces is exceptional. I witnessed at last years competition robots that had sensors on all side, programs of immense complexity and unique and wonderful design.
These robots use the same Genie E18 motor board that we are using for our Sumo Robot.
The winner of previous years competition had a bulldozer type shield on the front of the robot and micro-switches on the sides to detect if it was being pushed from the side and in turn it could equally react. This is something we may use in our robot as it will help it ‘sense’ the other robots.
We then looked to the UK and America for University spec sumo robots.
There is an array of wheels, tracks, sloped walls, cages and wheel configurations all of which will be useful in helping us design our Sumo Robot.
lastrobotstanding 