February Robot Sumo

In request for the robot sumo questions.

Typically we only have one class with a MAXIMUM size of 20 cm by 20 cm.  The boebots fit within this.  Since the chassis is somewhat smaller then this (about 12cm by 14cm) there is space for "customization"  Folks can attach wedges, flip ups etc to the boebot chassis. 

The vex bots square bot is too big for this competition.  I have seen folks get really creative and make two wheel compact vex bots with a caster that will work.   

The complete rules for the competition are at:

http://profmason.com/?p=374

There are a couple of pictures of the robots in the minutes from last February.

http://www.rssc.org/meetings/minutes0208.pdf

Here are some pictures of one of the sumo bots I built:

http://profmason.com/?p=320

As you can see the boebots are NOT outclassed in the category!  Have fun!

mmason

 

In the Sumo competition, what are the classes you will use? Will a 4" cube Parallax Sumo compete with the larger size? Will the VEX squarebot compete with the 20cm square sumo's?

My Robots

Robots:

Welcome to the RSSC blog

Hello everyone,

This is the RSSC blog, a place for folks to post projects that include HOW TOs, tutorials, writeups and other information about robotics projects from different people in the club. 

For instance by clicking on the Add Image button on the toolbar, I can add a picture of my semi leaf platform. 

Based on Alex's demonstration of Rocky today, I realized that I have been making the RC mode FAR TO DIFFICULT!  I have been loading the control board up with decoding traditional RC gear, when I could have just gone through windows using a wireless controller! DOH!!!!!  Even though it isn't broke, I will still fix it.  Alex talked about the cordless logitech rumble pad as a robot controller.  I can link to this item by selecting some text the link button and pasting in the link.    Here is a link to microsofts instructions on reading the joystick using the directX api.

Finally, If I were to do it the easy way,  I would use the pygame library and the following code:

import pygame  #from pygame import joycontroller, event

pygame.init()  #Initialize the pygame callbacks and engine

controller = pygame.joystick.Joystick(0)  #Attach controller to the first joycontroller in the system

controller.init() #Initialize the controller

print 'Initialized Joystick : %s' % controller.get_name()

try:  #Start a loop

    while True:

        pygame.event.pump()  #Get events from the controller

        for i in range(0, controller.get_numaxes()): 

            if controller.get_axis(i) < -0.1 or controller.get_axis(i) > 0.1: #If the controller is not in the center print where 

                print 'Axis %i reads %.2f' % (i, controller.get_axis(i))

        for i in range(0, controller.get_numbuttons()): #Display any buttons that are pressed

            if controller.get_button(i) != 0:

                print 'Button %i reads %i' % (i, controller.get_button(i))

except KeyboardInterrupt:  #If the initiallization failed

    controller.quit()  #Disconnect the controller

Now all that remains is to tie the joystick events to the PID controller that runs the bot.  I can use the same serial commands that already runs the bot!  

This post is also available at my website :www.profmason.com