On the 2nd of July, 2005, Jeremy, Micaiah, Zachariah, and I, along with the two neighbor boys Michael and Travis, went to the Summer Fair robot competation hosted by the PennBots club. Ariel let me borrow her camera, and it seems I have a bit to learn about it too.

Our specific interest was to enter the autonomous Maze solving and Mine Field clearing competations. These were demonstrations events sandwiched between the remote-controlled robot battles (click here to watch an interesting bout with a pair of Fairyweights, or click here to see all of the photos and videos taken at the Summer Fair).

Zachary and Micah each built the chassis of their robot from the Merkur kit they received earlier in the spring at the Science Festival. Together, we added a computer controller board (a Parallax Basic Stamp 2) and additional mechanics to propel the chassis. The boys outlined, with guidence from yours truly, how their robot was to respond. It was then left to my responsibility to make that response happen.

Zachary's robot is shown here, all six sides of it, as well as the Mine Field and some Mines--click a photo to see a more detailed version or to play the video. It had no sensors, instead we elected to have it simply attempt to trace a predefined pattern in the mine field. We anticipated that the robot's path would be disturbed by the mines and craters, but we were surprised at how little traction we had on the styrofoam surface--in the basement lab, we were able to get pretty adequate coverage of a 4'x4' area. Another design flaw seemed to be the front roller would sometimes pass over a mousetrap without tripping it--allowing each wheel to have it's own independant suspenson might be a good solution.

Important Components (click to see more information)
Basic Stamp 2	Basic Stamp Homework Board	Program Logic	Merkur Construction Sets	Competition Rules + 12"x12"x12" & 2-pound limits

Front	Right-Side	Rear
Left-Side	Top	Bottom
Mine Field	Mousetrap Mines	Preparing for Contest
Video 1	Video 2	Video 3

Micah's robot is shown next, again all six sides, as well as the Maze. We fitted Michah's robot with a IR Distance sensor, two different sonar sensors, and a H-bridge motor controller. In the lab, we were getting some promising results, but at the competition, it was a different story. Due to the 2.5" height of the maze walls, it is difficult to get the sensors low enough to see the wall, but aimed so that there is minimal ground reflection. I think that the problems seen in the video are an indication that the front-facing sensor was seeing the floor.

Important Components (click to see more information)
Basic Stamp 2	Basic Stamp Activity Board	Program Logic	Ping))) Sonar Sensor	Ping))) Distance Sensing
Daventech SRF04 Sonar	SRF04 App Note	Sharp GP2D02 Datasheet	HVW Tech GP2D02 AppNote	Kuehnel GP2D02 AppNote
HVW Tech L298 Motor Controller	L298 Datasheet	Tamiya 70097 Twin-Motor Gearbox
Wall Following Algorithm	Wall Following Software Suggestions	Wall Follower Test Maze	Merkur Construction Sets	Competition Rules

Front	Right-Side	Rear
Left-Side	Top	Bottom
The Maze	The Maze	Mr. Whiskers (the competation)
Video 1	Video 2	Video 3

Oh, by the way, Jeremy entered the RoboMaid ball as his entry. It remains a humbling experience to have that little thing, acting essentally at random, continue to out-perform my best efforts at sensor configuration and behavior programming. I figure that when we can consistently beat the RoboMaid ball, then we'll be ready for serious competation from other robot builders. Here are videos of the ball in competation, followed by a few photos of Jeremy.

Video 1	Video 2	Video 3
		Inspecting another 'bot

At this point, the interest in autonomous robots is not yet strong enough at the PennBots' events to warrent prizes. The autonomous events are, at this time, really more of a demonstration event, sort like a side-show. None-the-less, there was a certificate given.

Hugs & Kisses from your Son and Grandsons (and brother, nephews, and/or cousins),