[chbot] What we did on Wed 18th Feb

[Richard Jones]

For those of you who were unable to make it here is a report of what we go
up to last Wednesday. Those who were there feel free to email me with any
corrections or missing details.

Wednesday 18th February 2009

The SumoBot session attracted a turn out of about 40 people and six robots.
The collection raised $47.40 for Science Alive that was much appreciated.
Next meeting will be Wednesday 15th April at 6.30pm in the Science Alive
Seminar Room. We hope to have demonstrations of the Robocup Junior
challenges (Dance, Rescue and Football) at 6.30pm and a talk from Charles
Manning about DIY design and construction of Sensors for the Lego NXT at
7.30pm.

Three Lego NXT robots came along brought by Yuito recently arrived from
Japan, my battle hardened robot Gnasher and Alexs robot that I don’t have
a name for yet. Yuito had a very neat reciprocating pusher and Alex has a
neat set of gears that pull any loose parts off unsuspecting robots and try
to haul them up off their wheels. Yuito’s dad Hiroto pointed out that my
robot was too large for the rules (I should check this out).  Each of the
robots did a fine job of searching the ring for opponents and pushing them
out of the ring. However Alex’s robot won through with an uncanny knack
for remaining firmly on the board while pushing opponents out. With a bit
of luck I’ll post the video soon.

Peter brought along three robots from the inex collection. See:
http://robokits.co.nz/Robo-STAMP-YouTube  Buggy Bonzai and Sumo Tank took
part in the Sumo against the NXT bots. This was an interesting match with
no clear winners as the NXT’s could not move the inex bots once they had
stalled. The third robot showed off the tabletop challenge wondering
randomly around the table and not falling off.

Andrew gave us further details about how the folks in Japan make robot
wheels by machining hubs and casting rubber tyres onto them. I’m sure
this technique has potential for the home workshop.

There appears to be plenty more to be discovered about Sumo technology and
challenge organization. If we run this event again we need more robots,
scales, measuring devices and a no go zone around the ring to prevent
spectators appearing to the robots as opponents!