Updates:
1-22-11 It has been over a year since any updates. I've finally finished converting all of the site over to Dreamweaver, so updates should be much easier, now. All of the videos have been re-edited and are a higher quality than before.
A RoboMagellan page has been added to detail that effort. It did win the Chibots Summer 2010 contest.
Also, a new page for FireBall is here. FireBall is a small, fast line following robot that was made on a CNC router. |
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 Do you have a lot of spare time and a desire to be overwhelmed by a simple robot project? Then, RoboMagellan is for you. After three years work, this robot does some amazing things while still failing to perform some very simple tasks. After three years, I feel that I am just getting started on this project. Will this one ever get finished? |
 I always thought that the ExSpurt chassis would make a great line follower. It is small, light, and has plenty of power and speed. Add in one Probotix FireBall V90 from Len Shelton in need of a project, and the FireBall is born. It is controlled by a Propeller with a very flexible PID routine. |
  After finishing Executioner, mini sumo was the only class that hadn't been invaded by a BrooksBots. So ExSpurt was hatched in a flurry of activity during November and December, 2006. ExSpurt won the mini sumo division of the 2007 NEIRG and 2007 Central Illinois Bot Brawl. Also included are separate pages on ExSpurt Tires and ExSpurt Strategy. |
 Using technology from Extrasensory, a new 3 Kg sumo was built. Executioner was designed for maximum speed and power using R/C car motors. Many initial bugs resulted in a third place finish at the CIRC 2006 event. A touch screen LCD was added for user input. |
  Work is continuing on Extrasensory...installing an optical mouse in a Sumo robot. Problems with the first chassis required a complete rebuild as detailed in Extrasensory II . In the revised configuration, Extrasensory won NEIRG 2006 adult light and CIRC 2006 1 Kg competitions. |
  Rich's wall following robot won the RI/SME and Ohio Tech Robotics non-tactile maze in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. The same chassis was modified for line following and became Expressway. Because Expy missed the finish stop on it's first run, it finished third at the 2005 NEIRG event. It went on to win the 2006 NEIRG line following. |
 After the February, 2004 NEIRG, Excuse was converted to a real heavyweight Sumo with much larger motors, more batteries, and revised control circuitry. The result was a robot with substantially improved performance. After winning the August, 2004, NEIRG, Excuse II was again modified with a kill switch and revised rear suspension. In this configuration, Excuse won the Heavyweight Autonomous Sumo class at the 2004 CIRC Competition, won the 2006 NEIRG adult heavyweight event, and took second at 2006 CIRC. |
 As a high school senior engineering design project, RIch built a 75 Pound Sumo. It is identical to Flaming P'nut only half the weight and twice the power. |
 The goal of Excuse was to replace Exhume with a new three pound robot that did not use servo motors/gear trains for drive. Lynxmotion motors were used, but the basic configuration and materials from Exhume were utilized. Excuse was also the first attempt to incorporate an optical mouse into a sumo robot. Although several pounds underweight, Excuse won the February, 2004 Adult Heavyweight Sumo NEIRG events. |
 When Sumo Robots became too serious, Rick created Expendable out of that original Sumo. Even though it was one third the weight of the competition, Expendable finished in third place out of 6 heavyweight Sumos in the August, 2003, NEIRG competition. Expendable was retired from competition after that event. |
 Rick’s original Sumo, Runt, was built during the summer of 2001. Runt’s extruded aluminum chassis proved too heavy and eventually crumbled on the drill press during the final weight reduction attempt. Runt’s parts were reassembled on a carbon fiber chassis and Exhume was born. Runt and Exhume have won seven consecutive the Adult Lightweight Sumo NEIRG events and the 2004 CIRC Competition Lightweight Autonomous Sumo class. Exhume's only non win was a second behind Extrasensory at the CIRC 2006 event. |
 For the Lego class, Brendan built Mighty Man. Mighty Man finished second in the August, 2002, NEIRG. Mighty Man went on to compete in the February and August, 2003, NEIRG. Mighty Man was dusted off for the CIRC 2006 competition were it ended up in second place. |
 Rich built Sticky after seeing the Lynxmotion Sumo robot kits. Sticky won the combined Heavyweight Sumo at the August, 2002, and the High School Heavyweight Sumo at the February, 2003, NEIRG. Sticky then finished second in the Open Heavyweight August, 2003, NEIRG, and second in the High School Heavyweight at the February, 2004, NEIRG. With a stand-in operator, Sticky took third in the Open Heavyweight Sumo at the August, 2004, NEIRG. |
 The Indiana Tech Explorer Post had a very successful RI/SME Sumo program that was changing format. During 2002 Rick and Rich helped with the IR sensors, Parallax BS2SX control, and H bridge motor drives. The Sumo was called the Flaming P’nut. The Flaming P'nut smoked a motor control in the 2002 RI/SME competition. With new motor drivers Flaming P'nut won the 2003 RI/SME and the 2004 Ohio Tech Robotics and Technology Invitational event. |
 Early Sumo matches showed the need for a reliable, repeatable method of measuring “push”. The Exert-O’Meter was developed to meet this need. More details yet to come. |
