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It has to be said (since I had one previous run-in with the legal department of the LEGO company, but that's neither here nor there), that this page is in no way affiliated with the LEGO Company (Canada or otherwise) and is not endorsed by the aforementioned company.
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| See the Official rtlToronto 10 homepage here |
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The Concept:
Relocate 8 blocks distributed randomly in a grid into an 'X' pattern.
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Here's my preliminary entry for the competition |
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The grid (shown right) is 4 cells by 4 cells. |
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The gripper mechanism that picks up the block is shown, somewhat overexposed. |
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The gripping mechanism, shown first hovering over the board, and second, in its up position. |
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| Here's a preliminary video of my 'bot moving some blocks around, approx. 40-50 seconds. My 'Bot Working |
This should be a worthy competition for there is mechanical difficulties to overcome, such as how to pick up a block from the playfield and place it elsewhere, as well as programming issues.
I had fun making the actual 'bot but am quite lost where the programming is concerned. That is why I called in the 'big guns' and am getting my programming friend, Rick, to take care of that bit.
Pictures from the Competition
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Here we see Rob checking the functionality of his 'bot. Rob came in first overall, and deservedly so. The 'bot was a mechanical and pneumatic wonder! |
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Rob and his dad--a great team of mechanical building and programming! |
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Chris is sitting behind his 'bot. His 'bot came in second place! His 'bot used 2 EOATS--one for scanning the board (an entire row at once even!) which then relayed that scanned information to the other EOAT, which did the pick 'n place.
Chris also had the most RCX's on a 'bot at the show--3!! |
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Bruce showed up halfway thru the competitoin to help Chris with his codeing, as well as run the scoring. He was a great help!
Another pic of Chris's 'bot. |
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Phil had an unfortunate accident whilst bringing his 'bot into the library--he missed a step and the 'bot went flying, smashing into pieces. He got the 'bot back together enought to come in third overall in the competition! Good job! |
| Fourth place went to Ka-On. For me, this 'bot had the most 'Wow!' EOAT out of all of the 'bots at the competition. Ka-On used a swivel/accordian/whatever gripper mechanism that was just fun to watch. |
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Then there's my Runamok 'bot, slightly modified from the original design. It came in fifth. |
| Calum's and Mario's 'bot had a neat shaking EOAT method to center the block in the cell. I always appreciate robots that can 'dance'! They came in sixth place. |
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Seventh place went to John, seen here thoroughly testing his 'bot. He was one of the few who used string (a la 'Etch-a-sketch') to position his EOAT. |
| Ivan and John had lots of people checking out their 'bots! |
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Trevyn's 'bot, which won the prize for containing the most Duplo in a 'bot! |
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Another look at the Duplo 'Bot |
| Ivan is joking with John, who was sitting next to him. Ivan's 'bot had a hopper that stored misplaced blocks until the EOAT was over a cell that needed a block--awesome! |
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Derek working on fixing some technical issues on his very big blue 'bot. |
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| Here's another pic of 'Big Blue'. |
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Matthias is explaining to a spectator how one of his 2 'bot entries picks up the rows of blocks and then places them down. Quite a unique concept! |
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Jeff is seeing how his 'bot is functioning after the trip to the library. Unfortunately, the gripper mechanism for Jeff's 'bot was not fully programmed, tho it looked great! Jeff helped with the scoring, along with Bruce and Iain. |
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Iain's demo Pick 'n Place Delta 'bot. By far the most industrial accurate 'bot there, but was a demo only--there was no EOAT to pick up blocks. |
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A pic down the length of the tables. You can see that there was a few spectators meandering thru the room, as well as the plethora of 'bots!
I have no idea who this 'bot belongs to! Silly forgetful me. It looks good, tho! |
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A good time was had by all! Thanks to Calum and Chris for organizing the event!
Questions or comments can be directed to me, David Koudys at dkoudys@mountaincable.net
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| See the Official rtlToronto 10 homepage here |
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