ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Today's guest blog post is contributed by DamonMM2000 on his award-winning Sumo robot: "SumoStorm3r is a sumo robot built by DamonMM2000.   Just in case you have no idea just what these LEGO® "sumos" do, they participate in battles where the objective is to push the opponent out of a ring with the option to attack with given weapons or tools. So how does SumoStorm3r do it? Simple; keep reading to find out!   SumoStorm3r is very streamlined and well-armored. It is different from other SumoBots in that it has no weapons or offenses, just one defense: push the opponent out of the ring. The best thing about this extraordinary sumo bot is that only one LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 set was used!   SumoStorm3r has a unique sensor system. It uses both the EV3 Color Sensor + EV3 InfraRed Sensor. The Color Sensor is safely tucked behind a sturdy front bumper. The Color Sensor senses the black boundaries so that it can turn around safely.   SumoStorm3r drives with trea...

Today LEGOWORLD CPH opened and we are ready with a lot EV3 robots to show and play with. We have a location were you can try out the new 3D building, Programing, Controlling it over a smart phone, do an IR-remote fight, and watch EV3RSTORM dance on WIFI. See you tomorrow.

I've helped out occasionally at a school with LEGO robotics, and the teacher asked me today for instructions on how to make her own Sumo ring. After typing them up... I realized I don't think I'd ever put them out there "in the wild" so to speak, for others to use. So, here's a copy of the instructions for those who would like to make a reasonably cheap but professional-looking LEGO sumo ring... and if you make it out of melamine, maybe even a more interesting "test environment" as well. Share and enjoy. ===== > Do you happen to have a list of supplies needed? Nope... so let's make up a recipe and parts list on the spot :) A lot of people make a sumo ring out of plywood (often 1/4" or more) supported off the floor with 2x4's or something similar. That's really heavy, and really needs sanding to produce a smooth surface, and can warp when wet, needs a lot of paint, etc. So here's my version. Materials: • A 1/4" thick, 4x4 ...

Culturelab a new scientist webblog , real nice to read, not only the LEGO article. read more about the LEGO Sumo robot and NASA logo

Where do you get when you merge a bunch of hackers with LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT robots at the South by Southwest Music and Film Festival in Austin, Texas? Have a look :

Last weekend, the RobotChallenge 2010 took place in Vienna, allegedly Euope's largest robot challenge event, in connection with the Robot Sumo European Championship 2010. MCP Mike Brandl made European Champion in the category "Humanoid Robot Sumo" with a NXT Robot called Evil Bill (while Bill's brother Evil Ted made Third): Two more NXT robots by Mike made Second and Fourth in the Humanoid Robot Sprint challenge. Hail Mike, European Humanoid Robot Sumo King! Have a look at his elaborate web site on the event - in German, though, but there are a lot of pictures and movies.

Mindsensors.com is working on two new devices for the NXT. NXTHotShoe "NXTHotShoe will allow you to trigger two cameras and/or flashguns from your NXT and you will be able to control the trigger time of each of them individually, with one millisecond granularity." Obstacle detector "This rugged design with ample mounting points is specifically made for NXT Sumo Wrestlers. This sensor will provide information about presence of obstacles directly in front or front-right or front-left." Read more here .

It has been quite a week - first with the HALE launch and then with another Sumo training session. This time I had 19 kids ( rising 6-8 grade beginners with no NXT experience ). They picked up the NXT building, programming, and LDD design pretty quickly and were able to build bots ready for today's match in the Sumo ring. In addition, all the teams were able to promote themselves and their creations on team web pages which you can see if you scroll half way down the following link . This week's Sumo teams: (team-possible, Conquerers, Crossfire,Crazy-bot, Alt, Necate, Chovabub) Enjoy

Here are some highlights from one of my NXT camps that concluded last week. I had 5th - 8th graders with no prior experience with the NXT. We started off building the Tribot from the NXT Education kit and quickly moved to basic dead reckoning navigation. The students were then required to derive axle rotations from a measured driving distance. ( r = d / wheel circumference ) In addition, they were required to derive axle rotations from an expected vehicle turn angle. We then moved on to other forms of navigation using the light , touch and ultrasonic sensors. By the fourth day, the student were able to develop solutions for the Sumo challenge. On day five, the students documented their work with team web pages including programming and LDD screen shots and downloads. I've listed the team web pages below along with some video taken from the Sumo challenge and practice runs. Enjoy David Team Web Pages [ Desctructo-Bot ] [Dexter] [Kill Bo...

My son built two of Dave Parker's Sumo NXTs, found here . Two impressions: 1) The robots are as strong as tanks. 2) Dave's light calibration program works well--in eighteen sumo "battles", neither robot ever ran out of the ring by mistake. The robots were filmed at normal speed. (The gray tint of the video is because of a darkened room, to avoid ambient light interfering with the light sensors). Ten points if anyone can guess the title of the video's bombastic soundtrack. :) Thanks, Dave!!

For the final project in the Advanced Robotics Club that I teach at our local middle school, I made up a challenge called SARB: Semi-Autonomous Robot Battle, which is an extension of Sumo-like challenges. Although we used RCX kits (because we have a bunch), it could just as easily be done with the NXT, so I will explain it here and reference several NXT projects on nxtprograms.com that you could use to get started with a challenge like this using the NXT. For the fighting ring, (er, ahem, "Playing Surface"), I used our FLL table, turned the mat upside down, and then used electrical tape to mark out an elongated octagon-shaped ring. Like Sumo, one of the goals is to push the other robot outside of the ring. However, the SARB robots can also have some kind of striking (motorized) weapon and get points for successful strikes on the other robot. Like a Karate match, only a "controlled strike" will count as a point. Random spinning/flailing weapons that happen to ...

I have received some questions about building and programming Sumo robots. I am not an expert on robot Sumo and have not entered any official competitions (perhaps others can comment and include relevant links for beginners), but I have led several simple Sumo-like activities in the Robotics Club that I teach at our school, and they are always popular and easy to build upon with further ideas (right now we are doing a sort of robotic Karate/Mixed Martial Arts challenge, perhaps I will blog on that later). Anyway, I have posted this simple NXT Mini Sumo Bot project to show how easy it can be to get started with something like this. For off-season FLL teams, it is easy to do a Sumo-like challenge by turning the FLL mat over and using black electrical tape to mark out an octagon-shaped ring. Give it a try and see what your kids come up with!

Last weekend, several of us got together to run the NXTlog Sumo contest. I'm pleased to say it went very well: from more than 100 entries we reviewed and selected until we had almost 30 that we felt were worth building, and then built them, downloaded the users programs, & ran them in a double-elimination event at Steve Hassenplug's house. The results were impressive - on the whole, the field of entries did far better than I had originally hoped, and there were a lot of exciting match-ups during the day. Well, NXTlog has announced the winners here in their special events section . I'll try to post more of my thoughts and details on this event here or on NXTlog over the next few days, but for now, take a look at the results on the NXTlog page, and if you entered this, (or even if you didn't), please let us know what you think. Congratulations to everybody who participated, & very heartfelt thanks to all who helped with the event in question - we had outstanding ...

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas yesterday and you found lots of MINDSTORMS and LEGO stuff under the Christmas tree. We had a fabulous Christmas day yesterday - We started the day with the kids opening their presents... and watching the kids playing with the roller skates they got for Christmas and other cool toys while we stuffed ourselves with food and wine. The highlight of the day was giving all the kids their own NXT for Christmas: I have had enough of having a single MINDSTORMS NXT in the house shared between four people - and decided it would increase the peace and harmony in the house if every child had their own NXT. So for Xmas each of our children got one NXT, four NXT sensors each, and a selection of motors - including TECHNIC & PF XL motors, PF standard motors, remotes and power supplies. To top it all, we decided to have a building competition , where everyone get an hour to dream up and build a machine (with or without the NXT) and fight each other. To make i...

Beginners Guide to NXT Sumo: Robot sumo is one of the fastest growing sports around. Now if you own a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT, you can join in as well. If you still don't feel the urge to get down to designing your own Sumo robot that is going to kick butt in the sumo ring against contestants all over the world, then this might help. This beginners Guide also has a video that walks you through getting your model ready for NXTLog in five simple steps. Beginers Sumo Guide on LEGO web site . If you checkout the five step video, you would notice a small clip of a Sumo robot in action with another robot. If you want to see the complete battle, check out this YouTube video: And you still have a few days left if you have not started your Sumo robot. Good luck!

If you intend on entering the NXT SUMO contest, you still have more than a week to go. How good is your sumo robot? One of the best thing you can do to see how well it will do in the ring, is to make a ring your self and see if your robot would last in the ring for five minutes with an inanimate object. Building a ring is relatively easy: Click here for full instructions: Tim

More information (including rules, judges, and a FAQ) on the Sumo Challenge can now be found on the official LEGO MINDSTORMS webpage . This is looking to be one of the biggest events to come around for NXT users of all ages. We want to hear from our readers - are you going to participate? Any strategy or special plans you care to share? Going it alone or maybe with a friend? Let us know...

Beside building Bulldozer-based sumo robots, the "Robotics Posse" also built a few other sumo robots during our sumo event, starting with a speed Tribot build-off. LEGO claims you can have a working robot in 30 minutes... so we tested that. The fastest Tribot build was Steve Hassenplug, with a time just a shade over 10 minutes... and everyone in this picture completed a working Tribot in 20 minutes or so. I'd say the LEGO claim is a fair one. In case you think this was stacked in favor of adult builders, the young man in the background is my son: Ben is 10 years old, and had never put the Tribot together before. Once we had five brand spankin' new Tribots, we immediately reprogrammed them for sumo, and did slight modifications to them, adding front attachments or modifying the back caster, but that was about it. "Semi-stock" Tribot sumo was actually a very good time - some had wicked-looking front weapons, some tried to flipped the opponent, and some active...

On the 3rd of November, a number of the MCP got together over at Steve Hassenplug's house for a little bit of a contest. Bryan Bonahoom, John Brost, Jay Kinzie, Steve Hassenplug, and myself all brought autonomous LEGO bulldozers. Take a stock #8275 Bulldozer, and have an NXT drive it using a Hitechnic IRLink. Equip it with edge detectors, US sensors to locate opponents, and perhaps a few special custom weapons, and let the LEGO pieces fall where they may. A good time was had by all, and Bulldozer sumo was a resounding success.. even if all of the matches didn't go exactly according to plan. Take a look at the highlights here on YouTube: -- Brian Davis