Mechatronics Robot Competition

This last Thursday, the moment of truth, the robot competition that my team and I have been working towards for the past 8 months was finally here. It was definitely a stressful couple weeks leading up to the design day. The night before, we had to fix the motor, make our poster, build the "chariot" and make sure it finished the track. So, I got home about 3:00 am Thursday morning, but the robot was working, so I was happy. The day started out at about 9:00 when we had to set up everything and test the robots again. At 11:00, we went around to all the other teams and evaluated their posters and robots, 29 teams total. Then, at 1:00, the competition began. There were 3 rounds. In the first round, just 2 robots ran the track at one time. This was sort of a "qualifying" round. 16 bots with the best time were chosen to enter the next round. Our robot finished the track in 44 seconds, so we moved on the the next round easily, placing 4th out of the 16. It is sad to say, but most of the robots didn't even START! That would suck. So the 16 were chosen, and the next round began. This is were it got a lot harder. In this round, 4 teams ran the track at one time (total mayhem)!! We were in the first group of 4. We got up there, pretty confident that we could beat the other 3 teams. Here is a video of this race. Now, I warn you, I really got into this. You will see what I mean. And I do apologize in advance for taking the camera off my bot! Our robot is at the very top of the screen, in the outside lane. It has a giant bobble-head on it, so you can't really miss it. Check this out!

So, our robot ran into the other robot, pushed it's way through and stayed on the track. I was so impressed with our little guy, but sadly, that other robot crossed first. A lot of people said that was unfair, but honestly, it was fair. It was just really unlucky. Anyway, that bot that won that race went on to the "final four", where it had the lead going into to final turn, when all the sudden its motors stopped. A small bot slowly passed it, took the lead, and won the race. A definite heart breaker for that other team. Hope that all makes sense. The winning prize was $200 and you don't have to take the final. It was a very fun experience, and I am very happy with our robots performance, and also very happy it is over with!! Here are some pics of our poster and robot...