Sumo Wrestling Lego Robot

Our third project was to build a robot out of Legos that could push or manuever another robot of the same standards our of a sumo wrestling circle. Here are the requirements and restrictions:

1. The robots must fit within 8×8” square in the starting position, but may expand automatically to any size once the contest begins.

2. The height of the robot is unlimited.

3. The robots must weigh no more than 4.0 lb. You are not allowed to use anything other than the standard kit issued to you in terms of main components (Yellow RCX Lego Brick, 3 motors, 2 touch sensors, 2 light sensors, 1 rotational sensor). However, there are no restrictions in terms of small Lego pieces as long as they are components from Lego MindStorm set.

4. Gluing, taping, wrapping with rubber band, or similar fastening methods are strictly forbidden!

5. Autonomous robots must contain all the necessary intelligence within its structure. No interference may be provided from outside the ring. Robots may be turned on by hand at the beginning of the match, and then must be left to their own devices. No touching, adjusting, repairing, reorienting, etc. of the robots will be allowed once the start button is pressed.

Our first main goal was to develop a robot that could withstand a big hit. We figured that the programming would be the easy part and that constucting a stable robot would be the most difficult part. We were quite wrong. We began programming and it was much more difficult than expected. Finally we created a program that told the robot to go straight until it hit a black line and then go in reverse until it hit another black line. Then it would turn at an angle while going straight again. In doing this our robot would cover then entire circle.

After programming our robot to maneuver around the circle, we decided to develop somewhat of a weapon. We built the black rotating device in hopes it would remove someones wires or lock onto someone's robot and break some pieces off. In reality this last minute addition saved our robot from being defeated in early. It locked on to another robot and just spun in circles.

Here is our final robot which ended up finishing in the final four with 5 teams left.








In competiton, our robot mainly lacked power. We should have made our robot a little slower in order to add some torque and power which may have enabled us to push robots out of the circle a little easier.