Lynxmotion Tech Support

I guess I will start this one off.

Mini sumo is a great contest for people to get started in, but the 3 kg sumo event is the most exciting.

My wife's Viper kit has placed in the top 3 positions at the Seattle Robotics Society Robothon and the Portland Area Robotics Society PDXBot event for the last 2 years. This robot is underweight by over 600 grams, and still kicks bot. It is a great design, and very effective.

My champion sumo is an all aluminum body, but uses the wheels and gear motors from Lynxmotion, and has failed to finish in 1st place for the first time in 3 years (7 different large scale sumo events). Lost to my wife's Viper at the Robothon this year. This robot is also about 600 grams under weight.

This robot even scored the only victory against the Japanese when they came to the U.S. 2 years ago.

I even have a 3 kg sumo made out of Sintra that weighs 1800 grams that wins many of its contests.

People think that 3 kg sumo robots need to have expensive motors and high powered motor controllers.

The reality of this is that this is totally false. These robots are using the cheap gear motors, and doing a great job. Motor controller? relays. Just simple 5 VDC relays. Sensors? the regular Sharp reflective sensors.

I would have to say the key to winning is a robot that works. Weight, speed, and power is all highly overrated. Robots that stay in the ring, doesn't have microcontroller reset problems, stays together, and on occation sees it opponents, usually wins the tournament.

These guys are relatively ease to build, and a lot of fun to compete with. The crowds that watch them prefer them over all of the other contests.

I hope to see you at some tournament soon.

Pete

Got any pictures of your champions?

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Mike

The robotics nut.

Yep, love to see the pics. BTW, Pete, where in WA are you guys located?
M

Can you tell me a place or website that I can get the parts (really any robotic parts).

First stop would be www.lynxmotion.com but I'm not sure if they have kits for all sumo classes - haven't done much with sumo myself but it sounds like Pete might have some real-world experience with it.
M

Yes, the Lynxmotion website is pretty much a one stop shopping place.

I get most of my parts there.

The Viper kit is a good sumo kit. All you have to do is add your own choice of microcontrollers, sensors, and motor controller.

I like using relays to make h-bridges in sumo since variable speed really isn't used because everything is so fast, and you need all the power you can get.

If you are running at 1/2 speed when you hit the other robot, you will only have half the available torque to the wheels. Unless you are using a closed loop speed controller to ensure maximum power, going at any speed below full speed is only to your disadvantage. Thus all you are doing is switching the motors on and off and which direction they are moving.

Besides, relays are very easy to implement, and control.

Pete

Pete, you've got yourself a deal.
You supply the money, and I'll build a killer sumo bot.

(By the way, I'm not saying that sumo bots are expensive. Compared to the biped that I'm building, they're quite cheap. But, when one spends all of one's money on bipeds, and then some... well, sumo starts to seem quite expensive.)

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Disclaimer: The above person does not claim to have knowledge pertaining to the following subject: anything. Thus, said person may not be held liable for any mishaps/explosions that his advice incurs.

Well yea. That's why you start with the easy and cheap and work up to the more complex and expensive.

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Hmm, what does this button do?

Lol, if I started with the easy and cheap, I would have no money for the expensive.
(I'm in college, so I don't have a job anymore. So, the money that I have is all that I will have for a long time.)

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Disclaimer: The above person does not claim to have knowledge pertaining to the following subject: anything. Thus, said person may not be held liable for any mishaps/explosions that his advice incurs.

Oh, at least you have the option of earning money. Do you know the torture of having to scrub toilets and mop floors for a measly 5$!! That's why I start with the cheap. If you start with cheap, you can add on until you make a robot that can read your mind and do the laundry.

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Hmm, what does this button do?

Make a robot to predict the stock market, then you will be rich.

Have you thought about writing articles for Servo Magazine (www.servomagazine.com)? They pay $100 per printed page. How much time does it take to write a 5 page article on your robot project? Then how many robot parts can you get for the $500 check you will get?

Which takes less work? Writing a 5 page article about your robotic creation or working 100 hours scrubbing toilets?

Pete

Pete, I think I love you!

I've never thought of writing an article...
And to think that I'd thought that my 4 years of Journalism and 8 years of Literature were a waste!

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Ahh! 100 hours of scrubbing toilets. The writing is a good idea. Thanks!

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Hmm, what does this button do?

I tried emailing the editor of the magazine, since none of the descriptions of the people to email to seemed to relate to submitted articles, but I haven't gotten a reply, yet.
Did I contact the right person, Pete?

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Disclaimer: The above person does not claim to have knowledge pertaining to the following subject: anything. Thus, said person may not be held liable for any mishaps/explosions that his advice incurs.

Try contacting the people at ROBOT magazine aswell. It was recently founded so they are probably eager to have more articles written by actual roboteers about their projects as opposed to getting PR people from robot companies to write their articles. They might pay slightly less though because it is a quarterly publication. Their website is:http://www.botmag.com/writers_guidelines_robot_magazine.shtml

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If you release the magic smoke, you need to rethink your design.