The Mini Sumo Robot Competition is intended to be a safe, enjoyable learning experience for amateur robotics enthusiasts. There are typically two autonomous robots that fight head to head in an attempt to shove each other out of the playing field.

We are going to use the Rumble Robots as a standard base platform for this competition. The focus of this project intended to be more towards embedded software and sensors, rather than mechanical.

The Rumble Robots have a bar code reader in the head of the robot, as well as some sort of arm to swing at the enemy robot. Neither of these features are necesasary for the Mini Sumo competition, so these parts of the robot will be removed.

Meeting Schedule
The general flow of meetings leading up to the competition will be:

Formal meeting 1 Monday, February 17, 2003 Completed
Workshop 1 Tuesday, March 11, 2003 Completed
Formal meeting 2 Monday March 17, 2003 Completed
Workshop 2 Tuesday April 8, 2003 Completed
Formal meeting 3 Monday April 21, 2003 Completed
Workshop 3 Tuesday May 6, 2003 Completed
The Competition! Wednesday July 2, 2003 Completed

Formal Meeting 1 (Monday February 17, 2003)

  • describe common platform, rules, requirements
  • micro interfacing
  • what has already been learned / traced out about the PCB
  • motor drive (h-bridge, pwm)
  • ir emitters / detectors, etc.
  • hardware / mechanical construction & demos

    Workshop 1 (Tuesday, March 11, 2003)

  • assist with micro interfacing
  • assist with basic motor control

    Formal Meeting 2 (Monday, March 17, 2003)

  • sensory systems and data acquisition
  • motion detection
  • ir & ultrasonic ranging
  • perimeter / position detection

    Workshop 2 (Tuesday, April 8, 2003)

  • assist with getting basic sensory systems operational
  • detection of enemy
  • how to identify & ignore false enemy (spectator's legs)

    Formal Meeting 3 (Monday, April 21, 2003)

  • Intelligent software algorithms:
  • enemy tracking, position prediction
  • methods of variable speed control as a means to avoid being accurately tracked
  • stealthiness (visually, acoustically)

    Workshop 3 (Tuesday, May 6, 2003)

  • assist others with implementing software algorithms

    The Competition! (Wednesday, July 2, 2003)

    How the basic robot platform works

    The "How Stuff Works" website has a great tutorial on how the Rumble Robots platform actually works:

    http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/rumble-robot.htm

    Technical Information

    Rumble Robot Electrical Details, thanks Dr. Grover!

    Some notes that Rick Nemer has come up with regarding the PCB functions:

  • Page #1
  • Page #2
  • The motors are PWM now
  • The IR RX are 1mS and 2mS 8 bit data
  • We have the interface specs for the cpu on the bot

    Disassembly of the robot platform

    The Playing Field

    The arena is constructed of a plywood circle that is 4 feet in diameter. Along the outer circumference of the circle lies a 3 inch wide border, which is painted gloss white. This contrasts nicely with the flat black color of the rest of the playing arena. The high contrast and high reflective differential is intended to make it easier for the robots to be able to detect when they may be heading out of bounds.

    A picture of the playing arena.
    A close-up of the edge of the arena.
    A movie of a bot running around the arena.

    Powertrain Assessment

    Pushing a block of wood - no problem!
    Pushing a glass jar - the motors have enough power but the robot is too light.

    Construction progress

    A picture of one of the robots in the making.
    A movie of the bot doing a test pattern... BANG! Sensors not quite working yet!
    The Akron Digital Group Mini Sumo Robot Competition 2003