SMART Mini Challenges - Complete List
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Current Challenge
See Next Meeting link for this month’s mini-challenge
Mini-challenges are the focus of SMART meetings. They are usually
simple little problems for you to build a robot to solve. We keep the
descriptions short so that you can build whatever you want to satisfy
the challenge. The idea is to challenge yourself. If you’re an expert
builder, make the challenge as difficult as you like. And if you’re
just a beginner, building a robot that does even a small part of the
challenge may be difficult and a learning opportunity for you.
Mini-challenges are the motivation for you to continue building robots
month after month. They give you a chance to learn by building a robot.
Even building something that doesn’t work is a great learning experience.
And at the meeting you will have a chance to learn from others. Bring
whatever you built. If it didn’t work, you will get lots of help from
people at the meeting. And if it does work, it will teach others how
to build and program their robots.
Have fun building robots!
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Challenges up for vote
Inverted Pendulum
Balance a 1-meter long yardstick above you. You’re not allowed to hold onto it tightly. To simplify this, we’ve built a base holding the yard stick that only allows it to swing forwards and backwards (no side-to-side motion).
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | November 17, 2001
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Cat Herding
A level, enclosed space has a hundred ping pong balls placed in it. In the center of this space a 2’ diameter circle is drawn. Build a robot that herds all the balls onto the circle. Extra points: Stop when you know you’re done.
As submitted:
Sheep herding:
Within a confined space a number of lighted bumble balls (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/discounttoys/ej34693.html) are set loose for a bot to herd in to a pen within a certain amount of time.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Wagon push
Push a standard wagon six feet across the finish line. The wagon will have four wheels, the two nearest you are steerable, the further two fixed. The wagon will connect to your robot by a downward pointing axle, four bricks off the floor, and three studs long. The standard wagon will be twelve studs wide, and thirty-two long.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
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Good Mini Challenges
A good mini challenge should be one that is:
- something that can be stated succinctly
- something that can be done by kids or those with little experience
- something that can be challenging if you want to do a really good job
- something that requires a bit of hardware ingenuity, as well as requires programming to do
Future Challenges
Tag
Play tag with two other robots. Make sure your RCX is mounted vertically, with the IR sensor on top, and in the clear. When you are ‘it’, you must broadcast message 31 once every five seconds, and try to touch another robot. When you are not ‘it’, avoid the robot that is ‘it’. The three robots will be in an enclosed area. You need to program your robot in such a way that it can be told at the beginning whether it is robot #1, 2 or 3. An unbiased human will judge the game, and use a remote to send messages 1, 2 and 3 indicating which robot is currently ‘it’. A game runs for three minutes.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
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Steerable multi-legged walker
Build a steerable four or six-legged walker. Walk forward four feet, turn left or right 90 degrees and walk another two feet.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
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The page /org/us/smart/~48/ideas/challenge-026 is included twice. See above.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
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Batter Up!
A ping pong ball is dropped from 1 meter high, and a light turned on at the same moment. Your robot is to swing at the ball, hitting it as far as possible.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | November 17, 2001
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The page /org/us/smart/~48/ideas/challenge-031 is included twice. See above.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | November 17, 2001
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Half Pipe
Climb or ‘swing’ yourself out of a half pipe. The walls will be perfectly vertical at the tops, so you’ll have to figure out a way to get past that.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | November 17, 2001
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Four Corner Escape
A team exercise: Four robots are placed in a 2x2 cell consisting of tape. Each cell is 2-feet by 2-feet. Only one of these has an exit. The robot in the cell with the exit must signal the other robots letting them know where to exit, and only after the other three robots have left the cell, may it leave itself.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | November 17, 2001
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Line Tracking with Line Breaks
Track a line with occasional breaks in it. The breaks will have a reasonable maximum distance, and the continuation of the line will be in a straight line from where the last segment left off.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 27, 2002
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Time-Accurate Line Tracking
Track a line with the goal of finishing in as close to a given time span as possible.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 27, 2002
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Tug of War
Pull your opponent across the center-line using a 1/4” solid braid nylon rope that is initially placed on the table next to your robot. Robots have 20 seconds to pick up the rope before they may start pulling, and 40 seconds for the tugging part of the competition. There will be a weight and height limit.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | May 6, 2003
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Web Crawler
Build a robot that find the center of a web of ropes. Various portions of three concentric ‘rings’ of ropes are connected with inward strands. A light bulb is placed at the center. Your robot starts at the outside ring and must work its way to the center of the web.
As submitted:
Web Crawler: (chasm crossing with multiple ropes)
Design and build a robot to navigate a simple web constructed of nylon rope (or other appropriate material). The goal being to start on one side of the web and successfully traverse a series of interconnecting lines to reach an intended goal. With the knowledge that none of the lines provides a direct route between the start and finish. The layout envisioned as follows: a simple ladder web set parallel to the floor. The thought process leading to the proposal is that can a LEGO robot hang from the rope, navigate the lines, be able to change direction and seek out a light source as the finishing point.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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The Pit and the Pendulum
This one’s difficult
As submitted:
The Pit and the Pendulum: (stair climber)
A robot has to extricate itself from a pit of stairs. A pit is constructed of differing heights of steps and the LEGO robot is placed in the bottom, the robot can choose any path that the programmer sees fit and attempts to navigate the steps to reach the top within a predetermined time period (the Pendulum). While some steps are easily navigable there are other at various levels that will be quite high and thus out of reach, forcing the bot to find a better route. The steps can be colour coded (coloured electrical tape?) that would allow the bot to either test the height of each step or check the color for a known predetermined height and decide from there. The robot must be able to negotiate a variety of vertical and horizontal distances and can move around the landing to find the quickest route to the top. This is simply a variation on the stair climbing challenge, with stairs on all four sides with the challenge being can a robot be built that can accommodate the varying distances.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Ball Hog
A hundred ping pong balls are placed in a level 6’x6’ enclosed area. A 2’x2’ square in two opposite corners are marked. Build a robot that collects as many of the balls into your corner within a minute as possible.
As submitted:
Ball hog: (search and gather)
Two (or more) robots are let loose in a confined space containing a sea of ping pong balls, the robots collect as many balls as possible and return them to a base station to be counted, the robot that collects the most wins.
Variation: Within the sea of ping pong balls there are a few that are coloured red, if a bot picks up a red one and returns it to its base station, it counts against the total.
Variation: Again in the sea of white ping pong balls there are a few red coloured balls, but this time only the red balls are worth points, other colours can be added and be worth varying amounts once returned to the base station.
(credit goes to MIT robotic challenge)
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Log Rolling
A three foot long, 6” to 12” diameter cylinder is mounted on bearings. Two robots are placed on the ‘log’, the last to remain on, without touching the other robot, wins.
As submitted:
Lumber Jack: (log roller)
Two bots are placed on a freely rotating log (tube or bar), bots compete to balance themselves, and unbalance an opponent, without physically encountering the opponent.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Follow the Leader
I don’t know how this can be done with an RCX
As submitted:
Follow the Leader:
Two robots, one is the leader and is programmed to randomly move about a confined space while the second must follow as closely as possible without touching the first.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Pac Man
This one’s difficult
As submitted:
Pac man (maze)
a bot navigates a maze picking up colored bricks, (blue), when a strategically placed yellow brick is picked up the first bot signals to a second bot to start, the second bot tries to tag the first bot before it leaves the maze.
Variation: Signal can release more than one chaser bot to increase the difficulty.
Variation: Remove the blue bricks and sparsely place only yellow bricks and the first bot tries to gather as many yellow bricks as possible before being tagged by the second
Note: the second bot can be set to hunt for a predetermined time limit then sits idle until receiving the “go” signal again.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Walking Tug of War
Build a walking robot that can pull its opponent across the centerline using a 1/4” solid braid nylon rope.
As submitted:
walker tug of war (self explanatory)
Pull your opponent across the center-line using a nylon rope.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Telerobotic Navigation
Build a robot that can navigate the edges of a large checkerboard pattern stopping at each intersection to wait for a message from a remote. Message 1 means go one square to the left, 2 means go one square straight ahead, and 3 means go one square to the right.
As submitted:
Mouse Hole Maze: (tele-robotic navigated maze)
A bot navigates a maze that the operator cannot see (a divider with a mouse hole cut out divides the operator from the bot and the mouse hole allows for wires to pass through. The bot is equipped with sensors but not an RCX, the operator uses a connected RCX(s?) as a remote control device and depending on what information is relayed back to the operator (either via sound or LCD display), the operator must decided where to navigate in order to reach the finish point. The maze could be constructed of black tape on a white surface (to avoid wire snags that would occur with physical barriers) and coloured tape could be used as way points to indicate the bot is on the correct path.
Variation: Replace the human operator with an RCX to test programming and communication skills.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Hide and Seek
This one’s difficult
As submitted:
Hide and go seek:
A confined space with objects large enough for a bot to hide behind. The hide bot first locates a suitable hiding spot then a signal is sent for the seeker bot to begin searching for the hide bot. The hide bot can have a highly reflective plate located on top and the seek bot can use a light source to search and determine via a light sensor too indentify the hide bot, then must reach out with a touch sensor probe to push a corresponding touch sensor plate on the hide bot to “tag” and confirm the find.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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The page /org/us/smart/~48/ideas/challenge-061 is included twice. See above.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Pong
Using the soccer arena and IR ball, two robots play pong with each other.
As submitted:
Pong:
Using an IR ball, have two bots play pong in a confined, walled space
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Space Invaders
This one’s difficult
As submitted:
Space invaders:
One bot moves side to side trying to stave off three bots that are stepping forward, each time the defender bot “hits” a attacking bot, with either a IR message (or shooting a brick, or ball of some sort) the attacking bot moves back one step, or pauses, if the defender doesn’t “hit” the attacker before reaching the baseline, then, as in space invaders, the game ends in a loss. If the defender “hits” the attackers a predetermined amount of times (4?) then the attacker is put out of commission. To keep the defender from sending a constant barrage of “bullets” a limit can be placed on how much ammunition or time between shots limit can be placed on the defender. And the attackers can have a sensor pause after a hit is recorded to keep the defender from getting the four hits in quick succession.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Island Hopping
A number of rectangular 2’x2’ ‘islands’ are placed in a chain (but not in a straight line), each 6 to 10-inches from the previous one. Build a robot that can get from the first island to the last one without touching the floor. Your robot will need to find where the each island is.
As submitted:
Island hopping: (chasm crossing)
A starting platform with numerous pedestals placed randomly leads to a second platform (finish platform). A bot will have to find and lay down a bridge to cross to the next pedestal, then find the next pedestal to reach the eventual finish platform.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Orbit Rendevous
As submitted:
LOR (LEGO Orbit Rendevous):
One bot is circling a three foot diameter disc, a bot at the center of the disc has to link up with the orbiting bot, once joined the two traverse to a secondary location a certain distance away where the second bot detaches and “lands” in a target area.
Date added:
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Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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Stanley & Livingstone
Two bots equipped with a light and light sensors attempt to find each other in a darkened room containing tables and chairs. Each bot is built by different participants. Each bot takes turns being Stanley and Livingstone.
As submitted:
Marco Polo:
Two bots equipped with a light and light sensors attempt to find each other in a darkened arena. Each bot is built by different participants. Each bot takes turns being Marco and Polo.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
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See-Saw Sumo
Two robots start at opposite ends of a six foot long 2x4 which is balanced by a horizontal bar going through the center of the beam. At the end of 1 minute, the side of the beam that is lower indicates the winner. Any strategy may be used, but robots must be completely above the beam at the start of the match.
Robots may weigh a maximum of 2 lbs -- it is suggested if your robot is close to this weight that you have a means of reducing the weight slightly if the official scale says you are over. There will be a soft landing place for robots that fall off the beam.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 27, 2005
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Line Tracking
Follow a black 1/2-inch wide line that will turn sharp corners, including acute angles.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
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May 19, 2001
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Getting up
Upright yourself from any orientation you are place in. “Up” will be considered to be having the RCX buttons on top.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
1
May 18, 2002
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Walking sumo
Push your opponent off the table without being pushed off yourself. You may not have rotating wheels on the ground, however permanently locked, non-rotating wheels are acceptable.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
1
May 18, 2002
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Search and gather
Move around an enclosed area and collect white 4x4x4 LEGO cubes. There will be at least ten of them.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
1
May 18, 2002
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Line maze
Follow a line maze to the ‘exit’, which will be a 6 inch diameter circle. The maze will be made out of 1 inch wide black tape on a white surface. All angles will be 90 degrees, and the lines will be at least six inches apart. [To be decided: There may be loops in the maze.] You will be given one chance to learn the maze first, and when you reach the exit, you will immediately be placed back at the start to run through the maze a second time, giving you an opportunity to demonstrate you’ve learned the maze by following the shortest path to the exit the second time around.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
1
May 18, 2002
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Stair Climb
Climb up a number of irregular steps. The height and length of each step will be different. Don’t fall off the last one, though. [This one needs to be fleshed out more - there’s no real need for an RCX or programming as it stands. Anyone with ideas please let us know.]
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | November 17, 2001
1
May 18, 2002
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Trailer push
Push a trailer as straight as possible, six feet to the finish line. The trailer will connect to your robot by a downward pointing axle, four bricks off the floor, and three studs long. There will be a standard two wheeled trailer brought to the meeting which will be at least twelve studs wide, and twenty long, with a pair of wheels at the far end.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
2
May 18, 2002
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Obstacle Course
Get to the finish line by overcoming a number of obstacles. Some might be easy to go over, but others might be better to just go around.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | November 17, 2001
1
May 18, 2002
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Crevice Crossing
Move across the gaps between three tables placed side by side; the gap will be small to start with, but increase in distance with each run.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | May 16, 2002
1
July 27, 2002
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Brick sorter
Sort four types of LEGO bricks dropped in your hopper into separate bins. There will be both white and black LEGO bricks, each in two sizes, 2x2 and 2x4s.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
1
July 27, 2002
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Photocopier
Read an 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper, and copy what you see to a second sheet. The input will be a simple black and white image. You are obviously allowed to use a non-LEGO pen or marking instrument of your choice. Paper will be supplied.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
1
November 16, 2002
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Climbing a wall
Climb a 4-foot high wall. The quarter inch thick wall has 1 inch diameter round holes, with centers vertically separated by 4 inches. The first hole is 4 inches above the ground. Your robot will be placed on the ground, in front of, but not touching the wall.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
1
November 16, 2002
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Candy dispenser
Dispense a measured amount of candy (of your choice) when an American quarter is inserted. Reject all other denominations, as well as Canadian quarters (they are the same size, but can be picked up by a magnet) and plastic slugs which are the same size and shape, but not weight as a real quarter.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
2
January 25, 2003; March 30, 2002
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Summersaults
Do a summersault or two, without falling off the table. The whole robot must turn.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | April 14, 2001
1
January 25, 2003
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Peanut Scramble
Walk over a steep, deep bed of styrofoam peanuts without sinking in. Turn around and walk back. The slope will be increased with each run.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | May 16, 2002
1
May 17, 2003
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Robo Waiter
Build a robot that can carry a tray with seven mini Lego soccer balls on it around a looping 3/4” black tape track.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | January 31, 2004
1
January 31, 2004
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Jousting
Build a robot that will knock its opponent off a 6-foot long 2x6. Two parallel 2x6s with an inch between them are placed on the floor; robots start at opposite ends, one on each 2x6. Your robot may only touch the top surface of your own 2x6 and may not touch the opponent’s board at any time.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | January 31, 2004
1
January 31, 2004
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Clear the X
Clear an ‘X’ of 13 2x2 Lego bricks from a one-meter square. The square will be marked out using black tape, and there will be no markings of any sort inside the square. Your robot starts at a random spot outside the square, facing the square. The bricks will be layed out in an ‘X’ pattern along the diagonals of the square, with three bricks along each arm of the X, and one in the center. The bricks along each arm will be 20 cm apart, starting from the center one. Once you’ve cleared all the bricks, your robot must also leave the arena to indicate it’s finished. Robots will have a size restriction.
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | May 6, 2003
1
November 20, 2004
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Maze with Object Retrieval
Build a robot that can navigate a maze, find an an object, and then return it to the starting point.
As submitted:
Mission impossible (Maze)
a bot navigates a maze, retrieves an object and then navigates its way back to the starting point. There is a time limit
Date added:
Times up for vote:
Last vote:
| | March 30, 2004
1
November 20, 2004
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Axle sorter
Sort technic axles by size. Fifty axles are placed in your hopper, distribute them into bins according to size.
Originally added:
Times up for vote:
Previous votes:
| | April 14, 2001
2
May 17, 2003; November 20, 2004
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Grand Challenges
Current: Grand Challenge 2004
Soccer
The Grand Challenge for 2004 is to build a soccer playing robot. See this post and its followups for more details including specifics about what the arena and ball are like.
Past Grand Challenges
Generally in November of a year we’ll vote for a Grand Challenge for the next year. Post ideas if you have them!
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Past Challenges
Meeting
| | Description
| | References
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| | #56
April 24, 2010
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Stair Climbing
Repeat of last month’s mini-challenge.
| | n/a
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| | #55
March 27, 2010
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Stair Climbing
Build a robot that can climb steps. The steps in the auditorium are irregular. Bonus points for going back down again.
| | n/a
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| | #54
February 27, 2010
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OATS - Obstacle Avoiding Target Seeker
Build a robot that looks for a retroreflective target on the ground. Your robot will need to navigate around obstacles such as large boxes.
| | n/a
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| | #53
January 30, 2010
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Rope Climbing
Build a robot that can climb a rope. Make this as challenging as you would like: find the rope, attach itself, go up and down, and detach again. Or just start climbing while already attached to the rope. The type of rope (or ribbon) is your choice, as is whether the rope is fastened only at the top, or both top and bottom.
| | n/a
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| | #52
November 21, 2009
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Candy Dispenser
Build a robot that dispenses candy. You pick the candy, the eye-candy in the delivery mechanism, and the method of payment.
| | n/a
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| | #51
September 26, 2009
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BrickCon Demo and Competition Robots
Bring a robot that you’d like to show at BrickCon. If it’s not yet done, you can ask others for suggestions. Or bring a walking robot that you’re working on for the robot competition at BrickCon.
| | n/a
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| | #50
May 30, 2009
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Open Challenge
Bring a robot that you are proud of. Perhaps it does something difficult. Or something very interesting. Maybe it was just an experiment (even a failed one) that you learned a lot from.
| | n/a
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| | #49
April 25, 2009
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Obstacle Sumo
Build a sumo robot that will push it’s opponent off a field with a heavy obstacle in the middle. The obstacle will be a 2 quart milk carton, either standing upright or lying on its side. The field will be 3’ diameter, white center, with a 2” black edge. Robots, to take part in the mini competition should have a 12”x12” maximum size, and weigh under 2 lb.
| | n/a
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| | #48
February 21, 2009
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Play an Instrument
Build a robot to play a musical instrument. Your robot can play a toy instrument, or a real one. String, wind, percussion, electronic, whatever. You could even build an instrument out of LEGO if you wish. The only restriction is to use something besides the NXT or RCX speaker to make sound. Have fun!
| | n/a
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| | #47
January 31, 2009
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BrickHeap Wars
Get together with a team to build and program a robot at the meeting. You’ll have three hours, then we’ll run the robots against each other. Finally you’ll have an additional half hour to improve the robots, and try again. Teams should attempt to form ahead of time, and need to bring a laptop to program, as well as the electronic components they wish to use. This includes an NXT (or RCX), sensors, motors, wires and batteries. The rest of the LEGO required for the task will be provided at the meeting.
| | n/a
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| | #46
November 15, 2008
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Walking Race
Build a walking robot that can turn itself around. This idea comes from the Robothon Walking Robot Race.
| | n/a
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| | #45
September 27, 2008
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TourBot
Repeat of last month’s mini-challenge.
| | n/a
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| | #44
May 31, 2008
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TourBot
Build a robot that can do line tracking and turn 90-degree corners. We’ll put the robots in a ‘city’ where they will all be driving at the same time.
| | n/a
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| | #43
April 26, 2008
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Innovative Way to Move
Build a robot that moves around using an unusual means of propulsion.
That is, have your robot use something besides just a plain vanilla driving or walking platform. It can do anything else it wants to. The robot should be able to move at least a couple of robot-lengths.
| | n/a
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| | #42
February 23, 2008
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Robotic Easter Egg Hunt
Build a robot that will find Hershey’s chocolate Easter eggs and deliver them to the corners or sides of a rectangular arena with just over 2” high walls. These robots will be for display at Bellevue Square next month.
| | n/a
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| | #41
January 26, 2008
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Table Crossing with Rope
There were many requests to repeat the mini-challenge from last month.
| | Pictures
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| | #40
November 17, 2007
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Table Crossing with Rope
Build a robot that can cross between two tables with a taunt rope between them. The length of the rope is unknown ahead of time. But you should count on it being a couple of feet at least. You should start your robot completely on one table, and end up completely on the second table. If you want an extra challenge, have your robot find the rope first. (It will be pulled over top of both tables.)
Grand Challenge
This meeting also marked the start of a new Grand Challenge - a robotic INDY-500 style race.
| | Pictures
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| | #39
September 22, 2007
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BrickHeap Wars
Teams from several clubs formed and built robots to fix a highway in very bad repair. Held at Robothon, in the Seattle Center. See the writeup (posted Oct 30th) on NxtLog
| | Pictures
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| | #38
May 19, 2007
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Game Playing Robot
Build a robot to play a game. It can be a single player or multiplayer game. It can be a game that a robot plays against another robot, or against a person, or against itself. Use your imagination.
Micromouse Maze
Build a robot that completes some aspect of the micromouse maze (which will be an event at the next Robothon).
| | Pictures
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| | #37
March 17, 2007
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Demo Bot
Build a robot that does something that is interesting or clever, is interesting to watch, or is unique in some other way. A list of suggestions (that you aren’t bound by in any way): a game playing robot; a robot that mimics some device in the real world; a robot that performs some difficult feat; a robot that creates a work of art; or a robot that is fun to interact with. This SMART meeting followed the SRS meeting. We had to show off how easy it is to build awesome robots out of LEGO!!
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| | #36
January 27, 2007
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Walking Robot
Build a robot that can walk, as well as turn (change direction). Have your robot walk whatever pattern you like to demonstrate, but an example would be to walk 2 feet, turn 90 degrees, walk 1 foot, turn 120 degrees, and return to the starting point.
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| | #35
November 18, 2006
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Swinging Robot
Build a robot that can swing. A rope will be provided that you will hook your robot onto, so make sure it can attach and detach easily. The rope will be quite thin, of an unknown length, and hung in the shape of a “U” with the two ends tied high up, approximately 18-inches apart. For a simple challenge, you can calculate the period of oscillation and enter that as a parameter to your robot. Better is if your robot can determine the period itself. For the biggest challenge, see if your robot can learn how to swing completely on its own. In all cases, we’ll have two or three different length swings for your robot to try, so hard-coding the length of your robot’s swing won’t work.
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| | #34
September 30, 2006
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BrickHeap Wars
Teams will need to sign up ahead of time, but other than bringing a laptop and the electronic components yourself, there is no need to build anything for this meeting. The event will take place at Robothon, in the Seattle Center.
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| | #33
July 29, 2006
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Drawing or Writing
Build a robot that can cross the gap between two tables without leaving any part of it behind.
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| | #32
May 20, 2006
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BrickHeap Wars
Teams signed up ahead of time, and at the meeting were given the challenge to build a space elevator robot that delivered several payloads to ‘geosynchronous orbit’.
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| | #31
March 25, 2006
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Great Ball Contraption
Build a ‘contraption’ that passes a bunch of LEGO soccer balls along. It can be robotic in nature, or not -- that’s up to you.
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| | #30
January 28, 2006
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Robot Drag Racing
Build a robot that races down a 3/4” black tape line, detects the end, and returns back to the starting line. Robots are placed completely behind the starting line at the beginning.
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| | #29
November 19, 2005
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Simple Gap Crossing
Build a robot that can cross the gap between two tables without leaving any part of it behind.
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| | #28
September 24, 2005
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Robothon Preparation
This meeting was reserved to prepare for the competitions and displays that SMART members would be participating in at Robothon on October 7-9th.
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| | #27
July 23, 2005
| | Clear the Field
This was a BrickHeap Wars challenge. Two groups compete to build robots in a limited time and with restricted pieces at the meeting.
The object was to build a robot to clear your team’s rectangular field of cylinders; the other team’s field is close by. At the end of the time, the score is computed as one point for each of your cylinders still on your field, plus two points for each of your opponent’s cylinders still on the field. Lowest score wins.
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| | #26
June 25, 2005
| | Stepladder Traversal
Mount, ascend, decend and dismount a stepladder. The stepladder will be made of 3/4” pipes, spaced 6” apart. The first rung will be 6” off the floor. Your robot won’t know how many rungs there are to the top of the ladder, nor will it know exactly what the angle of the ladder will be. But both sides of the ladder will be identical in length and angle with the floor.
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| | #25
March 26, 2005
| | Easter Egg Hunt
Build a robot to move around a table looking for chocolate Easter eggs; deliver them to one of the 3” holes at each corner on the surface of the table. Move counter-clockwise when delivering eggs. See this post for details, and this picture for a schematic of the arena.
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| | #24
January 29, 2005
| | Light target
Launch a missile of your choice at a 60 watt light bulb which will be five feet away (and behind a plexiglass wall!) You have three tries, and may only reload your missile, and provide a single ‘bit’ of feedback after each trial. Pressing one of several buttons before each round is acceptable, but setting dials, sliders or levers may not be used as feedback to the device.
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| | #23
November 20, 2004
| | Line Tracking Block Stacking
The mini-challenge is to build a robot that will pick up a set of blocks that are on a 3/4” black line, and build one or more stacks of blocks out of them. The robot can build the towers anywhere it wants, on or off the line. For a simpler challenge, build only two block high towers, and only along a straight line. For a more difficult challenge, build towers as high as you can, and follow a line with bends in it. (Blocks will be placed on the line at least six inches past any bend.)
(Originally: Stack a neat row of 16 4x4x4 LEGO cubes into towers. Cubes will initially be four inches apart. Less towers is better.)
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| | #22
September 18, 2004
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BrickHeap Wars
At this meeting, two teams built and programmed robots to follow a line with Lego cubes on it, and stack those cubes into towers. They were given identical piles of Lego, and a bit over three hours to accomplish this task.
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| | #21
July 31, 2004
| | Milkman Delivery
Build a robot that tracks a line and delivers milk bottles at specified locations on the track. For milk bottles, design your own stack of Lego bricks.
(Originally: A bot has to travel a route (line following) and deliver “milk bottles” (perhaps a stack of white bricks?) to exact locations, points are given to the number of correct deliveries within a preset time limit.)
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| | #20
May 22, 2004
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Gap Crossing - Cube Gathering
Pick any subset (or the whole thing!) of the third event from the 8th Workshop 3D RCX Challenge.
Build a robot to collect objects and bring them across a gap. Robots will start at the back end of one table and need to cross over to a second table which is 2-inches away from the first one, to retrieve objects, bringing them back, one at a time, to the first table. This means one block must be deposited in the finishing box before picking up the next block.
The tables will have a light surface with 3/4” matte-black tape lines on them as in the above diagram. The objects will initially be in the 6” x 20” box on the far table, and must be deposited in the finishing box on the first table to count. Robots should not wander out of their 20-inch wide ‘lane’. This is the space that goes from their starting box to the finishing box. Adjacent lanes will only have a narrow separation between them, and lanes may be very near the sides of the table. The length of a lane (width of the tables) is not specified, but will be on the order of a few feet.
The objects to be collected are Lego cubes. They consist of six 2x4 bricks, stacked together, and topped by 4 smooth tiles. They will be white. There will be at least ten cubes scattered randomly in the starting box, clustered towards its center.
The initial maximum size of a robot is 12-inches wide by 16-inches long. There is no height restriction. Robots may unfold themselves, but must do this on their own.
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| | #19
March 27, 2004
| | Crate Passing Robots
Build two robots that look for each other, and pass a crate from one to the next. While the most obvious way to do this is with two RCXs, it can also be done with one by having a stationary “robot” as your second one. I suggest starting to work on this challenge by figuring out how the two robots can find each other. Once you’ve got that figured out, then work out how to get them to ‘face’ each other, and then pass a crate back and forth.
You are welcome to determine how far apart your own two robots should be to start with, but if you’re looking for some guidance, I’d suggest having them about 10 to 12 feet apart, and oriented randomly to each other (that is, don’t assume they’re facing each other when you put them down). As with all mini-challenges, feel free to bring whatever you can get working. And even if you can’t get anything working, you can still bring whatever you have, to get ideas and help from others that show up.
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| | #18
January 31, 2004
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Creative Crate Contraption
Build a new type of robot that manipulates crates or mini Lego soccer balls or basketballs. Use your imagination.
For a look at what previous robots have done, see this post.
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| | #17
November 8, 2003
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BrickHeap Wars
At this meeting, four teams built and programmed robots to collect mini Lego soccer balls. They were given identical piles of Lego, and about three hours to build and program their robots.
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| | #16
July 26, 2003
| | Chasm Crossing with Rope
Cross an arbitrary gap (several feet) between two tables using only a rope that is strung fairly tauntly between them. You start on the first table, and should attempt to end on the second table. Start by just crossing using the rope, and stopping when you get to the second table. For the full challenge, work out a way to get up onto the other table. Finally, for a real challenge, see if you can do the whole thing while keeping your center of gravity above the rope the whole time! I’ll bring a 1/4-inch solid braid nylon rope, but you can bring your own rope, if you like.
Another way to get bonus points would be if you can start at a random location on the table and find the rope first, before crossing over to the other table.
(Originally: Cross a two to four foot gap between two tables using a rope that has been strung over them. Your robot needs to start on the first table, and end on the second table.)
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| | #15
May 17, 2003
| | Maxwell’s Demons
A competitive game played on a surface that is half black, half white. Your robot will start on one side, your competitor’s on the other. Scattered randomly on both sides will be a number of 4x4x4 cubes, some white, some black. Both robots attempt to get the white ones onto their own side, and get rid of the black ones. No hoarding of blocks! You may only push them around. See more detailed rules in this post. (Ignore the ‘expert division’ for this mini-challenge.)
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| | #14
March 29, 2003
| | Rope climb
Start a foot or so in front of a rope of your choice which will be tied to a 2x4 supported by two tables. Move towards the rope and then start climbing the rope. You must climb so that the bottom of your robot is at least 12 inches above the floor. Extra points for reaching the top or climbing back down.
(Originally: Climb a 6 foot rope of your choice. Put a knot at the top and bottom. After you get to the top, climb or slide back down. [This one needs to be fleshed out more - there’s no need for an RCX or programming as it stands. Anyone with ideas please let us know.] )
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| | #13
January 25, 2003
| | Token Finding
Move about a table top, looking for, and stopping on a 2x2-inch square of black tape. Make sure you don’t fall off the table.
(originally: Move about a white circular area which has a 2-inch black border, looking for, and stopping on a 2x2-inch square of black tape.)
Try to come up with some solution that is better than just randomly wandering around the table looking for the square. Don’t make any assumptions about your robot’s starting location, or the position of the square.
Grand Challenge: Figure-8 Racing -- This meeting was the first installment of our new Grand Challenge which will continue for the next few meetings. Approximately 8 robots are currently in the works, but only two were somewhat ready to be tested.
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| | #12
November 16, 2002
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Slope Traversal
Given an eight-foot long 2x8 resting against a chair or table, build a robot that can move up the plank no matter how steep it is. Use whatever method of locomotion seems appropriate. Don’t fall off the plank. Note that because the plank is resting against something, if you try to hold the bottom for extra grip, you’ll have to deal with the place where it is held up. Also, make sure your robot stops: don’t fall off the top!
We’ll start with the plank horizontal on the floor, with the robot on the plank, at one end. Then for each run we’ll increase the slope. The robot will start on the plank, but also resting on the floor for all but the first run.
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| | #11
September 28, 2002
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BrickHeap Wars
At this meeting, four teams built and programmed robots to unload pallets from a truck. They were given identical piles of Lego, and a bit over three hours to accomplish this task.
We also tested the following robots for NWBrickCon which was the following weekend:
Simon Says
Follow the leader. All robots will run at once for this event. A “leader” will be brought to the meeting which will do a little dance, and at the same time signal to all the other robots what it is doing. All the other robots must follow as closely as possible. Each command must be completed in 1.5 seconds or less.
The commands will be as follows:
1-6 - Move forward 1-6 inches
11-16 - Move backwards 1-6 inches
20 - Turn right 90 degrees
21 - Turn left 90 degrees
30 - Turn clockwise 360 degrees
31 - Turn counterclockwise 360 degrees
40 - Play a DOUBLE_BEEP
41 - Play a SOUND_UP
42 - Play a SOUND_DOWN
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| | #10
July 27, 2002
| | Walking Obstacle Course
Walk from the starting line to the finishing line, across or around a number of scattered two-by-fours which will be placed on edge.
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| | #9
May 18, 2002
| | Light locator
Locate a 60 watt light bulb. Move around the room looking for a single light bulb place near the floor. Stop when you get to it. Make sure you navigate around tables, chairs, and other obstacles. You might have to search for the light bulb.
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| | #8
March 30, 2002
| | Dead-Reckoning
Build a robot that can drive around two markers in a figure-eight pattern.
The start/end zone will be marked off with a piece of black tape. Be careful not to fall off the table! And remember not to touch the cones in your navigation.
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| | #7
January 26 2002
| | Drag Race
The starting and finish lines are highly reflective tape, placed 16 feet apart. Your dragster must get to the finish line as fast as possible, yet stop within 6 inches! Nothing but LEGO rubber may touch the floor (carpet, that is).
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| | #6
November 17, 2001
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Workshop 3D RCX Challenge - Second Chance
We brought our improved Workshop 3D RCX Challenge robots, and tried them out again. Much discussion on what we learned, and how the robots were improved.
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| | #5
September 15, 2001
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No mini challenge this meeting; preparations for Workshop 3D RCX Challenge #3.
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| | #4
July 28, 2001
| | Obstacle Course
Climb over randomly scattered 2x4s. These will be at least a foot long, but may be longer. Most will be lying flat, but there may be a couple that are on edge. See if you can travel in a straight line even when obstacles are at an angle.
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| | #3
May 19, 2001
| | Walking Seeker
Walk around a table without falling off, look for a heavy, reflective object, and stop next to it. You may not have rotating wheels (or equivalent) touching the table at any time (though permanently locked wheels, for traction, are allowed). The object will be covered with reflective tape, (you can use a bicycle reflector to get a vague idea of what will be used) so that you can actively search for the object. Also, other actions besides walking are acceptable. Shuffle, wobble, whatever. Just no rotating wheels!
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| | #2
March 31, 2001
| | Stay on Table
Drive around a rectangular table without falling off. When your robot comes into contact with a heavy object, stop. The heavy object brought to the meeting will be a black ‘cube’ 6 Lego-units square, and five bricks high made out of weight elements and plates. It weighs about 12 ounces, or 1/3 of a kilogram. But the specifics shouldn’t be too important. Any fairly small, heavy object should do.
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| | #1
January 28, 2001
| | Edge Follower
Follow the left edge of a (minimum 6”) wide black line. No turn will be greater than 90 degrees. Don’t worry about having a super-refined or super-fast robot.
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More Pictures
Movies
Notes on Gus Jansson’s Steerbot
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