"IN THIS CORNER, WEIGHING IN AT 1.982 KILOGRAMS … THE LV TANKER!!!"
Sumo Bot Entry for 7th Grade NYS Science Olympiad by JP
This Sumo Bot runs on low voltage batteries and uses a programmable Arduino microcontroller for all controls. A second Arduino communicating via 2.4 GHz XBee is used for remote control. The remote talks I2C to a Wii nunchuck joystick with accelerometer. The Tankers high-torque motors and locking transmissions, plus double sided operation with automatic attitude detection make it a tough challenger. It was designed to meet the NYS Science Olympiad Class "B" specifications.
The LV Tanker Top-side View
Tanker bottom-side view with major features
Bottom-side view showing lightening holes, homemade remote control, and initial design in Blender
Starting with a design in Blender nearly 11 months ago the LV Tanker took estimated 250 hours to build, 3 prototypes, 4 motor shield designs, and many hours of programming.
Features
- 2 high torque low voltage motors with orbital gear transmissions in a tank-style configuration
- On-board ATMEL ATmega328 microprocessor in Arduino Duemilanove configuration with 32Kb memory and 16Mhz clock speed
- 2.4 Gigahertz wireless mesh network communications based on the XBee
- Laser assisted guidance
- Multiple programmable modes
- Automatic attitude detection for seamless two sided operation (it can be flipped over and still drive and nunchuck automatically reverses)
- Rugged aluminum, steel, & plastic construction
- 9 individually controlled LED status indicators
- Piezoelectric "speaker" for audio signals
- Symmetrically balanced motors with locked stopped position by Black & Decker
- Direct driveshaft for main axels, light-weight Nylon chain driven secondary axels for tank-like operation
- Transistors with electrically isolated left and right channel motor relays
- Operation with Wii nunchuck joystick and accelerometer control or old-school 2.4 GHz wireless Arduino based joystick
Special thanks to:
- Arduino - http://www.arduino.cc/
- Adafruit - for their parts and tutorials
- Tod Kurt - for his instruction and inspiration
- Gold Coast Hobby for motivation
- Dr. Wolf, Mr. Lee and Mr. Maier for their sponsorship
Feel free to contact us for more information, code etc.
Specs:
- Locust Valley Tanker
- L: 30cm, W: 29.5 cm, H: 7.5 cm
- 1.982kg (U.S. PO Weight)
- (4) 1.5V "AA" and (4) 1.5V "C"
- By JP
Parts, software and help from Arduino, Mouser, Black & Decker, ThingM, Adafruit, Digi, ATMEL, TI Sparkfun, Fun Gizmos, Radio Shack, Duracell, ST, Seeed Studio and others.
