TechFest 2011
I entered 3 robots (Cheesy Peesy, Long shot, and Persistence V2) into 5 competitions. Overall I had a very successful day.
Line Follower:
I entered Cheesy Peesy into both the Junior and Schools competitions. In qualifying I scored a time of 17 seconds and no touches, compared to the second robot with a time of *time*. When improving it after qualifying I noticed that there was an intermittent fault with the control panel on it. I re-soldered the joints and when I came to testing it again, the motor driver chip blew up. I then scraped down the tracks on the veroboard and sure enough it corrected the fault. The disaster was over! Then after a slight change of speed I entered it into the final and achieved a time of 18 seconds and no touches. I was delighted with the result, I had won the line follower event representing my School.
Contact Wall Follower:
I entered Persistence V2 into the Junior Contact Wall Follower competition. In qualifying I came second with a time of 15 seconds and no touches behind Chloe Hall with a time of *time* and no touches. I then decided to alter the program in order to reduce my run time. This proved disasterous, I hadn't tested it before the final and it ended up being very temperamental. On the larger maze in the final I ended up touching it 4 times and scored a very disappointing time of 42 seconds. I have definitely learned my lesson for next time, DO NOT change the program without testing it!
Non-contact wall follower:
I entered Long Shot into the Junior Non-Contact Wall Follower competition. In qualifying it performed as well as I could have hoped, but it was no match for the other robots, coming second last. The motors were running at full speed but they weren't fast enough! In the finals it was much the same, I was delighted with the performance however it was just too slow!
Time Trials:
I entered Persistence V2 into the Junior Time Trials competition. The robot had amazing acceleration but due to its centre of gravity, it kept turning over. Eventually it did one clean lap and achieved a reasonable time of 10.53 seconds.
Click here to see more pictures of the competition
Line Follower:
I entered Cheesy Peesy into both the Junior and Schools competitions. In qualifying I scored a time of 17 seconds and no touches, compared to the second robot with a time of *time*. When improving it after qualifying I noticed that there was an intermittent fault with the control panel on it. I re-soldered the joints and when I came to testing it again, the motor driver chip blew up. I then scraped down the tracks on the veroboard and sure enough it corrected the fault. The disaster was over! Then after a slight change of speed I entered it into the final and achieved a time of 18 seconds and no touches. I was delighted with the result, I had won the line follower event representing my School.
Contact Wall Follower:
I entered Persistence V2 into the Junior Contact Wall Follower competition. In qualifying I came second with a time of 15 seconds and no touches behind Chloe Hall with a time of *time* and no touches. I then decided to alter the program in order to reduce my run time. This proved disasterous, I hadn't tested it before the final and it ended up being very temperamental. On the larger maze in the final I ended up touching it 4 times and scored a very disappointing time of 42 seconds. I have definitely learned my lesson for next time, DO NOT change the program without testing it!
Non-contact wall follower:
I entered Long Shot into the Junior Non-Contact Wall Follower competition. In qualifying it performed as well as I could have hoped, but it was no match for the other robots, coming second last. The motors were running at full speed but they weren't fast enough! In the finals it was much the same, I was delighted with the performance however it was just too slow!
Time Trials:
I entered Persistence V2 into the Junior Time Trials competition. The robot had amazing acceleration but due to its centre of gravity, it kept turning over. Eventually it did one clean lap and achieved a reasonable time of 10.53 seconds.
Click here to see more pictures of the competition