Robot Video Competition
June 1, 2009
I have some robots and robot parts looking for a good home. I want to give as many as possible a chance to win but I want entertaining video for everyone. There is a strict time limit so you have to be quick.
Since paper and cardboard robots have featured a lot lately and not everyone can afford to spend a lot on parts this will be a contest to make a robot from paper /cardboard and / or wood. You can use a circuit board but extra points are awarded for using cardboard for your PCB.
I will judge all videos based imagination, cleverness and the ability to make me laugh. This contest will be about your video more than your bot. Make it do cool stunts. Make it dance to music. Make more than one and have them fight it out. Print brightly coloured pannels or even cut out photos from a magazine to decorate your Bot.
If you don't have any money or parts then print, cut and fold paper robots and do an animated video. Add music. LMR is your audience. This is a chance for anyone to score some robot parts reguardless of their abilities.
TAG your robot video with "Robot video competition" and post a link to it on this thread.You can enter as many videos as you want and defer prizes to someone else if you don't want them.Even if you don't want a prize, enter anyway just as an excuse to make a fun video :D
I will choose five winners. The first place winner gets his choice of prizes. The second place winner chooses next from what is left. This continues until all prizes are given away. Click on the photos for a bigger picture.
The prizes are:
Junior
He is not currently working. He only needs 8 resistors replaced and new batteries or you can use him for parts to make a new and better robot. Juniors arm has 5 degrees of freedom.
Turbo Trike
It is currently set up for RC control but will be supplied with a breadboard, picaxe 28X1, Maxbotix EZ1 sonar and the guts of a Wii nunchuck controller that apparently has an I2C 3 axis accelerometer. You will need a proper LiPo charger to charge his battery. Since it needs to be lighter I will include some light weight omni wheels to replace the caster wheels at the back.
JunkBox1
Included will be 6 large double omni wheels, 4 geared DC motors and a large ball caster compliments of DAGU. A blue backlit 128x64 LCD display, 2 large stepper motors, linear actuator and various prototype boards,battery holders etc.
JunkBox2
Included will be 3 small double omni wheels, 3 small single omni wheels, 3 geared DC motors and 2 small ball casters compliments of DAGU. 2x 8x8 bicolour led arrays, push type solenoid, along with various proto boards, battery holders etc.
JunkBox3
A Tamiya dual gear box, tank treads and universal plate. 1 DC geared motor from DAGU, 3x dc motors, 1x 8x8 bi-colour LED array. 1 Sharp IR sensor plus protoboards, battery holders etc.
Well the competition is over and the winners announced :D
First Place goes to "The Adventures of Fobot the Robot" by Mikv. This video went way past my expectations for imagination and creativity. A lot of effort went into it. The special effects were great and I laughed till it hurt.
Second Place goes to "Mech-Walker (Unplugged)" by Gareth. The robot was the type of thing I expected but I was not expecting clever "Blue Screen" special effects or to wind up as Captain Kirks nemisis. This video also made me laugh a lot.
Third Place goes to "Zezinho meets el Sapatero" by Guibot. I did suggest having two robots fight it out but I was not expecting a musical battle. Nice choice of music, it suited the bots.
Fourth Place goes to "Shamus the Robotic boy" by SHAWNMBOLAND. It never occured to me that anyone might make a robot costume. Points awarded for thinking outside of the box while putting a small child in a box.
Fifth Place goes to "Stuntbot AKA Dreambot" by Ajster. This was a tough descision as there were a few entries I considered for fifth but I felt that Ajster's attempt to show that robots can have dreams and aspirations was imaginative and well presented.
Other entries in this competition were:
"Cardboard Walker" which was a very nice robot but no attempt was made at a creative video even when I dropped a hint.
"Starformers" which was very funny and imaginative but it wasn't a video of robots made with paper/cardboard/wood.
A two part entry by Patrickmccabe which, as suggested by Mikv does remind me of the movie "Hancock"
The prizes are packed and will be on their way tomorrow.
Leaking Capacitors
During my early electronic days a friend and i bought some really heavy duty capacitors 3cm dia or so , we would charge them up and then short out the contacts ....they produced some mega cool sparks (blue if i remember) ....... great fun .... simple harmless fun....welllll...
..... we forgot about them fo a while .... on returning to them a week later, each one had a size-able ballon like thing growing out of the top with some kind of slimey liquid seaping over the side. It was a new way to learn that big caps have pressure relief valves......
Yes so even over-stressed capacitors can blow thier lids...........
Sweet! Gonna have to whip
Sweet! Gonna have to whip something up quick smart.
I think I`ll be shooting for the junk box #1 :)
Mate, they're all good!