20th AWS - MiniSumo Competition

The 20^th Antweight World Series, 24th June 2006, saw their first autonumous MiniSumo competition. Proceedings where quite informal, with four scratch built minisumo and one Sumovore competing on a league basis.

Each game consisted of three matches, with the first to win two matches wining the game. Every 'bot had the opportunity to compete against the other competitors, and the starting positions adopted was "Head to Head" from the starting lines.

Click any of the following thumbnail pictures to see a higher resolution picture.

The competitors where:-

Bannana³, built by James Carter and weighing in at 480g.
Controlled by a PicAXE 28X using Sharp GP2D120s for opponent detection. The battery supply was a split 9v/9v utilising PP3s for the controller and AAAs for the drive mechanism, which was Solarbotics GM8 and wheels. These wheels had custom moulded tyres to improve the friction component.

Artifical Stupidity, built by Andrew Hibberd, weighed in at 336g.
The control and Sonar sensors had been pulled from one of the "seven dwarfs" at kit used by Reading Uni. Power was pulled from 12v Lithium Polymer cells and the tank tracks driven by some lowcost 12v motors from Rapid Electronics.

Origami, built by Gary Aylward, weighed in at 506g!!!
Controlled by an Atmel processor and powered from 2 Lithum Polymer cells, this 'bot was driven from 2 modified servos with cardboard wheels and expanded foam tyres. Oponent detection was derived from Sharp IS471Fs with LEDs driven via a transitor on the Gloutput.

Insumountable, built by Peter Waller, weighed in at 450g A single ultrasonic sensor was used for opponent detection at a distance, with two IR sensors used at short range. Controlled by an Atmel processor with a lithium polymer battery. Drive came from 35mm Fast Component motors via tracks with defluffing "lint" tyres.

Last but not least, Kill It 3000, a solarbotics kit built by Tom and weighing in at 429g. Honerable mention to Tom's weight and tyre modifications to push a post competition rematch with "Insumountable" to three matches in a hottly fought round.

The Game!

All games where won 2 matches to nil but where closely fought in most cases. Closest matches probably "Insumountable" vs. "Bannana³" and "Bannana³" vs. "Origami". Unfortunately Artificial Stupidity took to running away from the opponents in many of the matchs, putting up a fight in the remainder - tho' it not have seen the opponent coming!

Pictured here we have matches from :-

Bannana3 vs Insumountable
This pair seemed to be closely matched but Insumountable had the edge in the head to head push. My guess is the tyres made the difference in gaining the pushing power in what was the lighter weight bot.

Kill It 3000 vs Origami
This game seemed to go all Origami's way. Kill It 3000 seemed to hang on the edge in one match but ultimately didn't manage to fight back.

Artificial Stupidity v Insumountable
Andrew seemed to have problem in most matches with Artificial Stupidity but this round a bit more of the push appeared. Could be that Insumountable was under the sensors and AS was pushing blindly, in the end Insumountable won out.

Bannana³ v Kill It 3000
These two had a close match, same drive in each but Bannana³ won. Could be the weight and custom moulded tyres gave the edge.

Bannana³ v Origami
Very closely fought this match ended with the round coming to time in this match when Bannana³'s sensors caught Origami on the edge of the ring and Origami's body hooked the edge stopping any push forward - Bannana3 has one wheel in the air and the other desperately pushing and sliping on the ring.

Results

The Results Table on games won:-

Insumountable	4
Bannana³	3
Origami	2
Kill It 3000	1
Artificial Stupidity	0

Last thing of the day I saw in action was "BUMP". While radio controlled, this Antweight made good use of edge detection and opponent detection for it's semi and automatic operation modes. Terrific low profile as can be seen from the pictures, with a ballast weight to bring it up from antweight to minisumo fighting weight.

The super thin steel edge is renewed for every competition and helps it get under most opponents.

Web Master Contact.