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Ship Ins - Open challenge - Streaming video

Thursday 9AM to 11AM, 4/27/06, we will again be streaming video from my UNI Physics "Introduction to Robotics" course. My students are building MarkIII Mini-Sumos, and this will be their second and final class contest. Following, we will have an open competition for "Ship-Ins" for up to 10 competitors who pay a token fee, and my students. "Ship-Ins" will be able to watch the competition live by web cast.

We'd love to show the students a good sampling of Mini-Sumo's from around the country. So please consider shipping your Mini-Sumo in to compete!

If you don't want to "Ship In" and compete, at least come watch with us!

Dr. Olson, my co-instructor, and I will be on site (last time I was remote from Dallas). Dr. Olson will be in charge of running the event.

Look on

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for a link, then go there.

Class starts at 8:30AM. The competition will probably start about 9 to

9:30AM as I figure it will take us that long just to get the new video connections straightened out.

I really hope this touches off "a classic" of sorts, where the sport of Mini-Sumo catches on at universities. You've got to start somewhere, and UNI has taken the leadership here, and is providing the best of streaming video equipment and coverage, so this is rather a special opportunity for the robotics community.

Following are the stipulations for entries from Dr. C Chancey, Department Head, Physics at UNI.

Randy

  1. The UNI Mini-Sumo Robotics Challenge will accept a maximum of 10 robots from outside UNI for the April 27 event. Those wishing to enter should e-mail me personally ( snipped-for-privacy@uni.edu). I will validate their entry within 24 hours, or let them know that the challengers have already been selected. Those selected will receive shipping information.

  1. There will be a entry fee. Checks or money orders should be made out to "UNI Physics Department" and included in the submission.

  2. The UNI Physics Dept. will return-mail each of the 10 challenger robots to their owners using the packing materials that the robots arrived with, where possible. The Department will make a good faith effort to return all robots in operating condition but we cannot guarantee this. We will use proper carriers (US Postal Service, Fedex, or similar) but that is the extent of our promise. Challengers must accept the normal risks of shipping sensitive equipment.
Reply to
Randy M. Dumse
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Are using the standard markIII controller or your plug an arm or plug a pod ?

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When are you guys going to have those controller boards for the mini sumos available for sale ?

I'm still interested in getting a couple (though when I'll get the time to play with them is another matter)

Alex

alxx at alxx dot net

Reply to
Alex Gibson

Hey Alex, sorry I was in town for a few days, and my mail posting ability doesn't work from there.

Yes, and no. Yes, the picture is of the version we had originally made.

No, the class is using the version I personally re-laid-out to be better for class use. You can look at mechanicals, silkscreen and the schematic at

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Yes, this MSA hosts one of our PlugaPod(TM)s. We'll probably make another version to host our PlugArm(TM)s. But with all the motion control, PWM, and timing capability of the DSP, it's probably the better processor for the task.

Also cool, we've made a Sparkfun Bluetooth SMiRF modem adapter.

Even cooler, we're almost done with a PlugaPod(TM) to XBEE adapter.

We wanted to be sure everything worked. Now that we're done with the bulk of the class (final contest next week) we feel the board is ready for production. So just a few weeks from our first order then, I'd say.

Hey, that would be great. Let us know if you want to formalize an order.

Reply to
Randy M. Dumse

Hey Alex, sorry I was in town for a few days, and my mail posting ability doesn't work from in there.

Yes, and no. Yes, the picture is of the version we had originally made.

No, the class is using the version I personally re-laid-out to be better for class use. You can look at mechanicals, silkscreen and the schematic at

formatting link
Yes, this MSA hosts one of our PlugaPod(TM)s. We'll probably make another version to host our PlugArm(TM)s. But with all the motion control, PWM, and timing capability of the DSP, it's probably the better processor for the task.

Also cool, we've made a Sparkfun Bluetooth SMiRF modem adapter.

Even cooler, we're almost done with a PlugaPod(TM) to XBEE adapter.

We wanted to be sure everything worked. Now that we're done with the bulk of the class (final contest next week) we feel the board is ready for production. So just a few weeks from our first order then, I'd say. We might have PCB's to build one or two right off.

Hey, that would be great. Let us know if you want to formalize an order.

Finally, for everybody, we've had one "Ship In" arrive already. If anybody else wants to "Ship In" and give my college students a go for Mini Sumo, bring it on! We've only got a week to the contest.

Reply to
Randy M. Dumse

Today is the day of the contest.

Look on

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for a link, then click, Mini-sumo Robot Competition April 27 9:00am Central Time.

UNI has taken the leadership here, and is providing the best of streaming video equipment and coverage, and a beautiful room, with local media coverage as well, so this is rather a special opportunity for the robotics community.

I will be emcee-ing this event, along with my co-instructor Dr. Dale Olson who will be keeping the "score board"..

We have one Ship-In. Great credit to Dan Derrick who sent his robot from Indiana to compete with the new students robots. He will have a place in history as one of the very first to "Ship-In" or officially enter his robot from long distance. We will run two sessions, one with the students only, and then another "Open" where Dan, who has won at the national level in his region, tries to teach the new kids "how it's done." I don't have an entry, per sa, but I have to say, this new crop of

We thank Dan for being the first to try this new method of enter. Come see who teaches who "how it's done" because to me, it is not at all obvious who'll win this competition. TThis is a live web broadcast. A month ago we ran the trial version of this, we have well over 100 web-visitors, from over a dozen countries, so this really could be considered a contest with international attention. Please join us this morning, by logging in and checking us out.

-- Randy M. Dumse

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Caution: Objects in mirror are more confused than they appear

Reply to
RMDumse

Hi group, I'm back from teaching at UNI. Fun contest. They've added the video feed to their media server, so if anyone wants to see the video in the future, you can stream it from

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and besides getting a nice teaching award for putting on the class, I (we) also got some recognition from the local paper. (Front page, photos, lead article!)

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Reply to
Randy M. Dumse

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