OverviewTeams from Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh are asked to design and build a robot that can (1) contain golf balls on board, and (2) move to various miniature golf holes and shoot until the cup has been made. Vanderbilt designs a robot with a barrel and plunger mechanism activated by a linear actuator and a pneumatically hinged ram, while Pittsburgh designs a robot with a bolt action rod that feeds golf balls into a spinning roller and out through the barrel. Vanderbilt's "Pinball" wizard sure plays a mean round of miniature golf, but even the Surprise Household Item 5-second advantage is not enough to stay on par with Pittsburgh's "Tobor." Pittsburgh advances to the championship finals of Robot Rivals and one win away from the J. F. Engelberger Trophy and the two-thousand-dollar scholarship.
The Teams
Vanderbilt University:
Michael Bono, Graduate Student, Electrical Engineering
Daniel Hooper, Junior, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics
Cole Moody, Senior, Computer Engineering
University of Pittsburgh:
Sam Scheinman, Senior, Physics
Mark Smorul, Senior, Computer Engineering
Ben McMillen,Graduate Student, Electrical Engineering
The DesignsVanderbilt designs a two-wheel-drive robot with a barrel and plunger mechanism activated by a linear actuator and a pneumatically hinged ram. Balls are fed into the barrel via a ball hopper above.
Pittsburgh designs a two-wheel drive robot with a double-barrel loading chamber that guides balls into a tube where a bolt action rod feeds them into a spinning roller and out through the barrel.
The "Household Item" Component
The teams are given a household item from which they may source parts for the construction of their robots. The team that uses the most parts from the household item receives a pre-determined advantage in the final competition. The household item for this competition: a baby stroller.
Construction and Competition
Host Chris Chianelli introduces the teams to their challenge: to build a miniature-golfing robot. With the help of Brian Nave and Buzz Dawson, both teams begin brainstorming. As designs continue the teams are introduced to a sample of one of the golf holes they'll be facing.
esigns are finalized and the teams are introduced to the surprise household item: a baby stroller. Both teams gather their parts provide a complete breakdown of each teams design. Building begins.
Vanderbilt dives into their stroller to find pieces that they can use in their robot, as Pittsburgh gets the base of the robot and the controller programming underway. Vanderbilt's ball shooting mechanism is being worked on by Buzz. Pittsburgh's barrel is made of PVC piping.
Chris talks to Brian and Buzz about how their teams are doing. Vanderbilt's robot is starting to come all together. The team attaches the shooting mechanism and electronics to the drive train. Pittsburgh's robot is still a long way from being assembled, but the ball hopper, shooting assembly and the radio controllers are all being worked out.
Chris gives an update on the progress of both teams. Vanderbilt's robot is together enough for them to start some serious testing, focusing on the aiming of the shooting mechanism. Pittsburgh is falling behind and they are running into some problems - the ball hopper designed by Ben isn't working and a new is needed, while Sam concedes the point that his day programming the IFI controllers has not worked and they have to switch to the Futaba system.
Chris recaps the day of building and the rules of the competition. Both robots start the competition strong, moving through the first two holes quickly, but Vanderbilt gets hung up on the third hole and Pittsburgh wins the competition.
The Winners: Pittsburgh
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