Our robot won 1st place in Illinois level Science Olympiad

Kind of happy, wanted to report that a Bobcat-style robot that my son and I built for "Robocross" won 1st place in Illinois Science Olympics competition.

More details are here:

>>> How to make a winning Robocross Robot / 1st Place in Illinois Science Olympiad <<<

What makes me happy is that it outperformed all those easy-to-assemble "Vex Robotics" kits that many other competitors used.

That is so cool...I was cheering for him as I watched it...it's a bummer the one rolled out at the end. My son was into robots, and computers too. He and some friends started a club for the nerds he would call it and made cool things after school in one of the kids basements. He asked me to buy him a expensive electrical tester. While many kids played sports he made cool stuff. He got in trouble programming his math calculator to play games on it too. LOL.. He did swim on the swimming team and was the school mascot, so he grew out of the club his senior year.

You're a lucky man as he is a lucky son. Helping him stimulate his imagination now. It will be amazing wondering what your sons generation will develops for future!. Your both a winner in my book!! Thanks for sharing! Rich

Thank you!!!

In "The Ascent of Man", Jacob Bronowski said that if Sir Christopher Wren had not played with blocks as a boy, he would not have built London as a man. The earlier children are exposed to these things, the better.

Bill

That's cool.

Not to nit pick too much, but is it really a robot if you have to drive it? In my mind "robot" means something programmable or automatic.

ewlsey said:

That's cool.

Not to nit pick too much, but is it really a robot if you have to drive it? In my mind "robot" means something programmable or automatic.

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I sort of agree with you, but in Robocross they call them robots.

i

Today it has a front end loader and toggle switches and only robotic by name.

Tomorrow because a Dad was involved in a young mans life that simple "robot"
could be roaming a distant moon or planet designed by a man who had a dad to help him
take the first steps in function and design for a proper robot.

Great job!

You should get him an arduino kit and the book. next year he very well could go back running the skid steer with an xbox controller.

Edit, Some useful functions an adruio board for controls could be something such as hot keys that make the skid steer rotate 180 on its own, program other keys to make the bucket drop back to grade, maybe a button to drop the speed of the motors rotation for more precise controls.