Yesterday’s Robot Is Gone

That's right! Yesterday, Wendy and I spent half an hour going over the last remaining tutorials, then spent the next five and a half hours building what we hoped to be our new competition robot. The product we came up with at the end of that time was a structurally weak robot that was incredibly wide and had no room for arms or sensors. A wasted effort? No. We were able to learn from our mistakes and try again. This time, we ended up with something we never expected...

We had to find a way to get rid of the bulk and width. Our solution was to build from the motors up instead on the NXT down. The result. The most weird looking robot we have ever seen. The robot was very thin, for a competition robot, and was very long. Surprisingly, however, it is an impressively strong design. We combined the parts from the NXT kit with parts from the RCX kit to build this four wheel wonder. Neither Wendy or I were sure what to expect.

The first thing that threw us off was the appearance. It really didn't look at all stable being build of LEGO poles. After we got used to the shape, we plunged into the wheels. I think the hardest part was connecting the actual NXT. Because of it's size and shape it really was difficult to connect. We tried suspending it using poles, but gravity took its effect on us and sent the NXT to the ground. After several more attempts, we were able to connect them directly to the bar holding the wheels up. This provided stability and an incredibly strong design. (we tried dropping it a couple of times, the only things that broke off was the light sensor which really has no firm way of attachment)

We are about to present this to the rest of the team. Hopefully, they will agree with the design so we can begin the programming.

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