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Tutorial Contest Winners Announced!

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
In March we announced that our contest would go in a different direction this time and with even bigger prizes:
This round is going to be a Tutorial Contest , and is quite a bit different from our previous contests. Think of it as an ‘Instructables meets How Stuff Works’ style contest: We want you to submit entries in the form of a detailed step by step ‘How-To’ or Informative Tutorials.
We had a good amount of solid entries in our first Tutorial Contest so picking our winners was a not an easy ordeal. Our entries covered many different topics, from electrical and soldering basics to more advanced robotics navigation tutorials. We highly suggest that you take a look at our Tutorials Section, there is a lot to be learned and if you have knowledge to share we highly encourage it.
Without further ado, here are our winners!

3rd Place goes to Jes1510!

Jes1510
Jes1510 submitted some ‘back to the basics’ tutorials which were well documented, easy to read through, and really helpful for the beginning robot hobbyist! He’ll be walking away with an Ollo Bug Kit!
Tutorials:

2nd Place goes to Pi Robot!

Pirobot
Pi Robot amazed us with two extremely detailed, professional tutorials that cover some very advanced robotics applications by breaking it down into more digestible bite sized pieces. Both are excellent pieces of literature, definitely worth a read through! Pi Robot will be walking away with a Bioloid Beginner Kit for his contributions!
Tutorials:

1st Place goes to lnxfergy!

lnxfergy
lnxfergy was determined to win 1st prize! He submitted awesome tutorial after awesome tutorial covering some pretty major aspects of robotics. All of these tutorials are very helpful for beginners and even more advanced builders can take something from them. From practical navigation systems to controlling AX-12 servos, lnxfergy demonstrated an amazing grasp of current hobby robotics technology, and was kind enough to share that knowledge with us. For his massive effort, he will be awarded with a Bioloid Comprehensive Kit!
Tutorials:
We want to thank everyone involved with our first Tutorial Contest! Determining the winners was not easy, as there were many great tutorials to browse through. Again, we highly recommend you check out our Tutorials section, as there is a lot to be learned! Stay tuned for an announcement on our next round of contests!

Posted in Announcements, Contests, Featured Projects, Front Page News, Misc, TRC Projects, Tutorials | 3 Comments »

Want to win a Bioloid? Announcing the TRC Tutorial Contest!

Friday, March 27th, 2009
Time flies! It’s that time again to officially announce the next round of the Trossen Robotics Community (TRC) Contest. We had quite a bit of success with our previous Project Contests and a lot of very cool entries, however we are going to mix things up this time.
This round is going to be a Tutorial Contest , and is quite a bit different from our previous contests. Think of it as an ‘Instructables meets How Stuff Works’ style contest: We want you to submit entries in the form of a detailed step by step ‘How-To’ or Informative Tutorials.
We’re going to be asking a lot more of our participants this round, so we have raised the stakes and are giving away our biggest prizes yet! Without further ado here are the prizes being offered for this round!
1st place

bioloid


Bioloid Comprehensive Kit:


2nd place



Bioloid Beginner Kit:


3rd place


ollo


Robotis Ollo Bug Kit:

  • New Beginner Robotics Kit from Robotis!
  • Reconfigurable, modular design
  • Tons of parts to build with!
  • Instructions to build 4 different robots included
  • Remote controlled
  • Highly descriptive well documented instructions


You’re probably asking: “Well what’s the catch?” We won’t lie, we’re going to make you work for it and put your knowledge to the test!

Here are some examples of what types of tutorials we’re looking for:

  • What is a gyroscope/accelerometer/analog or digital signal?
  • How do servos/DC Motors/Batteries work? (explain inner workings, control, show example code, etc)
  • Choosing the right (Microcontroller/DC Motor/Sensor) for the job.
  • How to setup an Arduino/Xbee Communication/Basic Stamp. (basic projects with example code, videos, etc)
  • How to control a robot wirelessly. (many different methods of going about this, pick one and elaborate!)
  • Theory of Inverse Kinematics, Dead Reckoning, Spacial Mapping, etc.
We’re looking for well written, detailed entries that a beginner could read through and learn from. The emphasis on this is creating valuable tutorials and FAQs that the community as a whole can benefit from. Diagrams, pictures, source code, practical applications, text references and examples are welcomed and strongly encouraged. Plagiarism will not be tolerated, please cite any reference materials used. We are not looking for build articles during this round.
Entries will also be judged in a different manner than before: Contestants are encouraged to post as many tutorials as they like; in fact, the more tutorials submitted, the more points they receive towards their final score. Now that said, quality is greatly valued over quantity. One detailed, well written tutorial will hold more weight than five mediocre ones, but if you post numerous well written tutorials you’re going to be in very good shape.

Previous project submissions were based out of our Project Showcase forum, but this time all submissions must be entered into the Tutorial section.

Please visit our Project Contest Page to learn more about the contest, how to enter and for the official rules and guidelines. Somebody is going to be a proud new owner of a Bioloid Comprehensive Kit, Bioloid Beginner Kit, or Ollo Bug Kit, will it be you?

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Posted in Announcements, Contests, Featured Projects, Front Page News, Hack / DIY Stuff, News / Articles, TRC Projects, Tutorials | 2 Comments »

Lynxmotion Robot Project Contest!

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
Our friends over at Lynxmotion are hosting their first ever Project Contest! Do you have an awesomely customized Johnny 5 kit you want to show off? How about a suped-up Phoenix? Head over to the Lynxmotion forums and submit a detailed write-up of your project, complete with pictures and videos for a chance to win some very generous gift cards. Here is the official posting:

We are happy to announce our first Robot Project Contest. People have been building awesome robots from our kits and parts for 15 years. We want to do a better job of recognizing and rewarding these efforts. The contest will have two categories.

The first category can be any project that is based on a Lynxmotion robot kit. This can be anything from a Robotic Arm or Rover to a Johnny 5 or 3DOF Hexapod. We’re looking for anything that has been added or modified to improve the aesthetics or the functionality of the robot. Your take on your favorite movie robot, or your version of a Mars Rover would be cool. Submitting a stock build is not likely to draw much attention.

The second category can be anything created with our Servo Erector Set series of brackets and components. For this category we are looking for something unique, interesting and different. It must use the SES components as the primary construction material.

The entries must be posted here in this section of the forum. Even if the robot has been posted in other sections of the website. The first post is the submission, so you should edit it to keep it up to date. The entry must have quality higher resolution images and clear video as a minimum. We will also require a full write up of the parts used, the problems solved, or the inspiration for the project, etc. We need details. At the time of this writing we do not have the ability to host the images or video. You will need to find a place to host them for now. You are encouraged to post what you have as soon as possible. You will have time to edit your post to fulfill the contest requirements as you require.

The contest time frame is three months, ending on May 31st. The awards are as follows:

Kit Robot Contest
1st Place = $350.00 gift certificate
2nd Place = $200.00 gift certificate
3rd Place = $100.00 gift certificate

SES Robot Contest
1st Place = $350.00 gift certificate
2nd Place = $200.00 gift certificate
3rd Place = $100.00 gift certificate

Our own custom Pico-ITX based Johnny 5 will be cheering from the sidelines! Go get em guys!

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Posted in Competitions, Contests, Featured Projects, Fun Stuff, Hack / DIY Stuff, Misc | No Comments »

Want a free* trip to Japan?

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Oh yes, there is always that pesky asterisk. However in this case, what the asterisk implies isn’t too bad.

David Calkins, Robogames founder and co-host of the Revision3 eShow: Systm, is offering a free* all expenses paid trip to Japan. What’s the catch? Well first of all, you have to have a 3kg Sumobot. David’s message below explains the whole deal:

So, The all-Japan 3kg sumo tournament is Dec 21st in Tokyo.

Fujisoft gave me 2 seats to go, all expenses, but Simone is pregnant and due about then, so I’m giving away the tix.

Want ‘em?

You gotta win ‘em.

MAIL me your 3kg sumo (not 500g), so it arrives by the morning of Dec 5th.
Include pre-paid return for the package.  On Dec 6th, I’ll compete them all in a normal sumo bracket.  Don’t have a 3kg sumo?  You can build one in 3 weeks…

The top two robots each get one ticket to Japan.  You will need a passport and time off work to go.  This is going to be totally merit based.  It’s not random.
Best two robots go.

Email me directly for more details: dcalkins@robotics-society.org

-David E. Calkins

SFSU Robotics Engineering and Robotics Outreach President,  RoboGames / Robotics Society of America

How cool is that? Here’s some mini-sumo action!

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Posted in Competitions, Contests, Fun Stuff | No Comments »

Announcement: Next Round of the TRC Project Contest

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

It’s that time again to officially announce the next round of the Trossen Robotics Community (TRC) Project Contest. With the success of last round, it was obvious many preferred the idea of offering Robots as prizes, so we’re doing it again:-)

The goal of the TRC Project Contest is to encourage technological creativity, innovation and ingenuity through these talented individual’s unique projects. We invite everyone to help spread the word about this contest announcement to help encourage others to show off their talent.

1st place


Pleo™ from UGOBE


Includes:

  • 2 32-bit Microprocessors – central and image processing
  • 4 8-bit Subprocessors – motor control
  • 14 motors
  • Over 100 custom-designed gears
  • Camera-based vision system – light detection and navigation.
  • 2 Microphones – binaural hearing
  • 8 Skin sensors – head, chin, shoulders, back, legs
  • 4 Foot switches – surface detection
  • 14 Force-feedback sensors – one per joint
  • Orientation tilt sensor – body position
  • Infrared mouth sensor – object detection
  • SD card slot – Pleo add-ons
2nd place




WowWee RS-Media™

Features:

  • Chest Mounted LCD Screen
  • PC-Based Editing Suite
  • Head Mounted Camera
  • Sonic Sensors
  • 40MB Memory w/ SD upgrade slot
3rd place




Wowwee Roboquad™

Modes:

  • IR Vision w/Scanning features
  • Head mounted LED’s
  • 72 Preprogrammed Functions
  • Multiple Modes
  • Advanced Motion Control
  • Personality Settings
  • Light Sensor
  • Sound Sensor

Please visit our Project Contest Page for further information and instructions on how and where to submit your project. Somebody is going to be a proud new owner of a WowWee Roboquad, RS-Media, or… wait for it…. a PLEO from UGOBE. Will it be you?

Posted in Announcements, Contests, Front Page News | 1 Comment »

The Shelter for Homeless Robots

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

We see a wide range of different projects showcased on our Community Forums, ranging from the simple and to the point (read: cheap) to the extravagant and over the top (read: how to anger your wife). One of our members, Darkback2, decided to simultaneously raise and lower the bar by creating the Junk Bot Challenge! Participants essentially try to build the best bot they can using any spare junk and salvage laying around the house and a $20 budget for additional parts.

Needless to say, this sparked some ‘interesting’ entries. The contest is being wrapped up and the entries are being voted upon, so make sure to drop by the Junk Bots Contest Thread and cast your vote. Here are the Junk Bots that were entered:

Junk Bot: Trash
Creator: Electricity
Trash!

Plastic Forks. And Chopsticks. How awesome is that? This robot might go down in history as the most awesomely low-cost quadrapod ever made.

Junk Bot: Lisa
Creator: Darkback2
Lisa!

Is it a quadrapod or a tripod? We don’t know, we don’t care. It’s best not to ask too many questions when your robot has a gun.

Junk Bot: Putter Bot
Creator: Crabfu
Putter Bot!

Look out Tiger, this robot could probably beat you down at your own game. Or at least Mini-Golf. Bonus points for giving this robot a very cool personality.

Junk Bot: Beetlebot
Creator: metaform3d
Beetle Bot!

It’s a bug, it’s a frog, it’s a robot made out of cardboard! This bot gives “Trash Bot” a run for it’s lack of money in the cheapest robot department, and is actually quite mobile.

Junk Bot: LIDAR Bot
Creator: Adrenalynn
Lidar Bot!

Lidar Bot Image!

Many of you may not know what LIDAR is. Regardless of what wikipedia says, I know the real answer. LIDAR is what happens when someone with a serial-overachievement complex enters in the Junk Bot competition. Not satisfied with simply building a cheap robot, Adrenalynn (aka Hermoine) built a LIDAR vision system (which usually run in the several thousand dollar range) out of spare junk and pocket change. Shes sick I tell you. Sick.


Well that about wraps up the Junk Bots 08 contest. Make sure to cast your votes, poll closes on September 8th!

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Posted in Competitions, Contests, Featured Projects, Hack / DIY Stuff, Misc | No Comments »

August TRC Project Contest Winners!

Monday, August 4th, 2008

As many of you may know by now, the Trossen Robotics crew hosts project contests every few months, where the winners are awarded in lavish gifts such as gift cards, robot kits and trips to the Playboy Mansion! (Okay, maybe not that last one. But they won’t put me in charge of picking out the prizes for some reason)

Members of the Trossen Robotics Community (TRC) face off in a battle of robotic wits! They come up with all sorts of great inventions, document their work, take a ton of photos and video, and post about it all in our Project Showcase Forum in hopes of being whisked off to the Playboy Mansion! Or…in hopes of winning fantastic robo-prizes.

The time is nigh to pick out winners. We flew our finalists out here to Chicago and determined the winners the only fair way we could think of: We put their projects on the sidelines, armed the inventors with sporks, and threw them into an arena in a fight to the death ala Bloodsport! (Okay, again, this didn’t happen.. who makes these contest rules anyway?) The TR crew locked wits in the discussion as to who would place these past few weeks. Heated public debates were held, dirt-throwing campaign commercials were made, friendships were torn apart… and in the end we finally came to an agreement. Without further ado, here are the runners-up and winners, in suspense-building ascending order!

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Honorable Mention:
Swashbot!Flapper Fish!

Project: Swashbot(s) & Flapper Fish
Creator: CrabFu

You’re probably wondering: “Wait, why didn’t The Great Crabfu win??” Well, that’s exactly why. He’s too great! It wouldn’t be fair to let “Geppetto Emeritus” steal away first place, so we took him down a notch and gave him an honorable mention. This man might not even be human the way he produces robots, it seems like we had a new invention from him every other week! Keep em coming Crabfu!

Hex CNCHex CNCHex CNC

Project: Walking CNC Router Robot
Creator: Matt Denton

Matt Denton, animatronics whiz of MicroMagic Systems is known for his incredible hexapods. If you’re not familiar with them, I suggest you check them out here. Well simply walking, dynamically balancing, and snapping pictures of people to post on it’s site (yes, the robot has a website) wasn’t enough for this Hexapod. Matt went ahead and taught it how to be a CNC router. That walks. Flashbacks from “Runaway” aside, this project is really amazing and shows how far robotic technology is progressing. He went all out and cut a 3D image of a face out of foam using the robot’s I.K. engine alone. Big kudos!

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Runners-Up:

Project: Butler Robot
Creator: airman00
Average Score: 7.1
Prize: $25 Gift Card to the Trossen Robotics Store

Everyone always wanted their own Rosie the Robot as a kid right? Well meet Chives the Butler Bot. Good ol’ Chives here can pour drinks, respond to voice commands, has onboard vision processing and can be controlled via laptop or iPod Touch! To make things better, you can even build your own. Airman00 wrote up a comprehensive step by step guide to build your very own robotic butler! He even is provided all of his code as open source. Great job!

RC Truck

Project: RC Truck Robot Conversion
Creator: Orac
Average Score: 7.3
Prize: $25 Gift Card to the Trossen Robotics Store

Leave it to one of our members to steal an R/C Truck from his kid and slap a computer on it. Regardless of this R/C Truck’s origins, its obvious that it is awesome. Orac took this car, modded it and added a fully functioning PC and a webcam to it. This not only gave it the option for off-road telepresence, it made it simultaneously chase and run away from orange colored balls. Like a puppy! A really ugly puppy. Made of plastic and metal.

Project: iLush Bartender
Creator: metaform3d
Average Score: 7.5
Prize: $25 Gift Card to the Trossen Robotics Store

Okay, first of all, this robot serves booze. Do we really need to continue as to why this kicks ass? Metaform3d impressed the judges at Robogames 2008 with his iLush Bartender, which serves up mixed drinks and is controlled via a touchscreen computer. He ended up walking away with a gold in the Bartending category (Yes, there is a robo-bartending category). Wow!

Project: RoboCam
Creator: Norris56
Average Score: 7.7
Prize: $25 Gift Card to the Trossen Robotics Store

This isn’t your average telepresence bot, creator Steve Norris took this one to the next level. Starting off with just an iCreate base, he built a very professional looking robot that can be driven from anywhere there is internet. That’s right, the entire robot can be remotely piloted from across the globe via a custom web interface that Steve designed. He even armed it with a laser to assist with depth perception (I thought lasers were only supposed to be mounted on sharks?) I guess our only question is, when can we buy one?

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Third Place:

Project: XR-B3
Creator: lnxfergy
Average Score:8.7
Prize: Wowwee Alive Elvis

This cool little bot runs a custom microcontroller onboard that has a wireless link back to a computer, which handles the heavy lifting. And by heavy lifting we mean machine vision and room mapping capabilities. Not only is this impressive from a technical standpoint, it also has a very slick aesthetic, and overall a very impressive build quality to it. Be sure to check out the project page on this for more information and updates!

Second Place:

Project: AMOS-WD06
Creator: AMOS
Average Score: 9.3
Prize: Silverlit R/C X-UFO

This Hexapod is just downright impressive. The AMOS-WD06 (Advanced Mobility Sensor Driven-Walking Device) contains 21 actuators and 28 sensors and at its brain is a neural networked PDA. The programming behind this bot is what really makes it impressive as it is being designed to act and react like an insect. It exhibits Phototaxis, has a dynamic obstacle avoidance routine, will shy away from ‘predators’ and if you flip it on its back it can flip around and keep walking! We expect to see even more great things as this project develops.

First Place:

Project: Homebrew Wall-E
Creator: 4mem8
Average Score: 9.7
Prize: SG-5UT Robotic Arm

Well what can we say, we fell in love with this bot at first sight. We got to watch 4mem8 bring this guy to life and document every painstaking step that he took building this Wall-E robot from scratch. That’s right, this was not a kit, in fact he had the majority of it done far before the movie actually hit theaters and the toy stores were flooded with Wall-E merchandise. The robot itself is carved and crafted largely out of wood, and the rest from random parts found here and there… like a true ‘junk-bot‘ should be! 4mem8 has made a great contribution with his knowledge and experience in building bots, so we’re very proud present to him with the first place prize in this round of the TRC contest. Good job 4mem8! You earned it! Be sure to also check out 4mem8’s project on RoboCommunity.

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We would like to take this time to congratulate and thank everyone who participated in this round of the contest. Not only have we seen some amazing projects entered, but we’ve gained some really incredibly talented members in our community as a result. We look forward to the next round of our contest, keep tuned in for more info. You can stay up to date on contest rules and regulations at the Trossen Robotics Project Contest page, and start posting your projects in our Project Showcase Forum.

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Posted in Announcements, Contests, Front Page News | 7 Comments »

Announcement: Trossen Robotics Community Contest Prize

Monday, April 14th, 2008

After the incredible projects and hard time we had deciding on the winners, we needed a quick cool down from the last Trossen Robotics Community (TRC) contest!

However, we are now ready to announce the prizes and dates for this round in the TRC Contest. We’ve decided to do something a little different for this round; instead of offering cold hard cash, we’re going to be offering what else? Robots!! Yes, act soon and if you get your project in before July 31th 2008, you can win your very own Robot:)

Ok, all cheesiness aside, here are the prizes for this round’s TRC Contest:


1st place

Crustcrawler SG5 Robot Arm

Includes:

2nd place

(Open Link in IE to view site)
Silverlit R/C X-UFO

Features:

  • Gyro stabilized
  • Indoor and outdoor
  • All factory assembled
  • Unique electronic control system
  • Ultra lightweight carbon fiber frame include 2-way charger-AC adapter or
    automotive adapter
3rd place

Wowwee Alive™ – ELVIS®

Modes:

  • Alive (Taking care of business™) mode
  • Song mode
  • Monologue mode
  • Sing through (Share the spotlight) mode

As always, for contest details and qualifications please visit our contest page.

Posted in Announcements, Contests, Front Page News | 3 Comments »

Gepetto is on the TV!

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Gepetto, one of the runners up in our last contest, got some airtime on G4 TV’s "Attack of the Show" this past Tuesday!  This bot has been generating quite a bit of buzz, which isn’t surprising.  It has style, good mechanical design, brains, and high-caliber weaponry.  Also, people just can’t resist videos of a robot attacking its creator (TR community member darkback2).  In the video, Gepetto is featured along with Plen and the CMU snake robot.

Congratulations!

Linkage:
AotS Blog post
Video

We don’t want to take too much credit here, but let’s not forget where we first saw Gepetto.  Right here, in the Trossen Robotics Community.  Booyah.

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Posted in Announcements, Contests, Featured Projects, Front Page News, Fun Stuff, Techno Art | No Comments »

February TRC Project Contest Winners!

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

In case you’re new to the Trossen Robotics Community, here’s a quick refresher on how this contest works:  First, all kinds of fantastically talented and dedicated people come to our Project Showcase forum to tell us all about the projects they’ve been working on.  Periodically, we (the Trossen Robotics team) sort through these projects, and score them very scientifically in the following categories: "Wow" factor, Ingenuity, creativity, and presentation (this includes graphics, videos, documentation, explanation, etc.).  This is the fourth contest we’ve run here at Trossen Robotics, and the projects just keep getting cooler!  This time around, we extended the deadline and upped the stakes.  Since the last contest, the community has grown and expanded well beyond our expectations, and this has resulted in some of the best work we’ve seen yet.  If you showed off your project in our Project Showcase forum, give yourself a big ol’ pat on the back.  Now, let’s get to the meat and potatoes.  Here are the runners-up and winners, in suspense-building ascending order!

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Honorable Mention

Project: "Johnny 5.3"

Creator: Andrew Alter (Tyberius)

We’ve been working a little too closely with Andrew to let him enter the contest, but we can’t totally leave him hanging.  He’s been building a "Johnny 5"-inspired humanoid/trackbot hybrid, and it’s really coming together.  His brain (Johnny’s, not Andrew’s) is a Pico-ITX running Windows XP Pro.  It has a vocal synthesizer, great big grippers, a reinforced suspension system, a snarky personality, and I’ve heard that it drives around harassing Andrew’s baby.  It’s the embodiment of robotic awesomeness, in other words.  Check out his thread, picture gallery, and his blog.

Runners-Up

Project: "Leviskate"

Creator: Rodger Cleye
Average Score: 7.63 / 10
Prize: $20 Trossen Robotics Gift Certificate!

The Leviskate is a "self-balancing motorboard."  Kind of like a Segway for people who really like head injuries.  Seriously though, this contraption is truly awesome.  There are some cool videos in Rodger’s thread, too.  Our favorite thing about the videos is that Rodger sounds genuinely amazed that it actually works.

Project: "The Bratinator Project"

Creator: SN96
Average Score: 7.67 / 10
Prize: $20 Trossen Robotics Gift Certificate!

It walks, it talks, it scares the kids.  It’s… the Bratinator.  Built around the Lynxmotion Brat biped, this monstrosity features speech, binaural hearing, a custom-machined aluminum head.

Project: "Gepetto"

Creator: darkback2
Average Score: 8.25 / 10
Prize: $20 Trossen Robotics Gift Certificate!

It really pains us to see Gepetto in the runners up, instead of placing in a cash-winning position, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes.  This was a very close race.  This bot is beautifully made from wood and metal, has a really cool suspension system, carries its laptop brain around with it, and is programmed with some really interesting behavior/mood software.  That’s really just the tip of the iceberg, so you’ll have to read through the thread to see Gepetto’s full story.

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Third Place

Project: "eyeRobot"
Creator: Nathaniel Barshay
Average Score: 8.38 / 10
Prize: $100 Trossen Robotics Gift Certificate!

The eyeRobot is a robotic guide for people with vision impairments.  It has a whole slew of IR and ultrasonic range sensors for collision avoidance, and pathfinding software to keep it moving through the clearest area.  This was a proof-of-concept prototype meant to "marry the simplicity of the traditional white cane with the instincts of a seeing-eye dog."  This project is going places, and hopefully one day it will help other people go places.

 

Second Place

Project: "Frameless Laser Harp"
Creator: Stephen Hobley
Average Score: 8.88 / 10
Prize: $250 Trossen Robotics Gift Certificate!

Twenty-two years ago, he saw Jean-Michel Jarre play a laser harp at a concert, and from that day he’s been on a mission.  This mission finally came to fruition last month, when he completed his own laser harp, and let me tell you, it’s a pretty stunning piece of equipment.  Using a galvanometer to very rapidly and precisely aim a pulsing laser, light sensors to detect where a beam has been interrupted, and an Arduino brain; the harp sends MIDI control signals to a synthesizer.

 

First Place

Project: "Phoenix"
Creator: KÃ¥re Halvorsen
Average Score: 9.63 / 10
Prize: $500 Trossen Robotics Gift Certificate!

Phoenix is a six legged walking robot.  Wait, we know some of you out there may be thinking that hexapod robots are old hat.  Well, you’re wrong.  So very wrong.  Wait until you see it move.  Phoenix’s real beauty lies in her graceful motion, which is some of the most convincing and eerily lifelike that we’ve seen in a robot that uses standard hobby servos and a common off-the-shelf servo controller.  The kinematics are computed by an intricately programmed spreadsheet, which we highly recommend you check out if you’re a fan of trigonometry.

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We want to thank everyone for their great submissions.  If all goes as planned, the next contest (which is already underway) will conclude at the end of May 2008.  You can stay up to date on contest rules and regulations at the Trossen Robotics Project Contest page, and start posting your projects in our Project Showcase Forum.

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Posted in Announcements, Contests, Featured Projects, Front Page News, Fun Mods, Fun Stuff, Hack / DIY Stuff, Hardware - Electronics, Hardware - Mechanical, Humanoid Robots, Software | 11 Comments »

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