Archive for the ‘Competitions / Contests’ Category

Junkbot Competition Winners!

Monday, November 14th, 2016

First Place:

contestWinner
All the submissions to the junkbot competition were great, and we hope everyone had fun doing it! Our first place winner was Enigmatic Electronics with the Robot Grumpy Cat! We really loved this guy, and we’re likely to use it as inspiration in some RobotGeek projects. Watch the video, they put a lot of effort into it! They even did an unboxing video of the super mysterious robotics grab bag. It paid off doing it for the meme, so keep up the good work guys!

Runner-up:

Now we know we said there would be one winner, but we were torn because all of the submissions were so great. We had to pick out a runner-up because we just loved watching solenoids pop ping pong balls in every direction! Joesinstructables made not one, but two projects that include full instruction! The Arduino Ping Pong Ball Cannon fires ping pong balls in all directions (and we want one for the office), and the Arduino Ping Pong Pinball machine looks like a lot of fun!

Congrats, guys! Each of you will be receiving a $200.00 gift certificate to Trossen Robotics!

Thank you to all the participants, we’ll be doing more competitions soon!

Junkbot Competition Deadline Extension! (now October 26)

Thursday, September 8th, 2016

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We’ve been selling so many of the Super Mysterious Robotics Grab Bags! With so many people just getting involved in the contest, we want to give you all an extra month to make your robots! The new deadline for the Junkbot Competition is October 26! All of the entry rules still apply. Winner takes home a $200 Trossen Robotics Gift Card and all the glory of having made a cute/funny/cool robot using a randomized selection of parts!

Junkbot Competition:

We wanted to do something fun with this, so we’re going to have a junkbot competition! Winner takes a $200 Trossen Robotics Gift Card, and all the glory of having made a cute/funny/cool robot using a randomized selection of parts!

How to enter:

  • Purchase the Super Mysterious Robotics Grab Bag, and keep your order number
  • Build a robot that makes use of the parts in the Grab Bag
  • Put a video, pictures, blog post, or any other media you can think of that displays the best qualities of your robot online and send us a link at [email protected] with the subject line “Junkbot Competition”

Win!

  • A winner will be selected on October 26, so have your bot made and shared with us by then.
  • Winner will receive notification of their win, a $200 Trossen Robotics Gift Card, and a blog post showing off their creation!

Super Mysterious Robotics Grab Bag and Junkbot Competition!

Monday, August 22nd, 2016

newsletter

The Super Mysterious Robotics Grab Bag is a way for us to clean house and say thank you to our customers. Sometimes we end up with a surplus of parts that we just don’t know what to do with, so now we’re giving it away on the cheap! The Super Mysterious Robotics Grab Bag always comes with a large workbench, duino mount, RobotGeek LED Driver, RobotGeek Rotation Knob, RobotGeek Pushbutton, RobotGeek Sensor Shield, and the hardware you’ll need to mount it. What else is in the box? Everything from that point is a mystery. You’ll get well over $150 (retail) worth of robot parts to kick your creative processes into high gear!

Junkbot Competition:

We wanted to do something fun with this, so we’re going to have a junkbot competition! Winner takes a $200 Trossen Robotics Gift Card, and all the glory of having made a cute/funny/cool robot using a randomized selection of parts!

How to enter:

  • Purchase the Super Mysterious Robotics Grab Bag, and keep your order number
  • Build a robot that makes use of the parts in the Grab Bag
  • Put a video, pictures, blog post, or any other media you can think of that displays the best qualities of your robot online and send us a link at [email protected] with the subject line “Junkbot Competition”

Win!

  • A winner will be selected on September 26, so have your bot made and shared with us by then.
  • Winner will receive notification of their win, a $200 Trossen Robotics Gift Card, and a blog post showing off their creation!

RoboCup 2016 is on!

Thursday, June 30th, 2016

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RoboCup 2016 is happening right now, and we’ve sent Andrew to Leipzig Germany to be there!

The international RoboCup community fosters the development of intelligent robots by defining and executing competitions that are used by scientists and students from all over the world to test and demonstrate their robots in attractive, realistic scenarios.

RoboCup is a fantastic tournament where over 3,500 scientists and developers gather from all around the world to exhibit their latest leaps in robotics engineering! The contests are split into leagues, Soccer, Industrial, Rescue, and Junior, each with subcategories to help distinguish the class of robot being exhibited. We’re excited to be in attendance with the HR-OS5 making an appearance, and we will be bringing you a recap of the events!

DynamixShield Kickstarter!

Wednesday, November 18th, 2015

DynamixShield

Our friend at NeuroRobotic Technologies has been developing an Arduino Due Shield that plays nice with everything in the InterbotiX and RobotGeek product lines (and subsequently, his PhantomX Hexapod is playing nicely with the kids)! This is a comprehensive shield that lets you connect AX, MX, and XL Dynamixel Servos! The DynamixShield is an electronics board that fits onto an Arduino Due microcontroller to give you the ability to control Dynamixel smart servos and regular servos, while also providing numerous Grove and RobotGeek connectors. Grove and RobotGeek are hardware frameworks for modular sensors and actuators. There are tons of off-the-shelf modules for these two frameworks that can be plugged into the shield with a single cable. This includes everything from GPS sensors, RFID scanners, and LCD displays that are plug-and-play ready for use with the shield. This makes it very easy to build your robots by combining modules and servos. Check out his Kickstarter, and if you want to see it happen, you can make it happen!

HR-OS1 at TADHack!

Wednesday, October 14th, 2015

ProbatioNerds

Team ProbatioNerds from IIT worked with Matrix to control an HR-OS1, sending commands through a chatroom (in the presentation, from a phone) to move the robot from anywhere in the world! They subsequently won an HR-OS1 from Matrix, which we’re sure is being put to good use. Check out their presentation! They explain the architecture a bit, and programmed the HR-OS1 to do the macarena, which is endlessly entertaining. Congratulations, ProbatioNerds! We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with next!

Giant Robot Duel

Thursday, August 20th, 2015

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Trossen Robotics’ own lead engineer, Andrew, has been hanging with the Megabots team (You know, the guys who are going to pilot America’s MK. II against Japan’s Kuratas in the first large scale robot duel that this planet has experienced in all of recorded history). If you want to see America become the first Mech battling champion of the world, you can back the kickstarter! While you’re waiting for the giant robot battle to happen, check out our gallery of Andrew’s miniature MK. II build!

Marquette University’s HEIR Lab Participates in RoboCup

Wednesday, August 5th, 2015

MU-L8

HEIR Lab (Humanoid Engineering & Intelligent Robotics), at Marquette University took their robot to RoboCup 2015 in Hefei, China! The team is lead by Andrew B. Williams, Ph.D., who has written up a fantastic post on the subject.

This week, our students in the Marquette University Humanoid Engineering & Intelligent Robotics (HEIR) Lab are participating in perhaps the largest and the oldest robot hackathon in the world, RoboCup, in Hefei, China. RoboCup is sometimes referred to as the World Cup of robotics and artificial intelligence. This is the tenth anniversary since I founded and led the Spelman College SpelBots to our first RoboCup in Osaka, Japan and it is a privilege to lead our current, outstanding team from Marquette University College of Engineering: Matt, Adrianna, Ryan, and Sally.

For the rest of the post, check out his blog, and make sure to watch their Qualification video from RoboCup 2014 below!

Oregon State University’s Bipedal Robot: ATRIAS

Monday, May 11th, 2015

Rhoeby

ATRIAS, built by the Oregon State University’s Dynamic Robotics Laboratory, directed by Dr. Jonathan Hurst, is an awesome bipedal robot. ATRIAS is capable of balancing itself on changing terrain, rolling hills, and even while being pelted by dodgeballs! This robot is clever, and we wish the team lots of luck at the DARPA Robotics Challenge in Pomona, CA on June 5-6, 2015.

Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator – Applications Due in a Few Days!

Thursday, March 5th, 2015

qualcomm

Qualcomm Robotics wants to select 10 robotics teams to receive access to a wide range of expertise and resources with the Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator program! Companies selected for the Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator will have access to the range of expertise and resources from Qualcomm to help bring their vision for an automated future to life. Successful applicants will get:

 

  • An investment of up to $120,000
  • Access to Robot Reference Designs — mechanical designs, hardware, circuits and radio frequency control guidance — and low power robotics solutions built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
  • Mentorship from key Qualcomm Robotics executives, other leaders in the robotics space, venture capitalists, and the broader entrepreneurial community.
  • Access to Techstars’ network of over 3,000 successful entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and corporate partners.
  • Demo day, where each company will have the opportunity to pitch their company to robotics leaders, investors, press, and other community members.
  • Dedicated Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator space at the company’s headquarters in sunny San Diego.
  • $350,000 worth of partner perks.

Applications are due by March 8, 2015, so there are only a few days left to get your team involved! This is an excellent opportunity for small companies to make a big leap toward an automated future. Check out their website and apply!