Sherman the Lego RCX Tank at RoboGames 2017
After the early defeat of 2016, Sherman went through a redesign. First, Sherman's two Power Functions L-Motors were replaced by two Power Functions XL motors. The forward facing light sensor radar system was replaced by an NXT touch sensor. If the front touch sensor is activated, then Sherman goes into attack mode! And lastly, Sherman went trough a frame redesign to accomidate the larger motors, strengthen it, and generally add weight to get closer to the limit. The programing for Sherman is still NQC, some changes where made to remove the radar system, add the touch sensor, but for the most part, the logic that drives Sherman is the same.
Some of the wires for the light sensor and extension cables have started to deteriorate and the insulation is breaking off. I guess the 18 year old wires need some attention.
So... Sherman did ok. He actually made it to the third round of competition. We are so proud of Sherman!
Since we needed to buy two tickets to robogames, we decided we should enter two robots. So for 2017, we introduced a new Lego NXT based robot called Vincent. The general frame is influenced by the "Multi-Bot Vehicle":
Multi-Bot Sumo Vehicle
There is even a tank variant:
Multi-Bot Sumo Pusher
But the design had to be changed to get it under the 15cm length limit for Robogames. The programing language for Vincent is NXC. Vincent was litterally built the night before the cometition, and although we had high hopes for our more modren robot, he quickly was defeated in the first round.