CHAPTER 27 ■ ENCORE
An illustrated guide with complete details for Robot Sumo appears at http://www.robotsumo.com/.
Robot Sumo contests are held throughout Japan, Canada, the United States, and many parts of the
world. In the United States, significant tournaments are held in Seattle, Washington; Peoria, Illinois;
Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and in many other places. A few contests
feature cash prizes, but most award wonderful parts and kits donated by commercial sponsors.
Trinity College Fire-Fighting
Probably the most attended and lucrative amateur contest in the United States is Trinity College
Fire-Fighting in Hartford, Connecticut. Total cash to be awarded is over $10,000. The prize money is
distributed among multiple divisions, so, there’s a fairly good chance of obtaining an award. T-shirts and
other goodies are provided to all who enter.
The goal of the contest is to extinguish a candle flame in the shortest possible time. The candle may
be located in one of four rooms. The specifications for the course layout are published so that your robot
may take advantage of wall mapping technology. There are optional complications that may be voluntarily
selected by the robot builder to produce a better score.
You can find complete details at http://www.trincoll.edu/events/robot/.
Atlanta Robot Vacuuming
The Atlanta Robot Vacuuming contest may provide the excuse you’ve been looking for to purchase as many
robot parts as your heart desires, with the full support of your spouse, mother, or roommate.
The purpose of the contest is to vacuum as much rice as possible in four minutes or less. There are
bonuses awarded for returning to the start, using less than the four minutes allotted, and for lighter-weight
robots. Penalties occur for pushing or knocking over furniture. It is perfectly acceptable to add some beacons
to help guide the robot, which isn’t the case in most other events.
You can view photographs, see past years’ scores, and obtain additional information from the Atlanta
Hobby Robot Club’s web site (http://www.botlanta.org/). They don’t hold the robot vacuuming contest
every year (it depends on interest levels), but that doesn’t prevent you from hosting a contest in your local area.
Figure 27-25. Bugdozer, a mini-sumo robot, faces off against a less capable challenger, Pound of Wood