We had a contest to make a soccer robot out of junk on a big pile. Then at the end of the weekend we could compete with the other teams. All in all it was an awesome weekend and we had lots of fun breaking everything to make something new!

Step 1: The Robot

The base of this vehicle is some Caterpillar track thing we found on the pile. The tracks are powered by two dc motors and some gears.

On the front we placed some computer fans and left only one blade per fan so it could kick the ball away. the coils on the fans are there for extra momentum so the ball actually gets kicked in stead of just stopping.

The hand standing up is there for stopping high balls. It is held in place at the bottom by the magnet of a small speaker. the whole thing pivots at the top of the fans an can be turned by a dc motor. So it can now also give high fives.

The arms are made out of an old TV hacked up beyond recognition.

The spoiler not only makes it look very good but also functions as cable management.

Naming this thing came sort of naturally when we thought it looked a bit like a stingray and the fans a bit like a minesweeper. That is why the keyboard keys spell out Sherman the stingray, both referring to different tanks.

Step 2: The Controller

We found a cool looking case so we had to make that our controller. Everything is functional except the middle brown control panel with the many buttons except if you count style points.

left and right buttons turn on the different dc motors for the tracks. The top left switch reverses polarity so the tracks turn backwards as well. Turning the fans can be toggled and the high five is activated with the FU button.

The self destruct button is glued solid so we never make the mistake to push that one.

In the top right corner we made a capacitor bank so that it can deliver the peak currents when all the "weapons" are toggled at the same time that we are driving. It also makes the robot accelerate faster.

The whole thing is powered by a 15 Volt adapter.