How to Make a Sumo Bot (Science Olympiad 2011 Rules)

This Sumo Bot was the Century High School, from Rochester, Minnesota, Science Olympiad Team's entry into the State Competition on March 5, 2011. Although we didn't do so well (25th out of 32 teams), I still decided to showcase my hard work, and to provide tips for other people.

Here's a brief overview of the competition:

Science Olympiad is a team-based science competition with events ranging from so-called "study events" to "lab events" to the menacing "build events." Sumo Bots is one of these "build events." Sumo Bots consists of two robots specifically designed to push the other robot out of a "Sumo Ring."

I"m entering it into the 13-18 NRW Contest Category.

Step 1 A Not-So-Brief Overview

Now for the extended overview of Science Olympiad, and specifically, the Sumo Bots competition:

Science Olympiad is, as I stated previously, a team-based science competition. Competitions include Invitationals hosted by schools around the state, Regionals, State, and Nationals. According to the Science Olympiad National website, soinc.org , Science Olympiad has been around for 27 years, and "has led a revolution in science education." Teams, for Division C (high school division), are made up of 15 members, who participate in multiple events, usually with different partners for each event. Events range from "lab events", such as Chemistry Lab and Forensics, to "study events", such as Ornithology and Fossils, to "build events", such as Mission Possible and Sumo Bots.

That wasn't too bad, was it?

Now for the exhaustive description of the Sumo Bots event (or rather, the event rules sheets).

The main points of the sheet are the "Construction Overview" and the "Competition" sections. The images highlight the restrictions on the construction and some parts of competition. Essentially, the competition consists of two robots trying to push the other robot out of the ring. Should one robot leave on its own, it will have five seconds to re-enter without forfeiting. Robots cannot deliberately stall for 15 seconds, but it is up to the judges to determine the definition of stalling.

Comments

[Pyrotechnic-Robot]

Good job!
We just came home from Nationals today and boy oh boy is Sumo Bot an intense event! We had 2 weeks top make one and i would like to say thank you for posting this ible. It helped us make it to 4th place In the nation :D It is allot of work and can cost allot of money and i am very excited to see how it will turn out next year!
At the national level they figured out the confusing scoring and time slot issues.

[Davidl3]

...We were 56th at nationals...

[Pyrotechnic-Robot]

But you made it to nationals!!! you made it now how can you do better for next year. that is the fact that i love about Science Olympiad :D We were very lucky to get to it this year and all of us will just have to practice for next year.
Good Job :D

[Davidl3]

There is a pre-event where you trade things with other states. We did NOT bring enough licence plates and pins.

[AlphaFire]

Hey, don't be bummed. Nationals is a spectacular achievement! My school hasn't ever made it that far yet. Granted, we've only been a school for a little more than a decade.

[AlphaFire]

Thanks! Great job on making it to Nationals and doing that well there! I would just like to see the national committee figure out a way to keep the events costs down, to make it more accessible to more schools.

[baileygrib]

hey! im in research at my school and for my sumo bot i used a vex frame but bought better motors and a power divider for it use small wheels as well better traction what state are you in?

[Pyrotechnic-Robot]

That is a great start! I am from Michigan and with pass-the-beans we made our sumo robot. the trick is just powerful motors and high traction wheels. There were many robots that just skidded out because they used the medium and large vex wheels.
Good luck with your research!

[AlphaFire]

Your team is lucky if they have that kind of money, sadly mine didn't. Oh, and my team's from Minnesota, so state was almost two weeks ago already. My other events went much better.

[baileygrib]

ya mines in three weeks we always get in like 14th 15th in states lol

[AlphaFire]

What state are you guys in? I'm assuming you're in the C Division, right? And how many teams are usually there? We did fairly well this year as a team, getting in the top ten (ninth) out of 32 teams.

[pass-the-beans]

I am from michigan. For our regionals and state tournament there is about 40 to 50 teams compeating. For our state, they have demoted sumo bots to trial event for this year (division c) because of its bad set up. There were many complaints about the event taking up too much time for a team member, because of the number of teams, they were worried that it would tie a pair of team members up for all or most of the day if they were to win the competition. We are planning on going to nationals (fingers crossed) this year and will need to have a robot ready for that.

[Pyrotechnic-Robot]

Let's do it!!!!

[baileygrib]

no b division and in new york

[AlphaFire]

Ah, I see. Well, good luck and have fun!

[Potatomuffin]

use vex parts. our robot was undefitable!

[TOCO]

It gets boring watching robot after robot if they are all stupid vex kits. Plus the kids on the robot ramble teams build the vex kit following the instructions and then get no practice at all. the funny thing is that we can beat them in under a minuite w/o using the full 3 mins you are given.

[TOCO]

I hate people who use vex. We pride our selves in being the only one at our regionals that actually built a custom robot. our main chassis was a broken dvd drive from one of the schools old computers. the only vex thing we used was the remote bc it was one of the only ones that worked with the rules for illinois robot ramble.

[AlphaFire]

Vex is also extremely expensive, and although this project was by no means cheap, it was cheaper than a vex system, though outperformed by one, due to a poor choice of motors. Vex systems also lack flexibility, as they can only use Vex products, nothing else, whereas with a custom built robot, much more flexibility is allowed, requiring competitors to think more creatively and economically, skills a "real-life engineer" needs.

[TOCO]

I used the vex remote with the same speed controls that you used. I had one lying around from one of my old hobby rc cars.

[sageserver]

I was going to do this event but it wasn't offered in our area. i was going to make mine a fast one with two gear ratios to speed to the side of the enemy and use the low gears to push them out. Nice build. I would ask to post a vid but its stupid that you cant take videos and pictures of the competition due to stupid IP.

[AlphaFire]

Sounds like a plan, just remember to make sure it works well together. And yes, videos would be nice, but in the case of my bot, it wouldn't help seeing it unable to move, except rotating around the right wheel, sadly. And this event can be fun, but it is also ridiculously expensive and decently time-consuming, though not as much as Mission Possible (another of my events).

[epalmer-2]

I'm impressed.

[TOCO]

I am on the scio team at my school. we dont participate in sumo bots but we do participate in robot ramble. I am so glad, our team got 4th place at regionals and we get to go to state!

[ilpug]

This is cool, but not a true sumo bot. the real ones control themselves. good desgn for a Japan-Class robot though

[AlphaFire]

Well, for Science Olympiad, it is required to be Remote Control. It's in the rules, and "Sumo Bots" was just the name of the event. Sorry for the confusion, but I'm just using the Science Olympiad lingo.

[ilpug]

No problem. Im used to the Professional sumo builds such as at PD XBOT events. My cousin designed probably the most famous mini sumo bot ever, the Mousetrap.

[zazenergy]

This is awesome! Thanks so much for posting.

[AlphaFire]

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I just wish it would've done slightly better for all the time I put into it.