Today we had our final robotics competitions. In the first round, the little robots had to push all the LEGO bricks out of the blue rectangle. It was really cute watching all the robots chasing after the same bricks. Some times they would push them out, and other robots would push them back in. The robots used light sensors to know when they reached the outside of the rectangle. Very clever programming, in my opinion.
In the next competition, the big robots had to race around that same blue rectangle and try to get the fastest speed (kind of like horses at a race track). Unfortunately only one robot made it all the way around. The other robots kept running into the walls before they made their turns. The final competition was a sumo wrestling contest. You can see two of the robots in the picture trying to be the first to push the other one out of the rectangle. This contest wasn't quite as easy as it looks. One team programmed their motors the wrong way, so when they started their robot, it raced backwards right across the blue tape. Two other robots were pretty evenly matched judging by the black skid marks they left on the white mat. All in all, it was a pretty good couple of weeks, but I think I'll go back to painting for a while.
