Tug of War Robot

Tug of War Robot

The challenge is to design a robot that will pull an opposing robot over a centerline during Tug-of-War. After designing the robot, it must be built using the robot kits and only the materials provided. The robot must be programmed using Pilot Level 4 or Inventor Level 4 in order to be challenging to each team. These programs require that the teams have background knowledge using the Basic Pilot or the Basis Inventor programs. The robot must be enabled by a single touch sensor, so that each robot will start at equal time for fairness. Each robot must be able to attach to a paperclip that will connect to a six inch long string. Each end of the two strings will have a paperclip in order to connect the opposing robot during the challenge. Additionally, the lead wires from the touch sensors must be connected to Input Port 1 on both RCX’s. Each robot must be able to fit in a cube that is 9 inches on each side to set a maximum size standard. After ten seconds of the touch sensor being pressed, either a tie or a declaration of a win will be decided by the instructor.

Furthermore, the design of our robot varied from all the other group’s designs. We decided to use the treads to get maximum traction when pulling the opponents robot during the Tug-of War. This additionally allowed our robot to gain the highest number or square inches of rubber in contact with the floor compared to the opposing robot designs that utilized four medium sized tires. This designed enabled the robot to have “rear wheel drive” so that if the front of the robot is lifted by the opposing robot, it would still have the same torque and friction against the ground on the rear axle. Moreover, we purposely placed the attachment area for the paperclip and string low on the robots design in order to keep the robot from lifting off the ground against the competition robot’s force. Our robot’s design kept our team in the competition up to the semi-finals, where the design of our robot could not out-stand the strength of the competitor’s robot.