Show HN: BattleBots Made by 5th to 8th Graders in Robotics Club
create.arduino.ccMy high school robotics team is working on something similar with Raspberry Pi's. There is not much documentation but you can check out the code here: https://github.com/InspireRobotics/sumobots
This is awesome! You guys are using far superior materials :)
This is pretty cool for teaching Arduino, but most fighting robot builders on a budget use HobbyKing/Turnigy remote control systems. These are purpose built for this kind of thing, quite reliable, and cheap, especially if you wait for a sale.
I was able to get the PS2 controllers at a discount at $8 per controller. If you can link me to better and more affordable ones, I would love to see them. Keep in mind this was self-funded, so we had to make a lot of compromises to keep things somewhat affordable.
I use one similar to this: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobby-king-2-4ghz-4ch-tx-rx-v2-m... . About $28 and includes a transmitter, joysticks, and the receiver. Most fighting robot builders using this setup don't need an Arduino, breadboard, sensor shield, any additional boards or configuration on the transmitter side, etc.
Thanks for sharing this. That would have cut down on costs for sure.
Stop by the Facebook Combat Robotics group to ask questions.
Wow what a terrible website. The GDPR advertising opt-out:
1) Renders at the top of the page when the page is loaded, then because this link contains an anchor scrolls you to that anchor, while the entire screen is greyed out
2) Your behavior is actively being tracked by default, every click, mouse move is sent to a third party.
3) The GDPR opt out process fails every time.
Solid violations of GDPR, well done.
It is published on the Arduino website. I will send your feedback to them.
the cookie permission popup is impossible to close
I'm a little jealous if I'm honest. I'm going to guess that the junior high I went to still doesn't have the resources for a club like this.
I started a First Team at our son's school. It was challenging. Raising the money to buy the kits and equipment was the easiest part despite our school board not having anything budgeted to it. Beyond myself, we could not get any of the other parents to commit any time to it. So we struggled and eventually collapsed. The other parents were treating it as a free afterschool program. 20 kids, 3 volunteers (1 parent, 2 teachers) and not a lot of time to teach FLL and programming concepts.
>>Beyond myself, we could not get any of the other parents to commit any time to it.
Thank you for your efforts. I was thinking of starting a team myself in a couple of years when my children are older, and have seen other fledgling STEM programs struggle with the same issue.
Was the primary issue that parents didn't commit time at home working on the projects, or that the parents didn't commit enough time after-school? I've seen more struggles with the latter issue, and the only solution we are converging on is strictly limiting the number of participants to a more manageable size (e.g. 8-10 kids, starting with 1 grade).
As far as I know First isn't really a take home project thing. The kits were in the school computer lab. So it was strictly after school. At the end of the first year we decided that 10 students would be the limit (5 teams, 2 per) for the upcoming school year. Sadly, the afterschool teacher that was driving it transferred to another site. And, as a volunteer, I can only provide time and mentoring, not leadership.
I am sorry to hear this. I really do not understand why schools and parents don't support this kind of stuff. It teaches them so much more than just robotics. 20 kids seems like a lot. I try to keep my clubs small in order to keep it manageable.
We generated a lot more interest than we anticipated. The first meetup was just 8, and we only had 3 sets (3 teams of 3). But then word spread (robots, computers, LEGOs, cool!) and a lot more started to arrive. It was a new experience for all of us. We are a Title 1 school and didn't want to turn anyone away. Eventually, we settled into a steady group of 12-13 kids, 60:40 boys to girls and 5 teams.
What really sealed our fate was 1 of the teachers transferred, and none of the PTA parents responded to our requests for a volunteer (money, no problem, time, hah!). We felt we couldn't give the kids what they needed and folded it before the new school year.
I'm so envious of other school's First programs. I see photos of the ingenuity of the kids and parent volunteers in the background and just wish we had even a little of that.
I have been considering forming a team but am a little worried about the time commitment for the students and having enough volunteers. Out of curiosity, what made you decide on First Vs. VEX?
The students were in 5th and 6th grade. I made the recommendation because I felt FLL catered to a younger crowd while VEX seems geared to more STEM focused high schools.
This is very disappointing.
I'm wondering if I should reach out to my alma matter and see what they need.
Most of the schools appreciate any help you can give them. They are so neglected by administration and parents they're willing to take whatever they can get, within reason of course.
Same here. People at my high school and middle school had zero interest in this sort of thing even if I was able to come up with a club for it.