MESA Robotics Rules – Repost

Blog Post at https://lukelaurie.wordpress.com/

Robotic Sumo

Robotic Tug O’War

 

Since the year 2000, I have been working with students on the Central Coast of California, teaching them to build and program robots, mostly using LEGO Mindstorms. Last year, several MESA centers across California piloted rules I developed for UCSB’s RoboChallenge program. These rules are designed to enable students using most kinds of robotics formats to build Tug O’ War Robots (for Junior High) and Sumo Robots (for Senior High).

It appears that some schools and MESA centers will again be using these rules for Demonstration events during their MESA competitions. I’m posting these draft rules to make it easy for students, teachers, and MESA coordinators to find them,along with some additional resources that will be helpful. The rules have not been modified since written in early 2009.

Tug O’ War (Junior High)

Tug O’ War draft MESA rules:

MESA Draft Rules for Junior High Tug O’ War (MS Word)

Tug O’ War Tutorial and Video:

http://homepage.mac.com/mrlaurie/robo/tugowartutorial.html

Tug O’ War Blog Page:

https://lukelaurie.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/tug-o-war-robots/

Sumo (Senior High)

***Note on Sumo: The size of the Sumo board in the rules is somewhat small. A larger board makes for more exciting matches. I prefer a board that is approximately 4 feet in diameter, painted black, with a white border about 4″ wide.

Sumo draft MESA rules:

MESA Draft Rules for High School Sumo (MS Word)

Sumo Tutorial and Video:

http://homepage.mac.com/mrlaurie/robo/sumotutorial.html

Sumo Blog Page:

https://lukelaurie.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/sumo-robots/

MESA: Rules for Robotics Competitions

Blog Post at https://lukelaurie.wordpress.com/

Since the year 2000, I have been working with students on the Central Coast of California, teaching them to build and program robots, mostly using LEGO Mindstorms. Last year, several MESA centers across California piloted rules I developed for UCSB’s RoboChallenge program. These rules are designed to enable students using most kinds of robotics formats to build Tug O’ War Robots (for Junior High) and Sumo Robots (for Senior High).

It appears that some schools and MESA centers will again be using these rules for Demonstration events during their MESA competitions. I’m posting these draft rules to make it easy for students, teachers, and MESA coordinators to find them,along with some additional resources that will be helpful. The rules have not been modified since written in early 2009.

Tug O’ War (Junior High)

Tug O’ War draft MESA rules:

MESA Draft Rules for Junior High Tug O’ War (MS Word)

Tug O’ War Tutorial and Video:

http://homepage.mac.com/mrlaurie/robo/tugowartutorial.html

Tug O’ War Blog Page:

https://lukelaurie.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/tug-o-war-robots/

Sumo (Senior High)

***Note on Sumo: The size of the Sumo board in the rules is somewhat small. A larger board makes for more exciting matches. I prefer a board that is approximately 4 feet in diameter, painted black, with a white border about 4″ wide.

Sumo draft MESA rules:

MESA Draft Rules for High School Sumo (MS Word)

Sumo Tutorial and Video:

http://homepage.mac.com/mrlaurie/robo/sumotutorial.html

Sumo Blog Page:

https://lukelaurie.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/sumo-robots/

Sumo Robots

Since 2000, I’ve been building Sumo robots and teaching students to do the same, primarily with LEGO’s as part of the RoboChallenge program. In RoboChallenge, we’ve had several competitions with Sumo robots from many schools in the California Central Coast region. I have a new tutorial web page with tips and guidance for builders, and a video of some recent Sumo robots, especially Sumo Robots using LEGO Mindstorms NXT. This page is a work in progress, and will continue to see additions and revisions, but still has much to offer people interested in getting started with Robotic Sumo.

Sumo Tutorial Page

Video from my Robotics Science Class Fall, 2008 (youtube)