projects: parallax mini-sumo kit: kelo & yama-chan

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These are two nearly identical regulation sized Mini-Sumo Class robots, each fitting perfectly in a 10X10cm box and weighted down to exactly 500 grams for competition. The design is based on the Northwest Robot Mini-Sumo Tournament Rules. These are both powered by a BASIC Stamp 2 board that I program via a serial port to my PC or laptop. The parts are from the Parallax Mini-Sumo kit available here.Both of these guys will locate and try to push/shove/knock each other out of a flat, circular ring (called the Dohyo) all the while detecting the edge of the ring and not falling out itself. Tricky behavior for a robot to do if you think about it. 2 infrared sensors on top locate movement from another bot, while 2 more facing the ground make sure it doesn't touch the white line running along the edge of the ring. The movement is powered by 2 continuous rotation Futaba servos.

Although the kit comes with a serial cable to connect to your PC, the USB-Serial adapter I've found to link this particular microcontroller to my laptop (which doesn't have a serial port) is the FTDI US232B USB-Serial Adapter. From what other folks have told me this is the most reliable adapter with solid drivers for Win9X, ME, 2000 and XP.Update: September 27, 2004I thought you’d all be happy to know the results of my two Parallax mini sumo’s from the Beginner Class competitions at the 2004 Seattle Robothon: “Kelo” (above) managed to win 6 rounds but was finally ousted twice by Kristina Miles’ powerful “Oops!”


“Yama-chan” (above) battled all the way to the final rounds and to my great surprise and satisfaction placed third! yielding to Prometheus Jr. for 2nd, and Oops!, for the 1st place win.They both did exceptionally well for my first competition. Thanks to the Microsoft Robuild Group, and everyone who came by to watch.On a side note, the Advanced Mini Class was a whole other animal. There were some really well designed machines competing in these events. The victory went to Solarbotics’ Grant McKee for Ender’s Wraith. Portland Robotics club’s SLICK was the 2nd place winner, and was my personal favorite. Quite an impressive little machine with an immense amount of traction and power.



Full results of all the Robothon 2004 events are here.