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Asked — Edited

Robot Vs. Robot

Has anyone here thought of building a pair of robots that hunt each other? Maybe hack some Laser Tag toys and mount them on the bots (think tank style turrets) so they can score points against each other? They could prowl the house searching for each other to do battle. There would need to be some clever rules to this type of action so they don't just sit in one place shooting at each other till their batteries ran out.
Here are some ideas:
- The bots would have to be able to somehow sense or detect each other. Maybe by several
different types of sensors. Sound, light, IR, video, color, etc.
- A certain number of hits within a short time period would cause the bot who's taking the
damage to try to run and hide in another room.
- Certain amount of wait time between shots so bots can have time to execute evasive
maneuvers.
- Each laser hit would give a random number and each number could mean a different level of hit
points or damage.
- Depending on the level of damage the bot could be programed to simulate damage to certain
parts. For example: a bot takes a hit and a random number is generated. Say the
number is a six...the six means that the bot took slight damage to the right side drive motor.
A script could be executed that would cause the right side H-Bridge to be somewhat slower
causing the bot to have difficulty trying to maneuver or stay on course for x number of
seconds then it goes back to normal operation. Or a certain number
could mean the loss of a certain sensor for x number of seconds giving the robot a
disadvantage in battle.
- If enough time has elapsed between hits the damage heals and functions become normal until
the next battle.
- Maybe give them some clever dialog to say while they are doing battle.

The list could go on and on. Anyone think this is a cool idea?


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#1  
I think that is an awesome idea. I used to love watching Battlebots, except the bots were really just big R/C toys and I hated seeing the good ones get torn up by the better, but sometimes less cool ones. Autonomous battle, with laser tag rules so the game can go on and on would be cool.

Alan
#2  
Tamiya rc cars had remote control tanks that would do that. I bet you could rig something up off of them.
#3  
There are some robots (Cyberbug? I forgot their Exact name) that have the ability to not only seek out there charger, but other robots. When they find the other robots and they are set to the predator mode, they latch on to them and drain there batteries. A sort of Robot Vampire. You can set some of the Cyberbugs to Predator and some to prey. Cool concept. Carnell Mellon University has a few larger robots doing this. You have a GREAT idea of using laser tag stuff.

;)
#5  
I did not get too excited over that because they were so small and cheaply made. But, they did work. I wanted to see larger robots like the size of a small dog doing the same thing. I like Vampires and so I think this is cool.

This is a NEAT idea. You could have some as predators and some as prey and some as Vampires and some as PEST CONTROL. The prey would run from Predator and Vampire and Pest Control. (poor prey.) and the Vampires and Predators could run from Pest Control. And Pest Control would run from NO One. No, I take that back. If three or more Prey gets to the Pretator first then they can over power it. Oh, and you could make the Vampires run from Vampire hunters. This Scenario could go in many directions. You could have an Ambulance that could go out and recharge all of them.

;):D
#6  
I think it actually wouldn't be terribly difficult, if you buy some cheap (hah, cheap?) lasers and then mount them and also have light-sensitive materials covering a section of a bot to detect a hit. I'm not sure how the wiring would work - having never really dealt with hardware that way - but I am absolutely sure of how the software would work. There'd be a threshold so that regular lights don't count as fake hits and all that fun stuff.

How does that work, to wire? Say if I had a custom piece I wanted to add to my Revolution bot, how do I connect the board to know what that custom piece is and how to interact with it? Is it a terribly technical challenge?
#7  
How about same concept of robots chasing another..But with paintball guns....That would be killer..red and green paint for robot blood..
#8  
Easiest way may be to use an IR transmitter in a barrel to provide directionality and an IR reciever at a sensitive spot on the enemy robot. Something like spark fun IR transmitter / reciever pair. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/241 Tie the reciever to an ADC port and the transmitter to a digital port. You may need to get fancier with the transmitter using a TIP to get more power out of it and potential an op amp to add gain on the IR reciever. If you want a visual indication of being on target put a laser pointer right next to the IR transmitter.
#10  
If you get too much interference from ambient light you may have to go a modulated IR like TV remotes use. Adafruit has a IR sensor http://www.adafruit.com/products/157 that detects a 38KHz IR signal. A 555 timer can generate the 38KHz for the transmitter. Circuit diagrams a around on the internet like http://www.electrosome.com/ir-transmitter-receiver-led-tsop1738/ .

There are also http://emartee.com/product/42243/Wrobot%20Digital%2038KHz%20IR%20Sensor%20Kit. Not familiar with them but they look like a possibility.
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