nah
My idea doesn’t seems to work in practice.
RE
I don’t care about the tables, just the rules explicitly defined.
Use this undefined table rule to your advantage and build a bot.
You have at some level thought about entering or else you wouldn’t have replied to ask a question.
Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge!!!
You could take a small robot you already have, then add duel cable launchers like they have in spy movies, then have the robot drive across the cables to clear the gap, then since the table material would be soft for the cables to stick into, you could simply reel them in via worm gear drive. -LOL
**Yes thats one of the ideas**<br><p>Yes thats one of the ideas I had in mind 
At first I thought of a bridge deploying robot but that has been done many times before. I think I`ll try something a little more unorthodox.
Ok, thanks!
Ok, thanks! That helps. I have one more question. Would it be all right to have something attached to either table, say hooks for a grappling hook tosser or something similar? They would be attached firmly to the table and wouldn’t move at all. Oh and I imagine it would be all right to add lines and other shapes to the table with paint or tape, right? I’m starting to think fancy, like hacked WiiMote with IR LEDs on the other side to help get lined up. Thanks again, this will be fun!
RE
There’s no defined rules regarding the table, just the gap, size, etc.
Be creative!!!
Ok, thanks!
(I’ll be repetitive here Ok, thanks! I now have to put my thinking cap on and, what else, start thinking!
hey…
That was my idea but proved to be not the right to way to accomlish such an achievement.
Why not? I mean, sure, it’s
Why not? I mean, sure, it’s not going to be very fast but still… should be a viable solution
RE
I was just kidding ezekiel181 in my proposed solution (above) but if you did make that idea work, that would be really cool to watch.
Also I was cleaning my closet and found another new “off brand” controller board, so there might be additional prizes pending, once I get through the rest of these boxes…maybe a prize for most interesting way to solve or something. We will have to wait and see on that.
I teach science and have been collecting robots for years. Thats where this stuff is coming from, in case you were curious.
I’ve thought about it, and
I’ve thought about it, and my initial thoughts were too complex. So now I’ve come up with a rather simple approach that should be easy enough to accomplish the task…
same here
But I was thinking of a thousand ways to hack this challenge. Strictly within the rules, but blatantly disregarding the spirit of the challenge.
Did anyone say the table tops had to be at the exact same height? Or was that implied?
I think they are the same
I think they are the same height, else you could just gun it
This will of course depend
This will of course depend on the suspension of the bot that you have as the firm kind can case you to bounce right off the table!! I guess the next question would be, does it have to be in once piece on the other table…(thinking of a lego mindstorm bot gunning it and landing on the other side…) :)
The spirit of the challenge
The spirit of the challenge is to be creative…if that is something simple and obvious, but gets the job done and done well(with a bit of flair for the cool factor), is that not part of the challenge? :)
It doesn’t have to break on
It doesn’t have to break in pieces on the other side, there are Lego shock absorbers, you know… All you need is a Speed Racer… and break hard! But the second table can be longer, no? I saw no dimensions for the tables… And you can cover the second table in pillows…
But I would like to see a device that inflates a balloon with helium, then releases it for propelling the device over the gap and land on the other side!
Maybe they’ve upgraded the
Maybe they’ve upgraded the spring/cylinder shock absorber from a while back(I haven’t kept up on the latest lego tech), but they seemed pretty springy to me which would cause bounce(or bottom out) and possible unintentional deviation from it’s original path.
I guess you could also just launch the thing with a catapult(or mini trebuchet as they are far more accurate) as well and just have something to catch it on the other side. Brute force is not what I would call elegant…not that it has to be as long as it’s within the rules of the challenge…
The balloon idea would work(in theory). though just fill it enough so that a slight upward push by fan motors could get it going. They’ve had rc units like this for a while. Just add a brain and go.
RE
I thought of this weakness in my rules the next day…DOH!!!
(I was hoping to see creative robots/solutions to this problem)
But that’s ok, I’m not changing the rules. As people are already building entries so we will go with what we have.
However a friend of mine did this a better way than that.
But you will have to wait till after wards for me to post a pictures of how he did this.
Me and another friend built folding bridge robots to solve this problem, which was a lot harder than one would immediately think.
Actually, the folding bridge
Actually, the folding bridge was my initial thought…similar to the bridge crossing military vehicles…but that be tricky to put down and pick up among other issues. With some creativity, it could be done though. Thats not the direction I’m going in though. I would almost say, for bonus points(“awesome award”, you could post the other rules to see if it would affect the challenge, sort of an extra challenge that if you want to see if you could do it, but not necessarily have to) I’m curious about the rules you considered in the afterthought…
RE
I’m sorry I can’t answer that, as I don’t want to influence what people build.
But think about this comp from a different perspective:
Your entries will inspire others to build something.
They will see moving parts, machine’s thinking, and want to build one for themselves.
That’s the real prize.
**Hmm?? **
can you have two robots? like one that throws the other?