Mini sumo at the next NY Makerfair

I have been thinking about running a Beginner level mine sumo contest at the NY maker fair for a few years. And I wanted to know if there would be enough interest to justify the work.

So far my thoughts where to robot cost (excluding Batteries) under $30US and use mini sumo rules with the following exceptions:

  1. Power limited to 4 AA rechargeable Batteries.

  2. Provide a Standard plan that can compete in a sub class against other “standard” robots.

  3. Allow “software only” entries. The software would be loaded into a Standard robot to compete.

  4. Limit the motors to ether 9g servo sized or plastic bodied gear motors like the RB-Elf-264 robotshop sells.

My goal is to let people compete without dropping the lump of cash you need to to have a chance in the normal mini-sumo competitions.

Let me know what you guys think.

Robotgoldfish

NY Maker Faire is one of the largest, so it’s an interesting idea. You’d need a core group of people to sign on and have enough batteries to have the competition going for the entire time. Having people beyond that is the issue. You might want to reach out to a few sumo leagues to see if any of their members might be interested in participating. The more interest you have, even from a few core people from different groups / states, the better chance you have of it being successful. Limiting the scope of the sumo bots might work against you, especially if people already have sumo bots they built and want to show off. Designing and building a sumo robot on site would likely need to be restricted to just a few minute build to maintain interest. Not sure about booths being allowed to sell products.

I have helped out at most of the LMR maker faire booths and am aware of whats involved.

The post was to see if there was anyone else interested in a cheaper entry level mini-sumo competition. It looks like no one is interested.

RG