Pacman like Robot Game

I was happy to be invited to "Idefestivallen", Oslo university, Norway, to set up a small robot event for the visitors.

With less than a week to prepare, I made a simple Pacman like Robot Game:

5 robots on a maze.

3 of them carried a balloon, they where autonomous "Ghosts".

 2 of them was somewhat in control by 2 members of the audience - they where "Pacmen".

When a Pacman drove over one of the "power up's" on the maze, a very sharp huge needle got down (see video). It stayed down for a while, while "power up" was in effect.

Power ups was in fact areas with magnets under the track, and a sensor below the pacmen made it work.

On the video you can also see how a baloon pop was registered. Once a ghost registered a pop, it drove out tho the edge of the maze, to get a new balloon by me. And there was an overall timer on the game, after which all robots stopped. Winners got a Coke ;)

You can also see that on the Pacmen there are little 2 lights on top; Only one is lit; If it's the left one, next time the robot faces a wall, it will turn left. That was how they where controlled; Audience had to boxes, with 2 buttons and 3 LEDs. One LED was constantly lit, showing blue or red player. The other 2 where flashing, corrosponding to what side the robot was about to turn.

I was extremely busy doing this, and while the game was on, I had to change balloons all the time. Some boys where really, really good at the game :) So, unfortunately I did not get to shoot any video when it all peaked, and this write up sucks - but hey; I made a game, and I hope that might inspire someone out there :)

The Pacmen and Ghosts each had 2 Picaxe (one 8m to take inputs from remote, one 28x1 to do the rest).

The "main control unit" was a Picaxe 40, placed in one box with some knobs I could turn to adjust level, time of game, set pause etc. Then it had wires out to 2 other boxes, the audiences "joysticks".

As many parts as possible where pre-made (sensors on PCB's, chassis etc) - to save time.

:)