2012 Indiana Robotics Invitational

Today I attended some of the 2012 Indiana Robotics Invitational.  It's a First  competition for students in grades 9-12.  Teams of about 40 students have 6 weeks to build a robot.  Then at competition two alliances of three teams each go up against each other in a points match.  As you can see in the picture this year's game is a version of basket ball where robots need to collect balls off the floor and shoot baskets.  At the beginning of each match the robots operate autonomously for 15 seconds, then are tele-operated for the rest of the match.  There were 70 some teams invited to compete this year, so it was very crowded and very busy, and uber cool.

Cheap Linear Actuator

The actuator in the video was built for about $13.00.  This price includes the H-bridge, motor, and all the mechanicals.  I've got eight of these to build for the Dorkbot Indy project I'm working on.