HBRC Challenge Event: 2021 Phase I

The 19th Annual HBRC Challenge season was launched with the 2021 Phase I Challenge meeting on Wednesday, March 31, 2021, via Zoom. I have hi-lighted as many participants as possible. If We missed you, send you information to editor@hbrobotics.org. Participants are listed in approximate order of appearance during the meeting.

Camp Peavy

Camp demoed his tabletop challenge robot named Buggy III.

🏆 TABLEBot Challenge: Phase III Certificate.

⚙️ Camp Peavy’s Builder Page.

Thomas Messerschmidt​

Thomas demoed his amazing but ever so slightly creepy humanoid robot named Simone which is featured in the current issue of Servo Magazine. Simone is truly a resident of the Uncanny Valley.

🏆 ArmBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

Charles Sun

Charles demonstrated “Reachy on Wheels” which is a group project at Circuit Launch, a hardware focused co-working space in Oakland, CA. Reachy is a fairly functional “greeter” robot which can give tours of the space.

🏆 ArmBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

Ralph Hipps

Ralph demoed “Bane” a humanoid robot that was able to stand-up from a lying position and then perform a hand dance. Club members suggested performing “YMCA” as a logical next step. Ralph also showed “Reflux” a future FloorBot challenger.

🏆 ArmBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

⚙️ Ralph Hipp’s Builder Page.

Michael Ferguson

https://www.ros.orgMichael demoed “UBR-1” performing a FloorBot challenge using ROS2.

🏆 FloorBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

Camp Peavy

Camp demoed his Floorbot “Neato Turtle” built on a Neato Robotics vacuum cleaner using ROS1.

🏆 FloorBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

Marco Walther

Marco demoed “Ardumower”, a robotic lawnmower which is his implementation of the Open Source Ardumower project.

Marco has a GNSS base station on the roof:
https://www.bytesalad.org/~marco/20210116_110315.jpg. He is currently
pushing the RTCM messages to RTK2go if somebody wants to play with it — there are no uptime guaranties. Sparkfun has a tutorial on this sort of system.

🏆 FloorBot Challenge: Phase II Certificate.

⚙️ Marco Walther’s Builder Page.

Ralph Campbell

Ralph demoed “Z-Bot”  cruising through the maze challenge. Z-Bot is based on the Pololu Zumo kit.

He also showed the aptly named “Creepy Head” animatronics head that has wowed crowds at Maker’s Faire and other venues.

🏆 A-Mazing LineBot Challenge: Phase III Certificate for Z-Bot.

⚙️ Ralph Campbell’s Builder Page.

Damaris Davis

DD showed off her robot “Cutie-Fry” which proves that robots can be cute and fun instead of just functional or creepy.

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

Steve 'dillo Okay

Steve showed his Mars Rover style robot “Tenacity” which is a masterpiece of of 3D printing .

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Work in progress.

Bob Allen

Bob demoed robot named “TT2021” and “Orange Test Robot” and showed off the wireless robot control panel and debugging tool he is building using Nextion displays.

🏆 TABLEBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate for TT2021.

Jim DiNunzio

Jim demoed “Big Orange” performing the floorbot challenge.

Jim has made Big Orange’s source code available on github.

Main code: https://github.com/jimdinunzio/big-orange

STM32 customized firmware: https://github.com/jimdinunzio/sdp_mini_reference_code

🏆 FloorBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

Sergei Grichine

Sergei showed “Crazed Rhino”,  a lawn mowing robot built on a full sized riding mower.

Sergei’s Zero Turn Mower Robot photo album includes videos and more photos.

🏆 FloorBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

⚙️ Sergei Grichine’s Builder Page.

Michael Wimble

Michael gave a detailed presentation on the design elements of “Puck”.  

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Work in progress.

Cayce Beames

Cayce demoed “Purple People Eater” in the table bot challenge.

🏆 TABLEBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate,

Mark Johnston

Mark demoed “DroidBot2” in the FloorBot challenge using ROS2.

🏆 FloorBot Challenge: Phase I Certificate.

⚙️ Mark Johnston’s Builder Page.

Scott Horton

Scott demoed “Create2 ROS” built on an  iRobot Create® 2 base using ROS1. He showed both a FloorBot challenge and a very cool follow-me demo.  

🏆 FloorBot Challenge: Phase III Certificate. This may be the first club FloorBot to complete  Phase III.

Wayne Gramlich and James Nugen

Wayne and James provided a brief update on the state of “HR2”.

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Work in progress.

Alan Federman​

Alan presented a series videos showing the development of Ubiquity MAGNI from a hand-made prototype to production ready robot base.

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Work in progress.

⚙️ Alan Federman’s Builder Page.

Walter Martinez

Walter showed off “Bender and Whegs” Wheels with legs.

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Work in progress.

Gale Ru

Gale showed her first robot named “No Name”.

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Work in progress.

Camp Peavy

Camp showed “Rocky” and “Sammy” performing a dynamic dance routine.

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Special “Editor’s Award” for most laughs generated by a demo.

Chris Mayer

Chris showed “Dragon” the Cat/Dog robot.

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Work in progress.

⚙️ Chris Mayer’s Builder Page.

Dan Alberts

Dan provided an update on “CareIn” and “Robot Dog”

🏆 Run-What-You-Brung Challenge: Work in progress.