The Robots of November - Part One

I have been a little distracted by other things and so have not been keeping you updated on my ongoing middle school robotics class.  I have a fine bunch of students this year and they are building some rather imaginative 3 pound combat robots.  I think a few of them deserve a quick mention.  Remember that these are works in progress, the tournament is not for three weeks.

This one has me a little worried.  It has some "home brewed" electronics on it.  The intent is to jam electrodes into the enemy robot and fry the electronics with a spark generator.  I should mention that the electronics are all mine, they get reused from one year to the next.  I don't know whether this thing will actually work, but I assume the malevolent 8th grader who spawned this atrocity is going for this:

I let kids take the projects home with them.  Heck, adult input does not seem to have any major positive effect.  I have never had a kid build a tank tread robot.  For some reason when working at home they shortened up the treads.  Makes it rather less effective I think.

This robot's weapon is basically...a big stick.  It has a Barby Jeep gear box driving a good sized hunk of lumber.  The video below is short and the robot was hindered by an undetected low battery, but this thing will put the wood to a few opponents....

More up and coming combatants in the days ahead.  Oh, and after years of only rewarding my hard working volunteers with gratitude and a Thai food dinner to follow, this year there are T-shirts....