KEITH 2017 - What Now?
30 Jul 2016So, PiWars 2017 is on the cards. The entry process starts on 1 August and we will definitely be putting an entry in. Will we be successful and be allowed to defend the title we were so proud to win last year?
Harry, now 17, and I, now a bit older too, have talked lots about the next competition. We love the new rules with the different team classes all linked by a single maximum robot size. The challenges look good too – it is really great that Mike and Tim have taken on board lots of the things that we, as competitors, talked about last year. This competition just keeps getting better!
As last year, we want to build on our experience. KEITH will rise again – tracks, plywood, home-made controller circuits, flashing bits, lasers, plywood. We had huge success last year using the old radio control kit, so we may well replicate that again. We will be doing some serious work on how to balance motors for accurate autonomous control and are really looking forward to seeing how we can try to beat the maze.
Attachments will be back! KEITH Evolution was self-contained and the cannon for the skittle challenge made so many other things a compromise in terms of space. We have some ideas…
The big question is ‘What will the new bot be called?’ KEITH Evo II? KEITH the Next Generation? SuperKEITH? (!). We need to work on that…
One nice thing about PiWars 2017 is that it will be over two days - school teams will take day 1 with other teams on day 2. We have had some contact already with a Leeds School who have a team of young people who are keen to enter a robot. They have met KEITH Evolution and played with him. They are working on ideas and making their robot move and sense the world. Harry and I would like to be able to keep in touch and swap notes as we go. It would be great to support them if they get an entry. We also thought it would be good if some of last year’s competitors could bring last year’s robots for show and tell/demonstrations on the Saturday – aimed at helping the school teams. That may be something to talk to Mike and Tim about later in the year.
Watch this space. We’re already researching materials and sketching configurations for the chassis. Entry or not, the next iteration of KEITH may come to life regardless!
~Andy
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