SickSack robotic snake slithers through RoboCup

Although DARwin looked to be a fine effort from the US of A, Aske Olsson and Lars Pontoppidan's entry relied on a more down-low approach to taking care of business. Their SickSack robotic snake chose to crawl rather than run, but the uniqueness of the creature's movement most definitely deserve props. Gearing up a series of rollers to blast across the raceway isn't all that impressive, but the SickSack's use of passive wheels combined with mechanics that enabled lateral undulation made this thing about as beastly as a metal-clad bot can get. It also featured eight Futaba servos, a microcontroller, and a good bit of wiring and programming for its locomotion, and it (rightfully) took home the award for best design / effects at RoboCup 2007. Click on through for the creepy crawly videos.

[Via Lars' Electric Endeavors]

[beef_thing @ Apr 28th 2007 12:50PM]

This thing got me cheering for it, too bad it didn't go up the ramp, very well done robot though!

[Bones @ Apr 28th 2007 1:46PM]

Along with the servos and microcontroller, you forgot to mention the TI DC-DC buck converter (PTH08T220W). I just got a couple yesterday and they're awesome.

[Chuckles McGee @ Apr 28th 2007 3:24PM]

I for one, welcome our slithering robot overlords.

[PJK @ Apr 30th 2007 8:01AM]

Um, it didn't finish.

[aske @ Apr 30th 2007 2:20PM]

No we didn't finish, but just qualifying was a success, as the line following algorithm wasn't working at the qualifying rounds - just aim and hope for the best! ;-)

Besides the robot was made in only 5 days! (mechanics and software).

More videos (the qualifying round) here:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=dvaske

[Aske @ May 1st 2007 6:50AM]

Digg it here:
http://digg.com/gadgets/Robotic_snake_named_SickSack_RoboCup2007