On Wednesday September 2nd, the Makerspace held its first ever Crappy Robots event, and it was a blast! The challenge for this first event was to use a battery pack and a motor to create a “crappy robot” that could travel the length of a 5ft plank without falling off. Everyone did a great job!
Check out some of the great projects below!
Aaden and James started out the challenge by hacking an existing toy car, rewiring it, and turning it into a “crappy” alligator robot. It was phenomenally done! They made it have a mouth that opens, red eyes that light up, and scary wires that came out of its mouth. It went in a pefectly straight lne, and very fast! It surpassed the 5 foot plank!
Danush, Akash and Ryan got inspiration from the dysfunctional samples on display, combined forces and created a “crappy” robot with two motors and two battery packs. They also made a mini pie and claimed that their robot could also carry small pies to customers!
Tulasi and Lucas joined forces to create a cute hungry-hungry-caterpillar-style “crappy” robot that has an intermittently light-up face! They covered their motors and battery packs in green cloth to give it its final shape. Tulasi and Lucas made a great team, and we love seeing people making new friends in the makerspace!
Parichita and Dipshi learned to use new tools, like our fun wire stripper, electric drill and brad nailer while they made their super adorable “crappy” robots! I particularly loved that Dipshi made her robot spin its arms round and round while it moved forward, and how Parichita incorporated the end of the motor as her robot’s nose!
Ruihan went through so many interesting variations of her “crappy” robot before finally creating this masterpiece. Her robot not only travelled in a straight line but also had the power to push something “like a dung beetle”!
Haley had such great plans to incorporate electronics into her “crappy” robot, and it looked so promising! We were sad she had to leave early and did not see the masterpiece that was William’s creation. The challenge was to get the robot to travel the length of the plank, but William pointed out that we did not specify that it had to be the entire robot. So, he attempted to build a motorized catapult to slingshot a piece down the plank….it sadly did not work, but we applaud the outside the box thinking!
I think Riley shocked himself with how well his “crappy” robot turned out! He had some diverging ideas at the beginning, then settled on this model with a chassis that fit so perfectly around the plank it was as if it was meant to be! His model had a very cool slanted shape that one onlooker noted could have a secondary function as a plow!
Naomi created a “crappy” robot that actually looks like a car, fully equipped with a steering wheel and four tiny passengers! She did a great job and even attempted to incorporate functioning gears for the steering!