Roxanne the Robot
60 teams built a microprocessor-controlled robot to enter in a sumo-style competition. In the one-on-one battles, each team places their robot on the black circle (shown below), in an unknown orientation. At the referee’s signal, both teams turn their robot on, and stand back. If the centroid of a robot crosses over the white ring, it must stop moving and turn on a red LED, signaling that the robot has lost the match. This premise is where our robot’s name came from. Because we wanted to stay inside the ring to win, without turning on the red LED, we called the robot Roxanne, referencing the song by The Police, and adopting the motivational phrase, “you don’t have to put on the red light.” Roxanne end up in 4th place.
