The Solarbotics SUMOVORE Mini-Sumo Robot Platform In a head-to-head shoving match, you need a sumo robot that is stronger and smarter than the other.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Introduction The Japanese brought robot sumo wrestling to North America some years ago, and then they promptly proceeded to mop the floor with our robots. The Japanese take their sumo wrestling very seriously, and they applied the same enthusiasm to the robotic counterpart. All who saw these sumo robots compete were taken by the elegant simplicity of the contest, and many joined in to make “Japanese Standards” robot sumo happen in the Western world.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Parts List Body Components Edge/IR Board Components 1 2 2 4 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 4 3 4 6 1 5 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 4 - PCB (3 PCB’s in one, will require separating along scored lines) Gear Motors GMPW - Gear Motor Wheels Traction Bands Dual AA Battery Holder Quad AA Battery Holder Front Plate Steel Baseplate #2 x 1/8” Nylon Spacers (for mounting / spacing PCB) #2 x 3/8” long thread-forming screw (for mounting / spacing PCB) #2 x 1-1/4” long thread-forming screw (for mounting battery pack) #4
The Solarbotics Sumovore Soldering Tutorial Soldering! If you have never soldered before, it could be an intimidating concept. After all, you’re being asked to take a scaldinghot piece of metal, and use it to melt metal onto delicate electronic components! It is actually a pretty straight-forward process. We’ve taught 8-year old kids to solder (with supervision), so there’s no reason why you can’t wrap your head around this skill. 1. Insert component 2. Wipe soldering iron tip on damp sponge 3.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Mainboard Electronics - 1 Let’s bring the Sumovore to life! We’re going to start with the mainboard, as it is both the electronic and mechanical core of the whole robot. Before starting, read the whole procedure. Yes, really! Building it isn’t the contest, so take your time here and do it right. There’s some tricky parts, so be prepared.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Mainboard Electronics - 2 Step 6: Install ICs Note Notch Position Step 6: Installing the ICs into the Carriers This part isn’t hard, because if you mess it up, it’s easily corrected. Simply note which side of each chip has the notch, and install each into the proper carriers.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Mainboard Electronics - 3 Step 12, 13, 14 - LED, 8 & 4 Position Sockets: This LED is wired in series with the infrared emitters on the front sensor daughterboard. If you see this LED on, it means the IR emitters are also on - a good sign of power and proper operation! All LEDs have to be installed the right way around. Look carefully for the flat spot on the ring round the LED, and install it in position ‘LED3’ so the flat matches the flat as marked on the PCB.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Mainboard Electronics - 4 Step 18 & 19 - Front Pins and Terminal Blocks - IMPORTANT!: Well, we’re done with the top of the PCB (for now). These next two steps take place on the underside of mainboard, so even if the markings for the parts are on the top of the board, they’re installed on the underside.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Edge / IR Transmitter Electronics - 5 Step 20 & 21 - IR Edge Sensor PCB Connectors and LM555: We’re now working on a brand new board - the Edge Sensor PCB. This board holds the front edge sensors, and the infrared transmitting circuitry. Let’s start by installing the LM555 chip in the spot labled ‘IC4’.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Edge / IR Transmitter Electronics - 6 Step 25 & 26 - Installing and anchoring the 20k Trimpot: The “trimming potentiometer” is known in the electronics biz as a “trimpot”, so get used to the term. This adjustable resistor tunes the 555 timer so we can ‘dial in’ exactly how on-tune we want the IR emitters transmission frequency.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Edge / IR Transmitter Electronics - 7 Step 29: Install IR LEDs (x 2) to ‘LED4’ and ‘LED5’. Short lead goes to square pad! Steps 29: Infrared LED installation Step 29 - IR LED Installation The infrared LED is just like the other LEDs, which means it has to be installed the right-way around, or it simply won’t work. SHORT lead goes into the SQUARE pad.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Edge / IR Transmitter Electronics - 8 Step 31: Install Edge Sensors (x 2) to ‘Edge1’ and ‘Edge5’ Install sensors in positions ‘Edge2’ and ‘Edge4’ only if you have four sensors in your kit (which you most likely do). A sensor gets installed in position ‘Edge3’ only if you have a microprocessor brainboard add-on (the extra sensor is included in the add-on kit). Steps 31: Edge Sensor Installation Installation complete.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Mainboard Electronics - 9 The Discrete Brainboard: BEAM robots usually have simple, robust controller systems, and the Sumovore follows this tradition. Although we’re using a 74HCT240 octal inverting buffer chip in the circuitry, there aren’t any truly radical BEAM-style or analog concepts behind it, so we refer to this brainboard being “discrete,” as in “composed of many separate pieces.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Discrete Brain Electronics - 10 NOTE: As we’re presently updating the documentation, we’d like to warn you that you should do step 47 NOW, before step 34, then come back. It’ll make assembly easier - trust us. ”Beee forewaarrrrned!” The reverse-and-turn feature is controlled by the two 2-meg trimpots. Each trimpot sets how long the Sumovore spends in reverse-and-turn mode when that particular corner is triggered by a white line.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Discrete Brain Electronics - 11 Step 39b - Optional Reset Diode: After some experimenting, we’ve found that installing another diode into position ‘R26’ makes the reset switch deactivate the Sumovore much better than just a resistor. Not absolutely necessary, but we recommend it. Note that the black band is installed towards the bottom. Step 40 - 0.47µF Capacitors: The four 0.47µF (labled ‘474’) capacitors get installed in positions ‘C11’, ‘C12’, ‘C13’, and ‘C14’.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Discrete Brain Electronics - 12 Step 45 & 46 - Eight and Four Pin Header Rails: Here’s another one of those tricky installs, where we want you to install the parts on the underside of the circuit board. We’re going to install the pins that will connect the Discrete Brainboard to the Mainboard. Since we’re sure you don’t want to install the brains in upside-down, just remember that they all are soldered in from the bottom.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Discrete Brain Electronics - 13 Step 47 - Optional Line Follower / Mini-Sumo Selector: (Welcome to you, if you have just jumped over here from step 34!) If you don’t know, don’t care, or know but don’t care what line-follower is, or simply want to get the soldering over with, you can totally skip this step. Line-follower is a neat event, as power is a secondary to sensors and your skill in tuning the sensors.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Body - 1 Enough of the continuous soldering - let’s get to work actually giving our Sumovore a body! Start with the electronics mainboard, as it’s the ...main board... for the whole robot. Collect the metal baseplate, and associated screws & spacers. Not sure which is which? Have a ruler handy to measure their lengths.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Body - 2 Step 4 Preparing the Motors with 0.1µF Noise Supression Capacitors: Some of the electronics on the Sumovore can be sensitive to the electrical noise that the motors make, so we’re going to nip that in the bud now with a pair of 0.1µF capacitors per motor.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Body - 3 Step 6 & 7 - Installing the 2AA Battery Holder: Snip off most of the battery holder’s wires so there’s only 3cm (1-1/4”) left. Solder the wires to the battery power terminals on the top of the mainboard, red to round pad, black to square. Step 6 & 7 - 2AA Battery Holder Installation and Wiring Step 6: Screw this bad-boy down with Clip 1-1/4” off the two included #2x1/4” 2AA holder wires; pointy screws.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Body - 4 Step 10 - Front Plate Installation: Now we’re getting to the point where the Sumovore is beginning to look like a real robot! We’re going to install the front plate, but before we do, we want the pins that connect to the front edge sensor board to match the same angle as the front plate. Do this by first manually placing the plate up against the mainboard (as if it were already screwed on), and then examining the angle of the pins.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Body - 5 Step 11 - Bottom Battery Pack Installation: Let’s attach the quad AA battery pack holder to the Sumovore. We prefer to attach the pack, then solder it to the battery connection points below in front of the motor, but some people prefer to solder the wires, then attach the pack. Your decision (no real advantage either way).
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Body - 6 Step 13, 14 & 15 - Brainboard Installation, Battery Installation and Initial Power-up: Yup, you read right - time to fetch the brainboard, them batteries, and get ready to go. Gather up your batteries, but before you go willy-nilly (except anybody named “Willy” - only you may go willy-nilly) and install the batteries and brainboard, you must check a few things.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Building the Body - 8 / Troubleshooting Step 16: Installing the Wheels: No magic or mystery here. Well, maybe just a bit. First mount the traction bands onto the wheel hub. The easiest way we’ve found is to stretch the rubber band between your thumb and forefinger (the one you point with when you’re not shooting rubber bands), and pry the hub in onto the bottom half. Then tilt it in so the top half seats against the other half of the rubber band.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Troubleshooting (cont’d) Sumovore not seeing the white edge line? Start with the front edge sensors board (good thing that sensor board is easily removable, eh?). The sensors are pretty good at detecting white, so leaving the trimpots in the middle position as a default is a good place to start. You’ll only need to really mess with them when you’re setting up for line-follower mode. ! One or more IR reflector sensors may be in backwards.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Full Schematic Diagram 38khz IR emitter + 555 C9 0.01µF R6 3k IC4 + R5 100k 20k Trimpot TP1 C9 0.01µF + Q1 2N2222 IR LED4 IR LED5 RED LED3 Line Follower Jumper R7 240 10k Trimpot TP2 QRD1114 + 2 18 6 15 5 R13 470k R15 1k R11 240 QRD1114 17 + + 16 D7 8 R12 470k C14 0.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Electronic Layout Diagram Plug 1 Plug 2 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 + 5V LED3 RED + 5V IR DET1 C4 IR DET2 H1 0.1µF + 5V C5 0.1µF 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 + 5V LED1 LED2 R1 1k + C3 6.8µF IC1 C2 6.8µF R2 1k 74AC14 + 5V + R4 1M0 R3 1M0 H3 H1 8 + 5V 17 6 5 Right M + M 4 2 1 IC2 3 + 9V 5V 5V 1000µF Left 2937 C7 0.01µF L293D 18 7 C6 0.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Rear Sensor Option Sumovore Rear Sensor Option: You may have noticed the spots at the rear center of the mainboard labled ‘Opt IR DET3’ and ‘Opt C8’. These are the mounting points for another PNA4602 IR sensor and 0.1µF filter capacitor. The idea is to install a rearlooking sensor, so it’s less likely that you will be approached from behind and “escorted” out to the edge of the sumo ring.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Add-ons and Upgrades! We’ve been saying all along that the Sumovore is a flexible minisumo platform - here’s our proof! The Brainboard add-ons for our Sumovore have been very popular. Pick your flavour, and convert your Sumovore into something you are comfortable programming! All microcontrollers (except StampStacks) come preloaded with default code designed to make your Sumovore a line-follower and mini-sumo.
The Solarbotics Sumovore Mini-Sumo Competition Rules There are a good many robot clubs and contests that run their own mini-sumo contests, and most adhere to the same rules. Here’s a short list of the rules you can expect to see at these competitions. The Robot ! Must not weigh more than 500 grams (1.1lb) ! Must fit in a 10cm (3.937in) by 10cm square but can be any height ! Sumo must not move for the first 5 seconds of match ! Sumo is allowed to expand after the 5 second startup ! No weapons! (i.e.
The Solarbotics Sumovore If you have any questions regarding this kit, please contact us! Solarbotics Ltd. 201 - 35th Avenue N.E. Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2E 2K5 Toll Free: 866-276-2687 / 403-232-6268 Fax: (403) 226-3741 Website: http://www.solarbotics.com Email: info@solarbotics.com © Copyright Solarbotics Ltd.
