Line-Following Competition

I think most robotics competitors will agree, there’s a moment in every game that sums up the experience. For me, that was watching Truffle Pig run.

You see, Grant McKee made a devilishly difficult line-following track. Most line-followers are reprogrammed mini-sumos, and none of them could complete the course.

Nicholas Barker had built a robot specifically for this event: Truffle Pig. Truffle Pig featured microcontroller, sensor, and drive subsystems based on the Solarbotics Sumovore. However, it was much quicker than the competing Sumovores because it was lighter and was using the faster GM10 motors.

The audience was ecstatic as Truffle Pig zipped and zoomed around the turns and corners, and finished the course! There were shouts of “go piggy” and it was all excellent fun. Of course, it helped that Nicholas primed the audience by handing out Truffle Pig temporary tattoos. Go pig, go!