Digit Evo1 - One Giant Leap for Digit Evo 1

Digit at the Games

When we reverted back to Evo 1 Digit, I was pleasantly surprised to find that with just a little more work Digit was good enough to enter in to the event.

After sorting out the tables in the software that told the servos what position they had to be and when, I came to the conclusion that the chassis needed to be stiffened.

This idea coming about just a few days before the event, became a problem since it changed the centre of gravity again of Digit, which meant re-writing all the servo position tables.

However after after extensive fiddling and re-iteration of the code, the job was done.

Trip

Digit Evo 1 managed 3 metres in 27 seconds, on our kitchen floor, that time and distance equated to 2 minutes 42 seconds over the 18 metres, which we were reasonably happy with, so we packed everything up ready for the event.

So on the 8th July 2006 we went along to the event in Corby, Northampton where Digit Evo 1 weighed in at 700 grams, and passed the tech check with flying colours.

Leaving me free to check out the competitors, and watch the other competitions whilst we waited for our turn to take part.

Small Steps

Two of the competing robots 'Trip' and 'Small Steps', have overlapping feet which allows for a simple stepping movement to occur with no leaning required. However, these are quite small robots, with quite small steps, so they would need to have very fast steps to achieve a good time over 18 metres

Robbie and Gorgon are very sophisticated robots capable of achieving remarkable poses and stunts,  Their precision and sophistication meant that they were not optimised for racing, but they entertained, with their head stands and rolls.

Robbie and Gorgon

Barry

The robot 'Barry' was another robot with overlapping feet, but again, it had quite a restricted stride length, which explains why it took as long as it did to traverse the 18 metre track.

Road Runner 2

Digit's only serious competition was 'Roadrunner 2' which was an intriguing robot, with high speed feet. However during the race it struggled with direction and had to stop and realign which slowed it down considerably.

When Digits turn came, Digit got off to a flying start, but he started veering off course, I tried to steer him as best I could, this involved dragging one foot along the ground a little and is more of a directional bias than steering.

Digit rode up on the lane dividing strip, which actually helped me steer him straighter and recovered and so he put in a blistering time of 1 minute 46 seconds, despite having some steering problems.

Biped Race Results

We were thrilled to win the UK Robotic Games Biped Walker event with Digit Evo 1.

Receiving Digits 1st Place Certificate