The Great Robot Egg Race

16 December 2014

Back in October, during Robots Week, we launched The Great Robot Egg Race. The challenge was to build a moving robot that could pick up an egg and travel a short distance before putting it down in a frying pan, without smashing it! The robot needed to travel over a variety of different terrains/surfaces, straddle a cube, go under a limbo pole, negotiate a sideways slope and navigate a slalom course to finally deliver the fresh, un-smashed egg into the pan. 
The race took place on Wednesday 10th December and it was judged by roboticist Iain Duncan, our creative director Zoe Laughlin, and a master programmer Prof Mark Handley.

There was tough competition and the tension was very high on race day. There were 4 teams set to race to the finishing line; Nocturne, The Eggsperts, CyberCitizens and Hungry for Egg. 
First to get the race going were CyberCitizens, who had never programmed an arduino board before they began by picking the egg up very successfully with a laser-etched cardboard cube. Unfortunately they recieved penalty points for not being able to straddle the cube but managed to very accurately complete the course in great time. The un-smashed egg was delivered down the two small step and placed into the frying pan.
 
Next up were The Eggsperts, storming ahead with speed, accuracy and an extra special christmas bauble egg picker-upper! This team have also been so inspired by robots that they are now looking into setting up their own Robots Society. 

Third to attempt the course were Nocturne; luck wasn’t on their side as their egg picker couldn’t quite open far enough to pick the egg up. After accepting penalty points for not picking the egg up they continued onto the course, but were then struck with technical problems. Team Nocturne didn’t managed to complete the course but put in a valiant effort. 

The final team to race were Hungry for Egg, also struggling with some technical problems with their egg picker. With a little help they managed to pick the egg and take to the track. The slow moving robot skimmed the cube and successfully managed to handle all aspects of the course. The un-smashed egg was delivered into the pan for the final time. 

After much deliberation the three judges came to the conclusion that in 4th place was Nocturne, 3rd place was Hungry for Egg, 2nd was CyberCitizens and in 1st was the The Eggsperts. 

Many congratulations to all who took part. 

For more pictures visit our flickr page.