MiniCadenza is an in-progress Mini-Sumo robot (10 cm on a side), being built for the monthly Northern Colorado Mini-Sumo Championships (heh).

The picture to the left is a CAD rendering of the design; it'll be replaced by a real picture when MiniCadenza is finished.

Why would anybody use a CAD program to design a 10 cm robot?  Hmm.  Well, I do this for fun so if I feel like playing with a CAD program, I will.  Also, when I don't completely overplan, my ten thumbs create something completely horrible.  When I do completely overplan, it ends up only half horrible.

MiniCadenza is mostly built from stock aluminum sheets of thicknesses 0.025", 0.04", 0.0625", and 0.125".  These parts are screwed together with small machine screws.  Click on the picture to enlarge, or click here to see more information about MiniCadenza's construction.

MiniCadenza's motors are gutted Hitec servos.  In essence I ripped out all of the electronics from the servos, making them into just small gearmotors.  Because MiniCadenza's treads don't have a very large diameter, I run these motors hot (7v - 9v or so) to get the speed higher.

Although a Mini-Sumo robot probably doesn't need encoders I hadn't ever played with that kind of feedback or PID control, so I tore the encoder wheels out of the cheapest mouse I could find and rigged them up to the servos.

For more info about the motor system, click here.

MiniCadenza uses a custom Atmel AVR 8535 board for it's control system (shown at left), which also includes a TI SN754410NE H-bridge to control its motors.  The board is 2" x 1.2".  The robot is powered by 6 or 7 AAA NiMH rechargeables (7 for competition and 6 when I want to take it a little easier on the motors).

MiniCadenza's sensors are as follows:  four Hamamatsu P5587 photoreflectors are used to detect the edge of the dohyo, six Sharp GP2D12 IR proximity sensors are used to find the opponent, two encoder wheels extracted from a mouse give information about what the motors are doing, and two bump switches detect contact with the opponent.

Click on the image for a larger version, or click here for more details on MiniCadenza's electronics.

MiniCadenza's motors hook up to a custom-built tread system.  The theory was that this would maximize traction and help the robot push harder against its opponent.  Little did I realize how hard it would be to design and build a workable tread system.

Click here for more on the drive system.

MiniCadenza's software is mainly written in C for the AVR chip.  Or I should say, it will be.  Heh.

Since MiniCadenza is still unfinished, there are no performance details to report at this time.