Ballista, an autonomous events of Robotix 2011 was a night event with a rotating light source. This event enjoyed its status as belonging to the action-adventure genre in terms of robots. The problem statement was derived from robot snipers on enemy territory . Robots were to detect walls and shoot at the light source from behind the walls. Lightly put, a James Bond interpretation of Wall-E.
Trivia: Several rounds of prototyping were needed to develop the exact light source with a sliver of white light that would be intense enough for effective detection.
The winning team had a perfect run on the arena, thus proving that if you are like a determined Ballista you’ll hit your targets spot on.
Detecting a light source, a wall and then caliberating the angle and force to shoot is not an easy task. But they did it! Robotix challenges you to the limit indeed.
The event had 2 rounds:
Round 1: Detect a wall on a chartered path and shoot at the revolving light source.
Round 2: Detect any 3 walls and shoot.
To read more about the event click here To view pictures from the event click here