E14 Fun & Games - Epilogue for the RC Hammering Rubber Duck in the Tub

The RC Hammering Rubber Duck in the Tub has been officially entered into the Fun & Games competition. 

I wanted to share some final comments about our robotics club program, Ducks with Hammers, for the Mysticon SciFi convention in western Virginia this past weekend. 

Attendance was a little lighter than normal with a major winter storm hitting the eastern US. Another collegue who drove in from Illinois is still in Virginia waiting for roads to be cleared. 

• One colleague, who was driving from Florida to Virginia, turned around and headed for home with his Ducks with Hammers after hearing the weather forecast. We missed battling those Ducks. 
• The convention's guest of honor was Gigi Edgley, best known for her portrayal of Chiana on the science fiction series Farscape. She stopped in to say hi to us during our program and check out our robots and projects. She is a really nice lady. 

• The RC robots are usually the big hit. The RC Hammering Rubber Duck was no exception.  A close second was this robot I built in about 30 minutes. Nicknamed the Scrambler, it had a plywood base cut from scrap, with a roller underneath the rear, 2 continuous servos hot glued to the base, interfaced to a radio controller transmitter & receiver. A 100 rpm gearmotor ran continuously coupled to an old mixer beater. 
• For next year's convention , we're thinking to focus more on building a fleet of combat robots from kitchen utensils and maybe one autonomous project each.