Every year, starting in 2005, MIT has what it calls the ‘Useless Ball’, where students show off their ‘what if’ projects. Sort of a useless device symposium. Five finalist teams are awarded $100 each to manufacture a prototype of their design. The winner is then determined by an audience applause-o-meter. Students Barry Kudrowitz, Bill Fienup and Marc Graham decided to build a robot that dispenses ketchup called the ‘Catsup Crapper’. They accomplished this feat by placing a CO2 cartridge into a ketchup bottle, and at the push of a button, the robot…..well….you know. While their design specs seem to be a closely guarded secret, it looks like they use an RC car and a remote triggered CO2 system. The latest iteration of the crapper (automato 4) is said to run an obstacle course dispensing ketchup on 6 targets in less than 30 seconds. Truly useless. Nice job guys!
Eavesdropper