Naturally, the first idea that came to our minds was a huge lego battlemech. Sadly, after several preliminary studies, we realized that complete and utter destruction of the enemy robot would result in a 0/0 tie, and a loss for our side, so we scrapped the idea.

When all was said and done, the things we wanted our robot to be were effective, simple, and hopefully, unique.

Making Unexplained Bacon
or, How not to build a 6.270 robot

1. Come up with an idea that appears to solve every one of your problems at once.

We decided right from the start that our biggest problem was the unpredictable barrier. Noticing that the balls were taller than the barrier by an inch, our first idea was to create a giant folding arm, about 2.5 to 3 feet long, which would hover just above 2" from the ground. We could swing it around the board, and collect every ball opn our side in one fell swoop. Then our robot just drives forward and pushes all the balls into the trough. Win.

2. Scrap it, because your first idea is always bad.

After spending maybe two weeks trying to build an arm, we could find nothing that would stay level at such a long length that did not rely on some support in the middle. However, as we could not use string, that left us with only lego chains -- and we didn't have enough. The other problem was mounting the arm; because the robot had to spin either way depending on it's side, we had to have the arm right in the middle of the robot, which is an inefficient place for ball-collecting.

3. Come up with a better idea that's just as prone to failure.

Instead, we came up with a huge base with two arms, one on each side, about 20 inches long, with a huge wheel at the end for support. The robot wouldn't be able to just sit in place and spin anymore (it would have to move to reach all the balls), but it would still work with about the same strategy.

4. Take it to lab as late as possible to try it out.

We took our semi-completed robot to lab, put it on the table, started a test routine, and watched in horror as the arms got caught on the sides of the able and were ripped off as the robot span around. It was at this point we knew that taking your robot to lab was very important, just to make sure everything fits.

5. Start over, less than a week before the contest.

Now we needed a new design and brainstormed like crazy. Our new idea was just to make the whole robot an arm, with a drive system on either end, which would unfold and drive around pushing balls.

6. Work like crazy.

Unexplained Bacon was born: A folding wall about two feet long, which could fold up and mysteriously not fall over even though both wheels were on one side. ("That thing defies the laws of physics!" remarked one 6.270 organizer as U.B. vibrated across the floor.)

The robot was able to rotate it's hinge on a servo to fold nearly in half, and rotate it's wheels almost 180 degrees, allowing it to spin in place, drive forward, back, and sideways, and turn around in place. While folded, the robot could spin around within the 18" square starting location, the key to orientation.

Next up was making a strategy that worked.

7. Give it a cool name.

"mmm. . . unexplained bacon." -- Homer Simpson