Samuel L. Jackson

Having being defeated by Sharks, Dinosaurs, The Dark Side, and The Deadly Viper Assassin Squad, among others, Sammy J is on the attack. With the help of two MIT freshmen, Xuefeng Chen and Nick Grabenstein, he is no longer scared and has reinvented himself in robot form. Time to prove his ground against snakes and robots in his debut at MIT's 2007 6.270 competition.

Samuel L. Jackson is a machine. In Robo-form he has 6 motors driving 5 wheels at a 25:1 gear ratio. He turns tank style fluidly by driving one side back and the other side forward, with a differentiated center wheel for support of his heavy battery pack. Shaft encoders are used on either side to help the robot go straight and make precise turns, with the gyro acting as a second check to help calculate his turns. He has a sturdy 11" by 11" body frame with a one way ball gate in front. Two arms are controlled with servos for strategic purposes. The left arm rests in front the robot to ensure that balls that are not supposed to be eaten are not, and the right arm rests to the right of Samuel.

The strategy is simple. Speed and strength with strategic driving. After analyzing the competition, it was decided that other robots would go for their group of 4 balls first. Sammy J. does things his own way. He knows he has enough speed to intercept those four balls after first scoring his own two balls, so he orients himself towards his two balls with the help of four LED light sensors, and tears it up from there. The plan is to push the two balls straight ahead into the scoring area, opening his right arm ahead of him to block the opponent's balls in case they are miraculously fast enough to send them into the scoring area. From there he turns counterclockwise 90 degrees, opens up both arms so they are perpendicular with his movement and backs across the board to stop the opposing balls and/or robot. Then he goes down the middle of the board to his 4 balls, eats them with the ball gate and arms and parks in the other corner scoring territory.

As it turned out, Samuel L. Jackson may have been too keen on his goal of victory that some things did not work out. With two early wins in the morning rounds, he may have been too eager in the finals. In the first round of the evening, Sam J. was able to secure one territory and run the opposing robot who was on its way to scoring their four balls, back into its starting turf. In the subsequent 2 rounds, he pushed the balls with such speed that they rebounded and rolled out of the territory. Inevitable collisions with the opposing teams also stalled the completion of the game plan because the shaft encoders would not reach the criteria for doing the next thing. In the future, Sam J. might test out his speed with balls before he competes and have a time-out code.

Watch video from the first round of finals

zoom zoom: in action during the seeding rounds

In the end, Samuel L. Jackson was awarded the “Most Lethal” Staff Award for his “impressive speed and strength.” Sammy J. has given both Nick and Xuefeng their first true experiences of staying in lab into the whee hours of the morning. He'd like to thank the friends of the Connor 422 suite for donating it’s organization and cleanliness to help with his quest.

Sammy J. hug for all!