Greetings from Dalek!

We competed in the 2012 MIT Autonomous Robot Design Competition (6.270 by course number), with our robot, Dalek. This robot is a member of the greatest and most feared race in the Universe, the Daleks. Hailing from the planet Skaro, they are genetically engineered Kaleds enclosed in an impenetrable, robotic shell. Having removed every emotion except hate, a Dalek will stop at nothing to conquer everything in its path.

Its hobbies includes following orders, exterminating all forms of life unlike it, dominating the entire Universe, and running away from the Doctor.

The Dalek, along with GLaDOS, is co-president of the Still Alive Club. The Dalek has held this distinction for the last forty years and shall hold it for the rest of time. The Daleks will never truly be defeated, for the Daleks will never die. A mere six territories could never satisfy the Daleks’ hunger. Miasmador was just the beginning…

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”

Results

In the competition, Dalek tied for seventh place, falling to the eventual second place robot. While it was mechanically robust, a bug in the code led to odd behavior if certain timeouts were triggered. This caused it to fall behind in scoring, especially against faster robots. Even with this bug, Dalek did quite well, with a top score of 2790 in its third match.

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