Robot Olympics Remix: Eque5trian – Show Jumping

In March 2021 the members of the RobotMak3rs RLOC were challenged to come up with ideas for an Olympic Games remix involving two kits, one robotic and one non-robotic. My idea was to mix the LEGO White House (21054) kit:

and the Robot Inventor (51515) kit (plus four pulley wheels):

to create an Olympic Show Jumping model:

Model Modes

The model has two modes of operation: automaton and game. In automaton mode, the horse will go around the arena leaping over the jumps of its own accord. In game mode, there are speed and jump controls and the player attempts to get the horse’s speed right and jump at the correct time. A video showing the model in operation and some of the details about it is below:

Model Operation

What was not shown in the video is how to start the model off. The model needs to set its initial positions. It does this by rotating the jump motor to its 0° position, then repeatedly rotating the horse motor to its 0° position until the horse ends up in its start position. This is required due to the 36T:60T gearing used to drive the horse’s position. The colour sensor will detect the white 3L beam when it’s in the start position.

The steps to start the model off are:

1. Before starting the code, remove all the jumps – so that they don’t get knocked over during initialising.
2. Start the program. The horse will go through its location detection steps.
3. Replace all the jumps back to their positions
4. Tap the hub – it waits for a tap gesture before carrying on
5. Enjoy the model’s action.

Build Instructions and Code

I have produced build instructions which are linked to below. There are two programs, one for each mode that are also available below. The code has been written in the default block language for the 51515 hub. My BIs and code are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence:

• BIs: Eque5trian BIs.pdf
• Automaton Code: Eque5trian Automaton.lms
• Game Code: Eque5trian Game.lms

Other Model Submissions

Other models from both the Robotmak3rs and the general community can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/robotmak3rsolympics