I wasn't too happy with the way
FastSpat turned out so it was time for a new
Mini-Sumo. My intent was to make a low-profile version on
Mini-Spat, with the
battery box underneath and nothing but the circuit board on top of the servos.
Well there wasn't enough ground clearance for the batteries underneath, so I
ended up with the batteries on top and the PCB underneath. FlatSpat uses a pair
of Futaba 3004 servos hacked for continuous rotation, with NetMedia wheels. The
"eyes" are a pair of Sharp GP2D15 range sensors and the floor Sensors are P5587
reflective sensors. This is all powered by an AVR AT90S8535 and 4 AA batteries.
Before the Nov. 2004 event, we discovered a major firmware error that was causing
FlatSpat to turn the wrong way. With that fix in place, FlatSpat (Shadow) went
all the way to first place!
