RoadRunner 5

Built by Native American Students for Native American Schools and Programs

SIPI’s RoadRunner platform has been in the works for over 10 years. The current generation, RoadRunner 5, is a modular 3D printed rover based on the Arduino microcontroller. It has been designed, developed, and built by the SIPI Engineering students and mentors. The RoadRunner 5 is used as an outreach and education vehicle to provide an introductory path to programming. They are provided as kits to students and educators at SIPI’s partner high schools.

The RoadRunner series are 100% designed, developed, and built by the SIPI Engineering and Engineering Technology faculty and students. RoadRunner series kits include a detailed 3D printing and assembly instructions manual as well as an activities book.

Capabilities of the platform include obstacle sensing with an ultrasonic sensor, fine movement control with continuous rotation servo wheels, remote operation over Bluetooth, gripper capability with a mechanical arm, and nighttime exploration using automatic headlights. Each RoadRunner costs approximately $175 in materials and requires two hours to assemble.

RoadRunner 5 Assembly Instructions

The platform can be operated via Bluetooth using freely available mobile apps. The students are exposed to the fundamentals of the following advanced technologies:

  1. CAD and 3D Modeling
  2. 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing
  3. Arduino Programming and Mobile Robots
  4. Wireless and Bluetooth Communication

Cost Analysis

Materials:

    • $150 (without payload)
    • $185 (with payload)

Labor:

    • $24 (2 hours @ $12/hour)

RoadRunner 5 Payload Modules

Payload modules for the RoadRunner 5 currently include a gripper attachment, a catapult, and automatic headlights.

Explorer

LEDs enable nighttime scouting missions for the Explorer.

Collector

A parallel lifting arm allows the collection of treasure and resources for the Collector.

Guardian

The catapult atop the Guardian can keep any resources and base camps safe.

RoadRunner Food Fight Game

The RoadRunner 5 Gripper module needed a purpose. It could lift small objects and move them around, but there was no reason for someone to stay engaged in the activity for more than a few minutes. Making a game using multiple RoadRunners so that two or more people could compete against one another in a friendly competition increased the amount of time people would use the gripper.

Food Fight is a simple game where the objective is to gather “food cubes” and place them in a team basket quicker than your opponents can. It can be played with two people in a one-on-one game, three people in a chaotic free-for-all, or four people in a two-on-two team brawl. Each team of one or two players has their own color cubes that will earn points. The enemy cubes earn no points if gathered, but a sneaky RoadRunner can toss the enemy cubes out of the arena. There are neutral cubes in the arena as well that can be fought over even as a RoadRunner tries to bring one back to their basket.