Have you ever played the game Simon before? It can get really frustrating at the higher levels, but since necessity is the mother of all invention, here we are with this home built robot done by a father and his 7-year old daughter after getting too frustration with Simon. Ben North, an engineer by profession, shared his experience with Simon, “We were … not doing especially well. I said [to my daughter], ‘I bet you could make a robot to do this. My daughter was excited by this idea, and we do often make and experiment with things, so we decided we’d give it a go.” It took this dynamic team of father and daughter an entire year to come up with the Simon beating robot, and we’re pleased to say that they have been nothing short of successful in the end.
The Norths managed to figure out a system which is capable of keeping track of all the flashing lights in the game of Simon in order to send Simon running away with its proverbial tail between its legs, all without the need for any kind of human input. You will have to watch the entire 7 minute plus video above to get a better idea on how seemingly flawless this robot works.
This home-built robot also made use of existing parts around the home, making it all the more endearing to the end user. The base on where the game rests is a chopping board that has been laid atop a quartet of overturned yogurt cups, while the “fingers” which interact with the Simon lights happen to be formed out of angled Lego bricks that are connected to rubber bands so that they can return to a starting position.
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