After a little over a year on the mini sumo robot project at It Begins in Brockport we can claim considerable successes. This is a project I lead the development on at my community makerspace and was adopted and taken much further by BoB and others at the space.

The early chassis design and software went through significant improvement during testing at the space. We then started putting together kits to make available to members and the the public. We were able to make a small number (about 20) kits available at $30 each to cover the cost of materials. We supported builders through workshops and individual consulting.

The bots have battled at a wide number of events including demonstrations, maker faires, and other community events. We have held three full-on tournaments and the winners were definitely not the most experienced competitors. Every has enjoyed themselves and we have worked hard to keep the competition friendly with an emphasis on fun and learning.

The sumo bot program has turned out to be very appealing to libraries and BoB has been invited to give a series of demonstrations/presentations on them. We will continue to develop the program and probably will do a full round 2 of development before growing the program in 2026.