How it works:
Buggy Battles works either as a short (60-90 minute) workshop using our pre-built buggies, or as a longer project which can run throughout one school day, or split into 4 or 5 weekly hour-long sessions.
Build your own buggy at home using the resources here or attend one of our workshops or book a workshop for your school or group. Recommended for ages 9+ (younger can definitely take part if they have some experience and/or help).
Recommended: 4 X 1 hour workshops + 1-hour battle event. These can be weekly hour-long sessions or run all in one day with a battle at the end.
- Get the resources you need directly from Redfern HERE or rent the kit boxes from us for £5 + deposit: £35 (basic)/£45 (advanced). You will need computers, cardboard/other materials, and some tape.
- Download the Crumble software and ‘Getting Started pdf‘ from Redfern Electronics.
- Use the resources here and on the Redfern website for free to start learning and building. You can also sign up to our Buggy Building workshops, which can be run via remote learning.
- Build some devastatingly dangerous Battle Buggies!
- Join our next battle event, or you can organise your own.
- Get the deposit back when the kits are returned, so that they can be re-used.
Level 1 of Buggy Battles will be based around the excellent Crumble controller from Redfern Electronics. Level 2 will use Arduinos and other controllers with command-line text coding. We have no affiliation with Redfern and do not benefit from any increased sales, we just think the Crumble is a great educational resource.
Let Battle Commence….
It’s really about launching your buggy into the circle and watching it caper and collide and seeing if the sensor works how you expected it to, and laughing at it when it doesn’t. In our battle events we don’t go in for tournaments or even winners partucularly, although you can run yours how you like.
You can hold races, sumo wrestles, jousts but we recommend a melee as being the most fun: mark a circle on the floor (at least 2m diameter) and set buggies off from the edge. When any buggy leaves the circle it can be launched in again, or even quickly re-coded for new strategic orders. Set an ultimate time limit (30 minutes might do), although things may come to a natural end before that.
For groups that have managed to test their sensors during the workshops then an obstacle course for each buggy is a great challenge. This is surprisingly difficult- one box to avoid is a good starting point but it requires careful timing with the code.
If this all sounds a bit too combative for you, then have a look at our Sketchy Circuits ‘Wonky Robots’ workshops, which are just as fun but a bit more Disco.