Miles's First Experience at a Hardware Robot Competition

Today, Miles took part in his first hardware robot competition.

He has been working toward this for the past few months, learning almost everything from scratch. His goal was to build a small robot, a bit like a BattleBot, that could enter a sumo-style competition and push another robot out of the ring.

This is something I have never done myself. I have also been too busy to help him as much as I would have liked, so much of the learning has been his own: searching, testing, getting stuck, changing parts, and trying again.

The School of Hard Knocks

Wendy has been a huge help throughout the process, especially with finding and ordering the right equipment from China. Even with that support, getting the individual parts to work together was much harder than any of us expected.

It has been the school of hard knocks, as they say.

The day before the competition, we finally found a local shop in Chiang Mai that had the remaining parts we needed. We spent most of the afternoon and evening trying to put everything together and make it work reliably.

There were plenty of moments when one problem seemed to lead directly to another.

Turning Parts Into a Robot

In simple terms, Miles built a small remote-controlled robot around an Arduino Uno. The remote-control receiver sends instructions to the Arduino, the Arduino passes those instructions to a motor-driver board, and that board controls the motors that turn the wheels.

That sounds straightforward when written in one sentence. In practice, it meant getting the board, receiver, motor driver, power supply, motors, wheels, wiring, code, and robot body to cooperate.

One of the workbench setups showing the Arduino Uno, motor driver, battery module, radio receiver, and two geared motors before everything went into the robot body.

One important lesson was power. We first tried a 12-volt battery setup, but it was not suitable for the two small 3-volt motors. We moved to a 5-volt setup that was better matched to the robot. Even finding motors that physically connected properly to the wheels and body became its own challenge.

Eventually, he got the complete system working.

Video: Miles’s Arduino-powered robot project and the work behind getting it competition-ready.

Making It to the Ring

Watching a robot Miles had built enter the competition ring was a proud moment.

The finished machine may look small, but behind it were months of learning and a very intense final day of troubleshooting. He had taken a pile of unfamiliar components and turned them into something he could control, drive, and compete with.

For me, the biggest win was not a place on the scoreboard. It was seeing him stay with a difficult problem long enough to make something real.

Hardware teaches patience in a very direct way. Code can be correct while a wire is loose. A motor can spin but fail to grip the wheel. A power source can work but be wrong for the components. Progress comes from understanding the whole system, one failure at a time.

Finding More Makers in Chiang Mai

The experience also made something else clear: we need to connect with more people who build things in Chiang Mai.

We met people from the local robotics community at the competition, and I hope this is only the beginning. Miles would benefit from having other young makers, mentors, parents, and hardware enthusiasts around him: people who can share tools, knowledge, ideas, and the excitement of making something move for the first time.

That is why we are setting up ChiangMaiStudio.com. We want it to become a place where Miles can document the more technical side of this robot, continue learning, and hopefully find more people in the area to build with.

I will keep this post focused on the personal experience. On Chiang Mai Studio, we can go deeper into the Arduino, receiver, motor driver, motors, battery setup, wiring, code, and everything we would change for the next version.

I am very excited to see where Miles takes this next.

If you are a maker, robotics mentor, parent, or young builder in Chiang Mai, please reach out. What should Miles build next?