Second Bi-Annual BEAM Competition
Most Innovative Form of Motion

The contest deadline has been rescheduled for August 14th.

Contest entries can be viewed at BEAM zine.
Webspace donated by Jason Jones.

Ok Steve...You asked for it, you got it. The title at the top says it all, so start brainstorming and let your imagination go wild! Need more motivation?...take a look at what the top 2 finishers win.

First Place and Second Place		Two completely populated and ready to go gold-on-black bicore Hextile boards plucked from Mark Tilden's workbench!
Third Place		4 OTU's from Dave Hrynkiw. EXACTLY like the ones he and MarkT used on the older bots.
Fourth Place		3 tiny MiniMotors with a 100.5:1 gearhead donated by Mark Dalton.
Fifth Place		A pair of very efficient 64:1 Escap 22 gearmotors with leg mounting collars donated by Rick Diaz
Sixth Place		2 MicroMo motors with a 60:1 gearhead donated by Mark Dalton.
Seventh Place		One Panasonic 37x33 solarcell

Special thanks to the sponsors and people who donated prizes. Prizes are not in order yet. I have to wait until everything arrives in the mail before I can decide the prize order.

Contestants creatures will be judged on a scale from 1 to 10 in three categories:

Aesthetics	Appealling to the eye. Interesting mechanical design. Neat assembly.
Innovative movement	We're looking for anything new and fresh. Uncommon yet practical. Any ideas yet? in-no-va-tive : characterized by, tending to, or introducing a new idea,method, or device.
Coolness	As usual...your entry must be "cool". Try using a different controller or modify an existing one. Basically anything to make the judges say ..."Wow, that's cool!"

All entries will be judged in ALL three categories and all categories are weighted equally.

This contest is open to EVERYONE! Anyone can submit an entry, only one entry per person though. It is completely FREE of charge to enter!

Contest starts NOW and judging will take place on the last day of July. Get those creative juices flowin' and don't procrastinate like you did last time! ;-)

You must have the means to post pictures of your creature to the net. Required images are, a front shot, rear shot, side, top and a close-up (as clear as possible) of the electronics portion. One of the first four shots must be taken with your creature sitting "on top of" a millimeter ruler just so we can get a sense of it's size. Also you must provide an image of your creature's movement in one of the following forms:

1. An movie file (MPEG, Quicktime or AVI).
2. An animated gif with atleast 15 frames and one "cycle of motion".
3. 15 timelapse images (half size) on a webpage.

As most of you don't have video capture equipment, I'll be accepting VHS tapes in NTSC format of your robot. I'll post clips of the video on-line for you. Try to keep them under a couple minutes long. E-mail me if this is the best solution for you.

Along with the images you also must include a detailed description of your entry. What materials did you use? How did you construct the frame? What electronic components did you use? How fast can it cover a meter? etc...

Creatures of all habitats will be accepted...land, water, air and...if you can get yours into outer space, you pretty much automatically win! =).

Solar power is preferred but battery power is acceptable. NO teathered bots.

Anyone found faking pictures will be disqualified. Judges will investigate the feasibility of each entry. What I'm trying to say is...don't cheat.

Creatures must follow BEAM philosophy, with BEAM style electronics controlling the motion of the robot.

If you are (seriously) planning on entering my contest please let me know NOW so I can get a rough preliminary head count.

When you're done your entry, you can enter the contest by sending me an e-mail. Please include...

• Your name
• Your creature's name (you do name your photovores...don't you?)
• The URL of the website with your creatures images
• Your e-mail address
• You mailing address

If you've got any questions or suggestions to make this contest better please don't hesitate to send me some e-mail.


Sponsored in part by Solarbotics. The best...and only...BEAM supplier out there. Thanks Dave!

BEAM is a Trademark of Mark Tilden
All BEAM technology is Patented by Mark Tilden
I reserve the right to alter contest rules or completely withdraw this contest (just protecting my ass).


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