Quik-e-bot

nobody actually wrote about our rendezvous with the robotic world.
here's something i quickly wrote (as a reply to query in loyola grp) hoping someone else would do a complete writeup..:

well our team comprised of 6 boys in my class..
we'd to make a manually controlled robot that could travel on rails, 25 cm apart, 75 cm high above ground and 2m long..
It had to pick up blocks (12cmx10cmx8cm) kept piled on ground and drop at another place..
seemed simple at first sight (was one reason to take up that problem)
but along the way we found out the scale on which we had to work was much larger than expected
the robot had a restriction that it's maximum size should be 35x35x35..
that mean it had to have something like retractable arm
the clamping mechanism also had to be stable enough to pick up 300gm (wt of each block)
so we went about solving the problems working through the nights those days (studying for exams seemed much easier).
My main job was preparing the required circuitry, the joystick etc.
the guys doing the physical work had a really hard time with hand drill (electric drill shut down on 2nd day).
the basic material we used was aluminium which was joined using screws..

after finishing 80 % of the work, we set off to iitm..
the competition took place the day next to the one we arrived on..
i was the one who controlled the bot..
it successfully picked up the block and placed it on the place where it was supposed to keep..
but then two things happened..
our clamp didn't unclamp properly and the foam tape we used on the clamping surface got stuck on to the block.
sadly the judges didn't award us a successful stack..so we'd to return back empty-handed..
we had a great time in iit campus and around chennai the next few days..
tht's all..