This high-flying contest tests robotic prowess, creativity, and sense of humor. BY JOHN BAICHTAL CLOTHES- LINE RACES
Last November, a group of makers took their robots to Minneapolis’
Hack Factory hackerspace. These robots didn’t roll around on the
floor following a line, fighting, or picking things up. Instead, they did
one thing: move along an 1", 100' length of woven steel aircraft
cable and, upon reaching the end, return to the starting point — as
fast as possible. It was a Clothesline Race, a contest invented by
the hackerspace’s founding president, Mike Hord.
Hord’s fascination with this sort of race
goes back more than 20 years. As a child,
he was obsessed with a Cub Scout event
called Space Derby, in which toy spaceships
run along cords, powered by rubber bands
and propellers. Space Derby isn’t nearly as
popular as the Scouts’ Pinewood Derby, in
which Scouts build and race wooden cars, a
fact that Hord attributes to the Space Derby’s
greater complexity. “To keep the playing field
level,” he says, “you need to provide a more
complete kit and allow less leeway, because
the task is harder and there are so many
more ways to solve it.”
But Hord came to realize that what was a
liability for a kids’ event made for a fascinating
challenge as an adult. When he helped found
the Hack Factory, he saw his opportunity to
organize his own Space Derby — upgraded for
more sophisticated, adult makers.
In a Clothesline Race, the track is a length
of rope or cable, stretched taut and level,
with a metal plate at either end. Unlike the
Cub Scouts’ Space Derby, there is no kit. Your
racer can use virtually any technology, so long
as it’s safe. Depending on the specific race’s
rules, racers can be propelled by anything
from Lego Mindstorms servos to model airplane props to Estes rocket engines.
Some of Hord’s ideas have included a can-and-pipe Stirling engine (see MAKE Volume
07, page 90) and a wi-fi-enabled crawler. “I’ve
also had ideas for a brachiating racer built
into a stuffed monkey, a gyro-stabilized racer
John Scherer
66 Make: makezine.com/28
