During the Red Robot Hackathon, my team and I built a small transport robot that could pick up objects and drop them into a designated zone. We had about 40 hours and limited materials, so we kept the design as simple (and fast to build) as possible.

The robot was remote-controlled, and we originally tried a rack-and-pinion lift so it could reach all three platform heights. The mechanism actually worked mechanically, but the electronics didn’t cooperate in time. So we pivoted and aimed for the second level instead. In the end, we managed to transport a little. The whole weekend was really fun and a big learning experience in rapid prototyping under pressure.