Autonomous sentry gun looks to mow down Defcon

Hand crafted autonomous turrets aren't anything unusual, but rather than piecing together a masterful creation with pre-fab parts, the folks over at Burnt Popcorn managed to take things one step further. After finding that cheaper AirSoft guns lacked the accuracy they craved, they decided to "make their own mechanism to fire BBs." The goal of the project was to enter the Defcon Bots competition and craft a machine that could "shoot down all the targets before the other person does." Of course, the actual programming involved in building this eagle-eyed shooter is a bit more extensive than can be covered here, but if you're looking for a pretty thorough guide complete with video demonstrations, be sure and give the read link a minute of your time.

[Via MAKE]

[Stupidiot @ Sep 10th 2007 4:54PM]

I can't wait for someone to build a Bioshock style sentry turret!

[Mike @ Sep 10th 2007 4:58PM]

Well if they were building a sentry gun from TFC the least they could have done is make it 3rd level rockets and all :(

[Kevin @ Sep 11th 2007 7:11PM]

It's a level 1 sentry.. no rockets yet. Next year will be a level 2. I'm not sure what we'll do the year after that.. maybe nerf rockets or something.

[aeo @ Sep 10th 2007 5:01PM]

Insert safety nazi commentary about shooting one's eye out here...

[Nate @ Sep 10th 2007 6:30PM]

*dons a Wicked Witch of the West Costume*
You'll shoot yer eye out! You'll shoot yer eye out!

[Nelly @ Sep 10th 2007 5:17PM]

ah, sweeet to shoot that little pooche that always do his nature call on my lawn. Payback!!!

[gak @ Sep 10th 2007 6:19PM]

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. ;)

[Charlie Calhoun @ Sep 10th 2007 7:02PM]

then its hilarious

[Eric @ Sep 11th 2007 3:25AM]

Then it's fun and games in two dimensions!

[devid @ Sep 10th 2007 7:03PM]

an icicle fell on me

[Miles Pulsford @ Sep 10th 2007 8:30PM]

wtf?

[devid @ Sep 10th 2007 11:23PM]

"you'll shoot your ice out" is a reference to the movie 'a christmas story', so is the icicle comment.
http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/quotes

[Blacknimbus @ Sep 10th 2007 9:08PM]

Any idea what the soundtrack is on that first video?

[Chris @ Sep 10th 2007 10:29PM]

Mirwais - Disco Science

[Blacknimbus @ Sep 10th 2007 10:31PM]

Thanks much

[Ashish @ Sep 10th 2007 11:01PM]

*Insert Bioshock reference*

[Bobs @ Nov 13th 2007 8:10PM]

I think your comment should have read "Insert Team fortress classic refrence here" as this gun looks almost identical to the sentry that engineers construct in TFC