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- Seattlerobotics - http://www.seattlerobotics.org/ . These guys are uber high tech, and have been evolved in autonomous Sumo for years! You’ll find lots of valuable information at this site.
- Societyofrobots - http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_sumo.shtml . This one is interesting in that it uses a scanning sharp IR rangefinder to ‘find’ it’s opponents. Possibly something to consider with the hunter bot you are designing…
- Eagle - from Cadsoft is VERY full featured, but can be a bit intimidating at first. Their free version has limited capability, but is sufficient for many jobs and should work very nicely for your Sumo effort. They don’t produce circuit boards directly, but do list a number of board houses at their site. Here’s the link: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/freeware.htm . The big asset to Eagle is the HUGE inventory of pre-defined parts. Nearly every connector, switch or electronic component has been added to their library. Eagle also has auto routing capability.
- Express PCB - Another that is popular is http://www.expresspcb.com/index.htm . Express PCB will produce a very small quantity (I.e. – 3) of evaluation boards for about $50. They also offer design software free of charge.
- PCB123 ( http://www.pcb123.com/ ) has been around for a number of years. It looks as though they may have partnered with DigiKey in that once you have designed the schematic, you can also produce a BOM (bill of materials). I don’t know if it produces the BOM complete with DigiKey part numbers, but if it does might be a valuable thing… Their small quantity board rates also appear to be pretty low.
