Why not build a contraption that would sort trash in the yard. Maybe scoring could be based on what variety of trash can be taken by the machine, what is the maximum size of garbage that can be picked up, and whether a specific object can be found in a large pile in a given timespan (using only the extensions built onto their sorter).

Maybe this would be a vehicle of some kind, with a crane or arm that could pick stuff up. Maybe a shovel of some kind, or an electro-magnet (with a generator of course). The trick being that the prize object would only be announced like 2 minutes before the final sort.

The sorter would have to move across a few dozen yards (on its own power) then at the end of the sort, move back before the time expires.

Beats your average recycling bin.

;)

-- Francis Esmonde-White (francisew@canada.com), March 19, 2001

Answers

Cool idea- Sort of a mobile recycling factory! It would have to sort plastics from aluminum from ferrous metals from slow people that got in the way (unless you built in an automatic cookie maker). Do it right, and it might even have commercial potential! (Without the cookie maker, of course.)

-- Chip Haynes (ehaynes@co.pinellas.fl.us), March 27, 2001.