In case you missed it, SparkFun recently held the Actobotics Stair Climber Challenge competition, where you could build a robot capable of ascending stairs and win some sweet SparkFun cash!

The contest is over now and the winners have just been announced — and some of the bots the contestants came up with are just plain awesome!

First prize went to the [Jaeger Family] who built a wheeled robot that can roll right up stairs without even batting an eyelash — it’s pretty cool to see. Check that out and more below.

We really like the second place winner though — it’s terribly slow, but a very ingenious design. We think you’ll agree.

[Chad Giddings] robot didn’t quite make it up the stairs, but nonetheless is a pretty cool robotics platform he’s been developing. Tank tread drive with an on board tool-gripper, video camera, and a set of wheels behind it to (theoretically) let it climb stairs while balancing itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN1Xoz1ipFM

Finally we have [Robert Paradiso’s] design which only got an honorable mention by SparkFun, but we think his robot is probably the cutest…  well, uh, maybe clumsiest of the bunch.