Overall this is what I came up with. I am a big fan of robots like Sewer Snake and Sandstorm and thought I would have a go at making something similar in the 1.5kg division. The frame is all laser cut 6082-T6 aluminium made up of 2 8mm side rails, 3mm front and back panels and 1.5mm top and bottom panels. The lifter is belt driven by an 100rpm 37mm motor and has proven to be fairly reliable in testing. The belt drive has been tensioned enough to ensure it will not slip when self righting and lifting, but will slip when the lifter’s end points have been reached in order to relieve strain on the motor and its respective ESC.
Goddamn
This has a lovely aesthetic to it, the influences are definitely there (and they are some top-notch bots to be inspired by), but it’s it’s own thing. Love the fork setup. Awesome stuff.
The forks were designed mainly with drums in mind considering it would be difficult to not make contact with them. The idea was to make sure the forks could not move upwards at all to ensure they couldn’t get any purchase.
For other verticals and non horizontals I have another config idea in the pipeline which ensures the robot remains on the ground at all time. For this one the forks are independent of the lifting arm. Front forks would be 8mm Hardox and the lifter members would be 6mm Hardox.
The second one was a big step up. I am happy with it, but the chassis is so compact it would be a hassle to replace anything that might get damaged. The lifter is also directly connected to the servo which would absolutely result in some crunchy gears.
I hadn’t made an account yet, and this build made me make one on the spot so I could say holy crap, I love it! Seriously, such a nice design, the proportions are really tight. Looking forward to its fights!
Looks very nice! Another one to add to my list of bots to look forward to seeing at Subterranean!
I’d recommend checking that your bot will pass tech checks well in advance of the event. There’s nothing worse than getting there and discovering that your bot is unsafe to compete. (Been there, done the frantic modifications.) The main ones I can see are you don’t seem to have a locking bar for the weapon or a power light. The complete list is here: http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/documents/Technical-Check-Sheet.pdf. You might already be aware of this and just not shown pictures, in which case feel free to ignore everything I’ve just said.
Really looking forward to seeing this thing fight!
Went 2 wins, 1 loss all ending by knockout at Subterranean which I am more than happy with for a first event. Robot did decently, but it pretty obviously needs to go brushless or at least be upgraded to 4s as the pushing power was not as good as some of the other rammers there. I was also having issues with the floor with certain configs, as the front wheels were not making full contact when driving over uneven parts.
Overall damage wise, other than a bent hs panel from the horizontal that took second in the end, its all good to go. Between here and November (which I believe is when the next Bristol event is?), I’m going to look into upgrading to 4s as well as finding a lighter alternative to the heavy 37mm motor so I can cast some proper rubber wheels for next time.
