Hello, new user here but I’ve used the site to see many designs as I get more into this. It’s been absolutely amazing seeing bots here and then competing against the same at Rock and Robots.
I wanted to share my recent entry, “My Baby”, which was very fun to make and to drive. Even if it got a rating of “grotesque” from showrunner Eli.
I entered previously with a ramshackle assortment of tape, plastic, and bits. It was an absolute mess that just slid around on the slick arena and at least twice we had to restart matches because I just drove myself into the goal without any contact made.
This time around I had two goals:
- Create a robot that properly gripped the surface
- Use the servo motor for something
I ended up just screwing motors onto a plastic sheet, placing the servo in the center as I prefer bots that don’t need to right themselves, and I wanted it not to lump on one side or the other, and jamming in the rest of the electronics in a way that looked and felt roughly balanced. I drew around this with a sharpie, cut it out, and had myself a driving and whining little sheet of plastic…
For the wheels I got a toy car with some relatively light wheels from Sam 99p store in Wood Green. I also went there to get latex balloons as I thought having them as a band around whatever wheels I did get would be a quick and easy way to get grip without having to play around with things like liquid latex. The only balloons they had in stock were birthday colours or these pink fleshy tones.
Once the wheels were on I took one look and was perhaps too inspired by the weird wheels and gave the body a quick spray in pink after fixing another sheet on top with tape and covering the sides. After all this the bot looks reasonably sturdy, but if you pick it up you can give it quite a good bend.
Next is where I feel I need to explain. I am a huge fan of combining art and engineering. I come from the slick no-nonsense side of engineering and was very quickly fed up with it. Even with access to things like a 3D printer- I’d prefer to go the craft route on these things.
So! I made the thing into a grotesque baby! Each side has a crying creature of slightly differing emotions. I also added hand and feet icons to the wheels to really capture the idea that theyre just spinning on wrists and ankles, crawling around the stadium. The on/off switch placement was the result of my wires not being long enough to put it at the head where i wanted it. I think where it is now is much worse….
On the effectiveness side: the wheels were a dream. When I managed to get another bot in front of me it was such a quick push to move them! Amazing grip! The paddle appendage was small and I didn’t really practice driving ahead of time so any success I had with it was nearly accident as I learnt how to split my brain into the two skills of driving and flinging. I think it’s main success was psychological as I wiggled it at opponents and at poor Eli every match.
Thanks for looking, and I’m hoping to have something else fun for next time. I’m quite blessed with a strong non-competitive spirit which makes trying new an silly things feel a bit more worthwhile. Any ideas?