Thread: Designing my first robot - Advice Needed

Hello everyone. I am designing my first featherweight robot, a lifter called Pancake. Pancake is designed to be simple to build and repair while still being competent in battle.

So far I have designed the base and bulkheads, drive system, armour and I have started on the weapon. The base and armour will be made from 3mm hardox and the bulkheads from 25mm HDPE. The drive is 2x Ranglebox RB-775 motors with Saturn-16 gearboxes connected by chain to the front and back wheels. Speed controllers are Botzbitz 85a v2. The weapon is a lifting wedge powered by an electric motor designed to go both ways so it can lift, push over opponents and self right. I currently have another RB-775 with Saturn-16 which will then be chain driven to another gearbox but this is still to be designed and I don't know if this is enough or too much.

My questions are:

1) What should I do to for the lifter? Should I use the RB-775 or are there alternatives that would be better? If I stick with the RB-775, does it need the second gearbox and what should I do/avoid when designing that or is the Saturn-16 enough?
2) What batteries and receiver should I use and where do I get them?
3) Is there anything I have missed or could improve so far? This is my first engineering project so any advice will be helpful.

Thanks
- Ruairidh