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Thread: Wanted: Featherweight bot

  1. #11
    The concept for the heavy i'm working towards is to build an axebot into an HGV wheel rim trying to design/build for durability rather than out-and-out firepower. Lots of bots don't seem to finish fights so i'm hoping logic of 'to finish first one must first finish' would make me fairly competitive.

    There is plenty of prior art out there, so I know it can be done.
    The wheel rim is a significant weight penalty and a packaging nightmare, but hopefully it makes the robot chassis/armour a service item that can be replaced between matches if needed.

    What I would like to explore with the feather is:
    Getting used to building/working with that packaging constraint. I'll probably use a mini wheel or something as a body.
    Getting used to working with HDPE. I havn't done much work with it before. It doesn't look too hard to work, but it's quite abrasion resistant which could be a problem and it isn't really on speaking terms with adhesives.
    Finding out what breaks and why so I can design against it. I assume this is a big part of the sport, but that's kinda one of the reasons for being curious if someone had something suitable in their shed. The main thing I want to learn with the feather isn't actually the design/construction (a lot of which changes when I upscale it and add an axe anyhow) it's a much more detailed knowledge of what happens during matches and how to go about damage avoidance/limitation.

    Books are on order - how did I miss the fact there was already a haynes manual!?! Of course there is, there is a haynes manual for everything!

    Next stop ebay for some parts.

  2. #12
    I have an axe feather that for a good enough offer I’d consider selling, there’s a for sale thread up and tonnes of videos of it on YouTube if you want to do some research

  3. #13

  4. #14
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    As I say, it is the whole "building it yourself" process that is the reward for the investment plus you get to intimately know how your robot works. The drive electronics/mechanics are fairly simple to understand once you know the language that comes with it.

    My original robot, The Honey Badger 1.0 used little more than a wooden garden planter from B&Q frame as a chassis, a aluminium lampshade as a shell, 2x eBay motors, 2x speed controllers from RC cars, 2x aeroplane model wheels, a castor ball and a remote control transmitter (and that was the most expensive single part of the entire thing).

    If you ignore the spinning flail that came with it, it came to roughly £180 and that was with a special tank RC transmitter that was £90 because I didn't understand what mixing was. Now it didn't work very well and only went through one fight before being absolutely flattened but the point is that I learnt oh so much from doing it myself.

    Refitting another robot with your own electronics isn't a bad idea in of itself and you really wanted to, you could just remove the axe... (controversial I know, I'd keep it in a heartbeat).
    Last edited by Ocracoke; 3rd November 2017 at 13:35.
    Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots

    AW: Amai, Ikari, Lafiel, Osu, Ramu
    BW: Shu!, The Honey Badger
    FW: Azriel
    MW: Jibril, Kaizen

  5. #15

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