Team Eventorizon: Build Diary

After an amazing time with our first entry into the UK championships I thought it would be a good idea to follow the crowd and catalog the development in the lead up to next years championships here on the forum.

Work has already begun on the next version of Conker and quite probably on another machine as well! With help from my dad we have decided to look into a new material for combat robots which will form the basis for both Conker II and his first machine.

Cellite is the material in question, this comes in various forms but the principal is an Aluminium honeycomb matrix with a layer of sheet material boned to each side. Various facing material such as Aluminium sheet, Plywood, GRP and CFRP are used. You can ask the company to face it with pretty much anything you like as long as it comes on a roll or as a sheet.

Back in my secondary school we used it to build our green-power car; some of you may be familiar with the event. Previous machines had been bolted aluminium box section and were not very light or stiff giving is load of problems. Cellite solved almost all all our problems instantly!

We have gone for the GRP or Cellite 620, same as the car, so that it is easy to bond sheets together with resin and more layers of Glass Fibre. The result should be a massive weight saving and an increase in structural rigidity...

[attachment=1:1hoxjbte]Shrapnel Top Quart View 01.jpeg[/attachment:1hoxjbte]

[attachment=0:1hoxjbte]Shrapnel Top View 01.jpeg[/attachment:1hoxjbte]

I am using an identical electrical set up, the only thing to change is the pulley ratio on the disc, from 2.6 to 3.3. My dads machine will be built using the same technique but he is looking at a lifter rather than a spinner with the same armour set up.

Hopefully using this new material will be worth the investment, someone has to try it out, and then other can use it with confidence two and improve on our designs.

Comments, ideas and improvements most definitely welcome!

Edit: Forgot to mention... Solidworks say this weighs just under 10Kg, add a kg for bonding together the Cellite, nuts & bolts, wiring, relay, receiver, mixer and solder, another kg for the top 3 pannels, cellite boned to titanium, and I still have 1.6kg to play with? Wha...

so is it the 2 middle disc bulkheads you will be using the new material for?

Everything that is left, minus the electronic parts, is Cellite 620. Highlighted in blue are the parts that are not Cellite, I hope that is obvious, I did not explain it very well first time round :uhoh:

[attachment=0:xk21a24p]Shrapnel Top Quart View Cellite Highlight 01.jpeg[/attachment:xk21a24p]

that looks awesome :D

The titanium we ordered of Ebay has just arrived. 5x 665mm x 425mm plates of Ti2 HT 2mm thick.
The guy we got them from said they were originally used as electrode plates in wind-turbine storage batteries! He has 20 more if people are interested.

How much did you pay for it?

Well was £55 per sheet on ebay with £13 postage then £4 for each added sheet but we got 5 for £250 as the guy was driving past on his way down south.

Why on earth did you need 5 sheets??!!!

Two for the new version of Conker for the base plate, top armour and side armour, two for my dads machine which he is designing and 1 for any spares. It was a lot but I cant see us needing to buy anymore for a long time. Also given that when I got a quote in 2.5mm Titanium for Conker I's base it was £200 on its own I thought it cold be quite a saving... but to late now.

Beginning to figure out the structure and internals of the new robot. It doesn't have a name yet but it does have a goal... anti-spinner.

[attachment=0:89x1ny0v]Develop 01.jpeg[/attachment:89x1ny0v]

Two 50mm GLA actuators at the back give a total theoretical flipping force of around 35Kg and the flipping action takes less than 3 seconds.
The (entirely theoretical) anti-spinner design is in effect a shallow wedge with heavily re-enforced beveled edges. This should deflect any strikes up and off the armour. Also the entire front of the robot will lift up including the bevels giving the machine a wide area of attack not just a small section like on other machines.
Both Conker II and this new machine will share parts, so both run off GR-01 motors, 100mm blue wheels FR30HS ESC's and will also use the same Cellite substructure to reduce weight.
The side and rear armour will also be the same as Conker II, 2mm Titanium followed by 15-20mm of HDPE.