VGC Design Challenge 001: Japanese Weapons

[majinb]

Here is my machine...

The inspiration is fairly simple... I felt like throwing shuriken. Ive been thinking of catapults or using pnuematics to fire actual shuriken... but I couldnt get it to work properly. It wouldnt be an effective robotic weapon, nor for that matter would it even look like how an actual trained ninja would skillfully fling a shuriken around.

Then came the realization that effectively in robotic combat, I can have the shuriken propel themselves! That is how I ended up with this 8-part clusterbot, each of them a ring spinner. While this result is fairly far away from the concept of actually throwing shuriken, I think that I did a fair job at grabbing the essence of it. Im able to fling a lightweight weapon at my opponent (lightweight for robotic standards that is), one at a time, Part 1 goes in, Part 1 goes out, Part 2 comes in, et cetera et cetera. A continuous stream of "shuriken" fired at my opponent. I actually on purpose made these 2WD with relatively high ground clearance (with the wheels off center to create a clear front, and make the bot tilted such that at the front the weapon reaches lower than at the bacl) to enhance the bouncy effect, after all, a thrown shuriken hardly ever flies perfectly flat either.



STATS ARE GIVEN FOR 1 PART, MULTIPLY BY 8 TO UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE ROBOT

Name - Shuriken Throw

Weight - 12.5kg

Motors – 2 Gimson GR02 gearmotors

Wheels - 2 wheels of solid rubber

Speed - 16mph

Clearance - for the main body... at the front it touches the ground, at the back the clearance would be roughly 2 cm

Armour - 1 cm of oak for the main body!

Dimensions - 50cm x 50cm x 10cm

Weapons - Big steel shuriken shaped spinning ring that weighs in at roughly 4 kg, powered by a DeWalt at 18V, and spins at 2500 rpm