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

[andrewj]

Last but not least...



Name: Hellsprout Tower
Weight: 100kgs
Length: 800mm
Width: 800mm
Height: 1500mm
Drive: 2x 150mm diameter Aluminium wheels, each of which has a urethane rubber tyre. These are driven by 2x A28-400 Ampflow motors, which are run at 26.4v from 4x 8-Cell A123 M1 Lithium Ion battery packs.
Turning Circle: 0mm
Speed: 10mph
Ground Clearance: 0mm due to hinged skirts on all sides – it is 10mm behind the skirts.
Armour: Hellsprout Tower is based around a 3mm wall thickness steel box section frame. The skirts and floor panels are all made of 10mm thick oak. The tower itself is armoured in steel chainmail.
Weapons: The main weapon is a spring-loaded Japanese sword blade based upon the same mechanism as Robot Wars competitor Toe Cutter. The blade travels at in excess of 100mph and has proved to be devastating against watermelons and purple fur.
Strengths: Potential to damage leather and bamboo.
Weaknesses: Grapefruits.

I hope that's okay!