Armour ideas / materials

[Jon Smith]

11339.8Kg is the force rating for the actuator itself. Just to inform you I don't own the actuator and am in no position to buy it I was browsing to see what kind of force would be available. In terms of the attack I would use a fast actuator to be able to fully close in 15 Seconds +/-. In battle I would only open the grabber wide enough to just get over one point so I am then able to quickly make a tight seal on the robot. To get under flippers I would most often go side on and I will place a thin metal sheet to make contact to the ground. To Prevent this sheet catching I would then place large steel brackets to allow some rotation/movement of the plate. The Low profile of the front panel works well at bringing the opponent right up into my jaw.

You can see that the second after a flipper has "Flipped" there is a large area of exposed chassis and in some cases the plate to get under other robots is attached to the flipper therefore I can use this point to gain access with my jaw.

Please not that not every Robot is the same so people may have made systems to combat these.

[typhoon_driver]

I think you are under estimating the forces involved in modern combat robots which is understandable. I would go to an event before spending money on anything

[swanaldo]

I would take Garys advice. No being rude or owt but you really have NO idea what your letting yourself in for. Go to an event and then enjoy building your featherweight and progressing from there.

[Team Invade]

Can't fault your attitude! Whilst you may technically be able to build a heavy (which I don't doubt), I honestly think you would struggle (along with most other first-time builders) and you still need some experience to know what to build. As many heavyweights are constructed in many similar ways, a 'best' way of doing things has evolved. For example if you look at heavyweight gearboxes they all tend to be pretty similar. To make it competitive you're going to have to keep up with the standards which unfortunately will cost a few thousand pounds!

I agree with Gary's post above. Like most newcomers you don't really seem to understand how good the current robots are. To a certain extent looking at old Robot Wars videos on youtube is pointless as the vast majority are made obsolete by the current robots unless they have been updated to the new standards. You really do need to come to an event beforehand (before you've even designed your robot) to see how it's evolved. One thing you've hopefully noticed is how much it is dominated by flippers. That's the way it's evolved and it's not going to change. The successful robots that aren't flippers (Big Nipper, Thor, Titan etc.) do have to be really top machines to do well when the arena could be argued to be a disadvantage to them. You're going to need an effective active weapon to do really well, but that's going to make it much more difficult to build!

All in all you're really going to need to get some experience beforehand to make a competitive heavy. I still think the best way to do his would be to make a feather first, but if you're dead set on a heavy first time, coming to a few events will still help.

To answer your question about the Gadget Show Live, the UK champs have been held there 2011 to present and I'd say there's a strong possibility of it being there next year as well. I think RoboChallenge were also there a few years before that with demos/pay to drive robots.

[maddox10]

How long is the stroke of that actuator? Just curious. As 15 seconds sounds a tad on the slow side, unless it has a seriously long stroke.

[Ellis]

edit: several posts were put up as I wrote this, so sorry if I'm simply repeating others!
--

The money put into a first time heavyweight would make, with the right person behind it, an explosive high end featherweight easily. It would make several. A fleet of powerful feathers would surely be way more impressive than an inevitably clunky first heavyweight, built in the same time frame and for the same cost.

Also if your goal is to learn about mechanics, you'll undoubtedly have as many challenges in featherweights as with heavies, especially if you build with the featherweight spinner competitions in mind.

Don't think that featherweight combat is any less of a spectacle, in fact I'd say it's several times more impressive to watch. I made a montage of the Gadget Show Live 2013, where the '13 FW champs were held.



That is a mere taster. ^

In my opinion it's far more impressive to see your machine withstand the hits from the top FW machines than to take being knocked about and flipped by the heavies. The pace of the feathers is incredible. For example, 720, the small black drum robot you'll see throughout that video, came third this year. The builder is now making the weapon hit 35% harder for next year. You simply don't get that rate of evolution in heavyweights anymore.

What I don't want to do here is put you off anything. Enthusiastic new blood is very very welcome. But if your aim is to learn and impress at the same time, and money is no real object, I can't see the logic in ignoring featherweight combat. You'll learn more building three featherweights than you will by attempting a single heavyweight.

In any case I wish you luck. If you manage to build a competitive heavyweight then I'll happily sit back down.

edit: proof of the fact that robot combat has changed might be in that featherweights have the same or thicker armour than today's heavyweights.

[Gaseraki]

In terms of the attack I would use a fast actuator to be able to fully close in 15 Seconds +/-

That made me chuckle. Not being rude sorry

Advice given in this thread is very sound from many very experienced builders. As mentioned featherweights can be as complicated or as simple as you want just like heavyweights.
For example in a feather you can create your own transmission or use drill motors
You can take a similar process with heavies (purchase NPC geared motors) but again, much more expensive.

[Max]

If you are set on building a heavyweight, I'd make a simple push/wedge bot first without an active weapon and without planning for a weapon system to be added latter, then enter that into an event and see how it does, then do a rebuild with all the same components (drive motors, batteries, escs) but with a different chassis with the weapon, your ideas will change and improve having built the basic robot and you won't waste money on components that aren't up to the job.
Thai gives you more practice welding and how to make a steel chassis, I'd make the chassis and armour from mild steel to keep costs low for the first robot then upgrade to hardox latter on the second version.

[maddox10]

One last question What are the Average Dimensions / Size Rules for Heavyweight robots. I understand 55KG - 100KG but in terms of size W x H x D?

The old Mentorn rules gave 1400mm*2000mm, height not limited, but had to fit trough the door.
The current evolution is to build as small as possible, to fit the thickest armor within the weight limit.
It's funny to see some heavies are the same size as large feathers.

[Flag Captured]

Personally, as with what a few others have said here, I'd start with the featherweights and go to heavy events - I'm in no way an experienced roboteer (I have about 3 projects in the pipeline, one of which spontaneously combusted a few weeks ago, and no events under my belt yet) but featherweights are vastly more simple to build for newcomers to the sport I'd say - you can use drill motors for drive which come in at about £12 a piece for where I get them from (with some admittedly lacklustre batteries but they are usable) and again, you don't need to spend as much on armour because the thing's only smaller. Likewise with ESCs that don't need to be as beefy, so they can cost less (I think)

I've learned a lot from building my first featherweight, and I'm still learning as time goes on - my aim is also to build a heavyweight at some point, but the way the sport's evolved has meant that you need a fair bit of experience and money to get into the 'competitive' realm of heavyweights, not that that's to put you off, mind, just an observation of mine.

Still, it could be possible, you'll just need to design it well - for that, I'd say go to events or watch the videos on Youtube - there's loads of videos videos of various events, feathers and heavyweights alike. I'd suggest checking them all out and working it from there - counterdesigning against both flippers and spinners is something I've really had to focus on with my machine!

Good luck to you, whatever you decide to build!