Team Darklight - Featherweight Axe/Hammer diary

[qbnut]

This weeks progress...

The robot got a bit of a chassis and armour redesign, such that it can be built as a monocoque, with only the necessary bulkheads for the axe mounting and drive motors. This is in order to keep the weight down by not having to have a box frame to which everything would be mounted. Current thinking is 4/5mm steel will be used for the armour.

Also some refinements made to the panelling solution such that they can be manufactured (and fixed!) easier, with fewer cuts, bends and welds required.

Robot1.12-3d-1.png

A further prototype has also been made based on the revised 3d model, and is shaping up well (apologies for the blurry image, it wasn't from my own camera!). It gives us a very good idea of what we will need to work on. 3d models are nice and all (and have definitely helped get us this far), but there's nothing like seeing it in the flesh to see if it's actually going to work!

received_10155021364397853.jpeg

Next thing to do is check for the fit of all the components more accurately, and to do some math to see what it will actually weigh in final materials, including all the other hardware (motors, ESCs, batteries, etc). I'm awaiting new scales at the moment so I don't know yet what everything weighs and what I have left to play with. I very much suspect I will be drilling holes out of the bulkheads to make the target