Team Kaizen Build Diary

[Ocracoke]

I love the chocolate-themed ants. Is Ikari going to get a confectionery container too at some point? I have nothing constructive to add about how to build the robots well but I can always muster an opinion about chocolate.

Ikari is going to have to be rebuilt. Met a nasty horizontal spinner which destroyed a side panel and a speed controller. So more sweets for me then :P Will have to see what takes my fancy when I go to the shops.

Let's get the build updates out of the way first before recapping Ant Freeze

Jibril
The drive shaft was cut in half and bearings added to each end and now the robot is a rolling shell! Woooo!!

20190202_211221.jpg

Next thing to do is secure the inner bearings down and then get some HDPE to mount the CIM motors to. This is going to be the difficult bit because of the size constraints in there but if my measuring is right, that shouldn't be an issue.

Amai, Osu and Ikari - Ant Freeze 6
Ant Freeze (apart from my own event) is the only Ant event I've ever attended. Quite a nice event as well, gives folks a chance to try out their new creations and generally just get involved in the sport.

All three robots passed the technical checks though with the exception of Osu, they are grossly underweight. Ikari was 122g, Amai was 111g, Osu was 141g. Good ol' LiFe battery to the rescue there :P

Before the event started properly, there was a Nuts side event, which is basically where you get a corner of the arena, a load of nuts in the middle and the objective is to collect as many nuts into your corner as possible. I figured that since Amai was the newest of my creations and hadn't had much chance to drive the thing, I thought it best to plop it in there and see the result.

The result... my driving is horrible. To be fair, the speed controllers weren't helping much as one wheel was spinning easier than the other for some reason (but not in reverse weirdly) but at the end of the day, when you score 1 point in a event where the typical score is much more than that (even Osu managed 13 last time, even with mismatched motors!), you have to question yourself. Nevermind...

The fights then started proper and went like this:

Osu vs Ant Ratchet - Started OK but then Ant Ratchet got under me and flipped me on to my back. Now Osu has a removable link which helps with balancing when on its back but if it lands wrong, like it did here, there is no comeback. Quickly ended up in the pit.

Ikari vs Oof - As alluded to, Ikari was totalled. A side panel got ripped off and a ESC went awry for some reason. A nasty horizontal bar spinner in Oof.

Amai vs Doktor Power 9 Ti - This ended so quickly with a pitting that it was a blink and you missed it fight as I seem to recall.

Osu vs Nemesis mk2 - This started OK, the flat front of Osu was matching Nemesis for a few moments but then a edge got caught and pulled a chunk out of the front armour. This also dislodged the removable link (which I had been having trouble with all day) and Osu died. Ended up in the pit.

Ikari vs Lasagne for One - I had to forfeit this one as I couldn't get Ikari working fully. A shame since the clamping mechanism would have been ideal for this opponent.

Amai vs High Density Wedge Bot - I was feeling pretty blue at this point and was sure I wasn't going to win. However, HWDB charged straight at me, riding up the front wedge and getting stuck, allowing me to dump this one in the pit. This represents the only win to date I have ever had in the AW class.

Amai vs Stoink!!! And Friends - This one was a bit odd as this is a clusterbot with a drone. Luckily(?) the drone crashed so it was me vs the main robot of that cluster. We had a tussle back and forth but eventually, they out-drove me and I ended up in the pit.

So yeah, not exactly a shining day in terms of performance but hey, least I've got relatively unique looking robots in the shape of sweet tubs. I need more now... :P They are due to enter BotFest at the end of March (I can't drive them since I am the person running that event) so time to get fixing them :P