Happy New Year! Lets hope that more events are given the go ahead in 2021.

Event 1 - Robodojo 26/07/20

I decided to start in the Sportsman class as I wanted to learn how the robot performs before it gets annihilated in the spinner heavy full combat.

Rather than going through the fights which can be found on Joe Brown's youtube channel, I will go over the event listing the good and bad parts of the robot. This will lead into the subsequent changes made for the second event on 26/09/20. Obviously the events last year were put on under difficult circumstances, but it was only due to the Robodojo team as well as competitor's obedience to the additional regulations that made them possible so thank you all.
Before the event, there was little to no time to practice driving the robot other than a quick functionality test. This was a definite issue as I wanted to be as prepared as possible before the event but did not prepare for one of the most important aspects - driving practice. Despite this, I packed the car and headed to Leeds not sure what to expect.

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My aims for the first event were pretty high based on the competitors that were there:
  • Pass tech check
  • Function in the arena
  • Not break down from my own doing
  • Win 1 fight

The robot passed the main tech check apart from initial weight check where the robot was 2 grams overweight! A quick removal of a bolt from the rear armour fixed this . As I was busy concentrating on maintenance throughout the event, I didn't get much of a chance to take many images post fights.

Below is a quick list of good and bad points of FeatherDozer Mk1.0 on its first outing:
  • It works!
  • Won a few fights - Better than expected
  • Driving practice required!
  • Rear ground clearance is a little bit too low as it did get stuck on the raised floor sections due to poor driving
  • The robot is way too fast for the arena size but reasonably controllable when trimming the rates on the transmitter
  • Last minute self-righter doesn't work - New one to be designed.
  • When lifting, the robot tends to lift the rear (depending on the opponents weight distribution) meaning that it cannot move when lifted. This was a major flaw in the design that could only be found in real world testing.

So, to conclude, Featherdozer ended the day with 2 wins and 4 losses as well as still being fully functional. This is far better than I expected based on the level of the competition. Therefore I would give the robot's first performance as way above my expectations and with a few modifications, it could be much more competitive.

The images below are post event which showed very little damage caused. Note that the red paint used tended to peel off very easily, so if anyone from the event wondered where random red paint chunks came from......

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In the next entry I will go over the changes made for Mk1.5 to fix some of the issues listed above.