Rules clarification on walkers?

**Metal Demons** · 29th August 2009, 19:02

Originally Posted by typhoon_driver

that wouldn't be a walker as the legs have to support the entire body weight and if i read your idea correctly you are planning to have the machine drag itself along.

With spinning weapons you don't have to bother throwing huge amounts of weight in there. An 11kg disc sounds awesome but you are going to have to manufacture it, build the supports strong enough to contain it and build the drive train which for something that big would be too much to fit into a featherweight.

Any walking spinner would have to have legs that were incredibly strong especially if the disc is vertical to be able to survive the reaction forces from collisions. I could see the entire mechanism shattering in a single hit.

Both designs would move along on a couple of spring loaded pads (containing the magnets) which can be raised and lowered- when the disc hits its target the downward force would push the pads back into the body, thereby taking the impact on the bottom of the body.

**razerdave** · 29th August 2009, 19:36

Jamie: You only have to be under those limits to be in a class 3 arena. Anything higher goes into a class 2.

**typhoon_driver** · 29th August 2009, 19:56

if they move along on anything that is in constant contact with the ground then in my book they aren't walkers

**sarah** · 30th August 2009, 08:40

As far as walkers are concerned whether it would come under the build rules by moving it's legs by the gyroscopic effects of a spinning disc I don't know. Personally I don't see that this should be a problem but it would certainly be interesting to see. Uniqueness and diversity is always needed otherwise how do we progress

As far as the spinner part is concerned, size mass and speed are vital to what you are trying to do. For example Scorpion Evil has had vertical & horizontal bars, the vertical, because the bar was over 20% of the weight of the machine it meant the whole thing used to lift & twist when trying to turn, leaving it exceedingly vulnerable as it did so. Even Scorpion (HW) with 10% of it's weight in the disc was enough to affect movement severely but we were talking a 400mm diameter disc running at over 5,000 rpm. Even Scorpion's disc would come to a stop (when buried in something else

)

Sounds like it could be a good fun idea. Good Luck

John
Scorpion Builder

**Metal Demons** · 31st August 2009, 00:00

I'm leaning towards option 2 at the moment - electromagnet feet moved front to back by a lead screw actuator. The trick would be that each foot is mounted through a flexible plate to the actuator, so has a few mm of up and down travel - so when the magnet's on, the foot is pulled down against the ground, and lifts up very slightly when it isn't. The base of the robot never contacts the ground, as while one foot is being moved back into position for another stroke the other's magnet is still enabled and keeps it in contact with the ground - the robot's kept level on that foot by a combination of the downforce from it (as the magnet is touching the ground by then and exerting its full ~200kg) and, guess what...

...Gyroscopic reaction, this one's a horizontal spinner... the gyroscopic force here acts to keep it flat to the ground.

I'm just trying to work out how to do a walking mechanism which would actually have a chance of standing up to combat here, as clearly a spinner 360 would just chop through the legs of a normal legged robot - something smarter has to be done. I think using the gyroscopic effect of a spinning weapon has to be a key here, along the lines of a little walking toy I saw a few weeks back which gave me the whole idea: it was a little toy robot which walked while stabilised by a flywheel inside the body.