Since BBB Brawl, a lot of work has gone into this robot. This includes the purchase of an 8mm thick bar of mild steel, which was cut, by hand, into a spare weapon for testing and as a backup. The offcuts from this piece were cut and drilled into two sets of long, 8mm thick forks. The 3D printing was successfully done in high-infill green TPU, giving us the fork mounts, four wedgelets to counter drums, and the sharp edge protection for the Hardox weapons and forks, which have not yet arrived. It is unlikely that the Hardox will arrive before we leave for RoboDojo tomorrow, meaning we will have to use the mild steel weapon at the event. The preexisting HDPE wedgelets have been given an angle to save some weight and will remain as the anti-horizontal setup.
Following the wheels taking damage at Bristol, one of them has been replaced as it was slipping quite a lot and all have been given a few coats of rubber cement to improve traction. They have also been covered by wheel guards, of which we made six as they are likely to be damaged during fights. A sticker with the name of this robot, Exposure, has been made with the design of the Hardox disk on it and put on the back to easily identify it.
Testing
This test video was taken before the forks were mounted onto the robot, and the weapon was running on about 30-40% throttle for safety. This footage was taken through the polycarbonate lid of a test box, and we were standing back when the robot was moving. We also tested against the prototype chassis that we made, and it shattered one of the weapon mounts and hit it into the ceiling multiple times! It is clearly capable of giving out some big hits!
This means that we have a fully functioning robot to compete with at RoboDojo, even if we don't have the Hardox parts. The weight with all four mild steel forks is 1.474kg, 26g below the weight limit! My only goals for the event are: to win one fight, and to give something a really good hit, either launching it or causing a lot of damage.
We took a trip to York at the weekend to compete in our first official event as a full competitor. Upon arriving at the venue, we realised we would have had no chance of finding it if we didn't have Thomas Yau there to point us into the right building! We were among the first to arrive, so we had time to set up and grab some space before the rest of the competitors, and spectators, arrived. With a total of 31 antweights and 12 beetleweights, there was barely enough space for everyone to work on their robots. The competition format was a sort of group stage format so everyone got 4 guaranteed fights but could have more in the form of playoffs. Fight 1: vs Baby Dead Bod This was an absolutely terrifying first fight to have, Baby Dead Bod is an immensely powerful horizontal spinner so I was not happy to face it this early on. That was quick! A single hit on the weapon was all it took to flex the weapon into the pulley, sending it flying and completely shearing the motor shaft. This wa...
All metal has arrived and parts printed, and we just about got in weight (more on that later)! The first important parts to do were: printing the chassis, weapon uprights and front armour. Then, after quite a steep learning curve, we assembled our 1806 conversion drive without much difficulty. We had our first go at casting polyurethane wheels, and they came out really well and feel really grippy. We then had to wait a little for our new metal parts to arrive, and I decided to re-print the wedge with more walls. However, we finally ran out of green TPU! This meant we had to use the black TPU that we had difficulty printing, but after a few setting changes it went perfectly. Once the metal had arrived, it was time for a test weigh in. This unfortunately weighed in as 1.595kg with the heaviest setup (4 forks). Even with just two forks, it was around 55g overweight. This led to us completely redoing the wiring, trying to cut out as much unnecessary wire as possible. I reprinted the w...
Here is the full event video, I will write the timestamps for each fight. BBB x LHG Summer Showdown 2024- All Fights - Bristol Bot Builders Beetleweight Combat Robots The venue for this event was lovely, however the constant rain was a bit annoying, especially when it dripped off the marquees down the back of my neck! We arrived at the venue and went into the tech check with the heaviest setup we could run, and passed safety with no issues. Fight 1: (06:46) My first fight was against Om Nom and Carbon Copy. I was happy with this match up as I would be the only spinner against a grabber (?) and a cluster bot. The fight began and I quickly engaged with one of the halves of Carbon Copy, using my full weight to push it into the wall and slice some material off the front wedge. I then reversed to give myself a bit of a run up and hit the cluster again, this time ripping the wedge off and slamming it into the ceiling. Whilst this was happening, Om Nom had somehow gotten stuck with...
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