Team Fission Combat Robotics

  More Progress! Our next step was to cut the rest of the chassis pieces out of 7mm chopping board. We cut a battery compartment piece and the two weapon supports out of this, then cut a lid and back panel out of 5mm plastic.The next thing we did was mount the wedge pieces and bolt the forks to them. The wedges are the same 7mm plastic as the chassis, and are held on to the side panels and the weapon supports with countersunk screws. The forks are corner braces bought from B&Q and bolted to the wedges so they can be removed if needed. They are also bent out slightly so they can run along the floor. We turned our robot to four-wheel drive with the help of four plastic pulleys we found and drilled to fit to the motor shafts at the back and the M4 bolts at the front. The transmission was provided by two identical elastic bands. Not perfect, but still an improvement on the previous two-wheel drive! After this we ordered a large number of things, including our brushless motor and es...

Beetleweight WIP In my last post, I mentioned that I was planning on building my own beetleweight robot- and I have started to do just that! Here I will tell you what I have accomplished so far. My Design My idea for this robot is a 4 wheel drive robot with a large vertical spinning disk at the front. The robot will be longer than it is wide, and will hopefully be able to drive upside down (although the weapon won't be able to spin if it does). What We Bought For this project we bought the 'Beetleweight Brushed Drive Kit' from the Bristol Bot Builders website along with an extra set of wheels for my design. We also purchased a 3S LiPo battery, a charger, and a fireproof guard to charge the battery in. We got screws, bolts and other useful things to hold the robot together. For building a prototype version, we got a few plastic chopping boards of varying thicknesses to build a temporary frame. We also needed a transmitter, so we bought a Flysky i6 transmitter. Building The P...

 Battle in the Burgh is a Beetleweight (1.5kg) combat robot competition which has been held annually in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh, since 2019.  Yesterday, I was lucky enough to not only watch the event, but to participate and drive Belladrum as part of Team Tartan Heart. Congratulations to them for making it to the Top 8, and for taking home the Most Destructive Award! Although I did lose all three of my battles, it was an amazing experience and taught me so much about how the sport works. Many thanks to John Rae for allowing me to drive his reserve robot! This event, and seeing all the crazy designs and meeting all the amazing people, has inspired me to go back next year with my own beetleweight design. I wonder what it will be... I also had my picture taken with Arena Marshall Dave Weston! Fight #1: vs Crofty Angel This was my first time driving Belladrum (aside from a little test twitch) so I was a little unsure going into this fight. The battery of the robot had al...

 Click on the links above to see my models.