Build Your Own Combat Robot

FIGURE 10-2
Classic and
parallelogram
wedge designs.
Strategy
Chapter 10: Weapons Systems for Your Robot 209
As with the ram bot, the wedge bot should be designed with maximum impact
protection in mind because it relies on collisions to disable its opponent. One tactic
used successfully with wedge bots is to make the entire outer shell, including
the front scoop, a single shell of metal mounted through rubber bumpers to a separate
inner frame holding the drive system, batteries, and electronics. The drive
frame is isolated from the impacts, and damage and deformation to the shell
should not affect the inner drive system. The only drawback to this kind of design
is that it makes the wedge bot quite vulnerable to attacks from below, such as from
another lower wedge, lifters, or floor-mounted arena hazards.
A variant of the wedge bot is the parallelogram-wedge bot. Typically four- wheel
drive, these wedge bots have a normal angled wedge on the front, an inverted wedge
on the back, and large wheels that protrude through the top of the body shell. This
design can run as well upside down as right-side up, using the rear wedge, which
becomes the front when the robot in inverted.
Wedge bots rarely inflict damage on an opponent. Their main goal is to control
the match by getting the opponent’s wheels off the ground and pushing the opponent
into hazards and obstacles. A wedge bot may be able to flip over its opponent
on a good hit.
A well-armored wedge is a good tactic to use against spinners. If the front of the
wedge is strong enough to survive hits from the spinner, it can be used to shove
the spinner into a wall or hazard, or even—on a good hit—to flip the spinner
completely over. A wedge also has an edge when fighting a ram, because with
good power and good driving the wedge can get under the ram, denying the ram
the traction it needs to push back or get away.