Build Your Own Combat Robot

First
Person
continued
The hardest part
for us was just
getting there. We
had no sponsors and
had to pay our own way for
everything. It was tough, and it
took months to pay off that credit
card, but I would do it all again in
the blink of an eye! We
met some of the most
incredible (and nicest)
people. The designs we saw
and the creativity of the engineers
and imagineers behind their bots
inspired us. The generosity in the
sharing of ideas, tools, and even
Chapter 1: Welcome to Competition Robots 17
parts amazed us. We became
part of this amazing community of
robot builders and battlers and the
camaraderie warmed us. It was
one of the best weeks of my life.
—Ronni Katz
The Scope of This Book
Building a bot is not that difficult—if you’ve done your homework on the basic elements
involved. It may take you a while to figure out how to do new things, and it
might take a long time before you build your dream machine, but consider your
first project a learning process—patience and persistence are key when you’re
building a bot.
Robotics is one of those fields where you need to be able to wear a lot of different
hats. That means you must know a little bit about a lot of things, including motors,
electronics, wiring, computers, radio transmitters and receivers, batteries,
gears, belts, bearings, chains, sprockets, metals, plastics, drilling, cutting, threading,
bending, and welding—just to name a few.
You don’t have to be an expert in all of these categories—you just need to understand
the basics behind each one. Most combat robots are built by a team of
people. Each team member is knowledgeable about certain areas of robot building.
When you get a group of people together who all know different pieces of the
process, it reduces the burden on each individual for having to be an expert on everything.
After you have built a couple of bots and competed in a few contests,
you’ll become something of an expert in all of the different categories because you
will have been involved to some degree with every part of building the bot.
Probably the number-one question that gets asked of a bot warrior is, “How do
I build a robot?” Well, nobody can give you a quick answer. It usually takes
months to years to learn how to build a bot. There is just too much stuff you need
to know. Most of the time, people learn just by doing it. We all make mistakes,
and we learn from them.
The scope of this book is to help you, the new robot builder, get started in the
exciting field of constructing combat robots. After reading this book, you will
have an understanding of all the elements that go into building a bot. Usually, the
new robot builder is surprised to find out that there are so many different things
that go into this process. This is because most people only see the finished product—the
beautiful, gleaming El Diablo or Nightmare or Deadblow—they don’t
see the blood, sweat, and tears that went into building it.