Build Your Own Combat Robot

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FIGURE 2-7 Spike before heading off to Robot Wars. (courtesy of Andrew Lindsey) Start Building Now Chapter 2: Getting Started 33 This can’t be stated any more clearly: If you want to compete in a contest that is six months away, you’ve got to start building, now. Bots always takes longer to build than you think they will or allow time for, and other, less important time commitments like school or work easily get in the way. There’s always something that doesn’t work and needs to be redesigned. Things break and have to be fixed. Things don’t fit together like you planned and need to be modified. Murphy’s Law always comes into play when building bots, especially when you are in a time crunch. There are some people who have successfully built a bot in as little as two weeks, and others who’ve spent over a year on their projects. Plan to spend at least six months to build your machine. It can be done in less time, but you’ll have to work a lot harder to do it.
34 Build Your Own Combat Robot Testing, Testing, Testing One of the main reasons new bots fail in their first contest is lack of testing. Often, bot builders spend all their time building the bot and don’t allow enough time for proper testing. Some bots are being completed the night before the contest, and the builders simply hope it will work during the actual event. You should allow at least a month for testing your bot. You should thoroughly test the bot in combat conditions, as realistically as possible. But beating up a trash can or a wooden box doesn’t test the bot. Garbage cans don’t fight back. You should kick your bot, hit it with hammers, flip it upside down, and stall it up against a solid wall. Expect to see things break—you would rather have something break during the testing phase than at a competition. Also, practice driving as much as possible. It is better to practice against another combat robot. At the very least, get a cheap R/C car from a local toy store and practice having your bot catch the R/C car. You need to know how to rapidly maneuver your bot. Small R/C cars are fast and nimble. If you can consistently catch an R/C car that is trying to avoid being caught, you are gaining good driving skills. Remember, strategy and aggression points are usually awarded to the better driver. This is why veteran bots routinely do better than rookie bots. They are thoroughly tested, and the drivers are excellent, experienced drivers. Top Ten Reasons Why a Robot Fails When designing your bot, think about what can go wrong during a contest, and then design your creation so these things can’t go wrong. Many bots lose matches not because they’re beaten by opponents, but because something broke. Below is a list of the 10 most common failures seen in combat robotics, all of which should be considered in your design process: 1. Wires coming loose, especially battery and radio control connections 2. Improper charging or using insufficient-capacity batteries 3. Speed controllers too small to handle the motor current requirements 4. Motors, transmission, and batteries poorly mounted 5. Belts and chains falling off 6. Motors overheating 7. Radio control interference 8. Shearing and breaking fasteners 9. Using homemade motor speed controllers 10. Wheels becoming damaged by weapon or hazards, or jammed because of the body getting bent into them
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Page 6 and 7: Contents For more information about
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chapter Remotely Controlling Your R
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FIGURE 8-1 Wiring and rotational po
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FIGURE 8-2 Futaba’s top of-the-li
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Chapter 8: Remotely Controlling You
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FIGURE 8-4 Typical radio frequency
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FIGURE 8-5 Motor with three capacit
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Innovation First Isaac Robot Contro
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FIGURE 8-6 Block diagram of Isaac o
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chapter 9 Robot Material and Constr
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Metals Aluminum Chapter 9: Robot Ma
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Stainless Steel Chapter 9: Robot Ma
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Titanium used to solder small brass
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Chapter 9: Robot Material and Const
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Welding, Joining, and Fastening We
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place, or some liquid may have ente
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vibration and bounce around the ins
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204 ECAUSE robot combat has evolved
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240 HE robots described in the book
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chapter 12 Robot Brains Copyright 2
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FIGURE 12-1 From top left to bottom
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Chapter 12: Robot Brains 263 space
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FIGURE 12-2 The BoeBot from Paralla
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Handy Board BotBoard Chapter 12: Ro
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FIGURE 12-5 Robo-Goose, a robotic g
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FIGURE 12-8 A fully autonomous robo
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S ummary Chapter 12: Robot Brains 2
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276 HE referee signals, and my hear
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chapter 14 Real-Life Robots: Lesson
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Final Words Chapter 14: Real-Life R
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Chapter 14: Real-Life Robots: Lesso
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design all the parts, and Dave did
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330 The Future of Robot Combat The
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356 OLLOWING are formulas that you
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358 Index 1BDI, 272 1/4 wave antenn
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sources of robot parts, 35 top ten
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INTERNATIONAL CONTACT INFORMATION A
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