battlebots!!! (highschool/college robotics)

[slade]

hmm. i just got an e-mail from our supervisor:

"We'll have one big trip this year to the BattleBot IQ tournament (date and location still to be announced). We'll also do a day trip to see the US First Robotics competition and another day trip to the First VEX Challenge."

i guess we are going to see first. im not sure what one, but since its a day trip im guessing it will be local. maybe ill see you at the boston competition.

[neppo1345]

You'll get a kick out of the FIRST competition...it's like battlebots w/o as much destruction....

vex is boring...like watching little kids driving around 5.00 r.c cars



300 ft/lbs of torque in it's low speed mode...about 10 fps in high speed...2 speed manual gearboxes driving a custom tread system...

[WenULiVeUdiE]

i guess we are going to see first. im not sure what one, but since its a day trip im guessing it will be local. maybe ill see you at the boston competition.

I'll see you there.

Kickoff is this Saturday. Can't wait to see what the game is.

[slade]

time for an update.

i had nothing to do with vex but aparently (which i guessed from the start) vex is a joke. our team finished their bot the night before, fudged all the journals/documentation, and wrote the autonomous code in the van on the way to the competition. their idea behind the competition was "we arent going to do well, but we arent going to come in last" since, well, the team was entirely freshmen/sophomores who didnt work much and the bot was thrown together last minute. when they got to the competition they dominated on the autonomous, and were coming in first in that section. their code, written in the van, just made the bot go forward, pick up one ball, and drop it in the goal. they did decently in the user operated section. in the second to last user operated match, they were in 20-something place out of over 30 teams. then they found out they forgot to turn it off autonomous mode. they jumped to 12th place. overall they ended in 5th place i have no idea what happened.

now as far as battlebots goes.

one of our 120 pound bots is completed, the one that i didnt work on. it just needs a few modifications (mainly the code) before its ready, and it ships in 2 weeks. ill have pictures up right before the competition, which starts on the 26th hooray for 2 weeks of spring break in Miami!

for now, though, heres a teaser picture. this is the floor after they tested the other bot, before they got the code worked out the wheels were getting WAY too much power.



now onto my bot.

ive had a few setbacks . my nitrogen tank was stolen (someone came in, unbolted it, and left) so i had to contact smart parts who was nice enough to sponsor me and send a new tank for free... although its a 47/30 instead of a 45/45, and none of the fittings line up as well as on the old tank . besides that, my entire team pretty much abandoned me, and ive been working on the bot by myself. what work others do i usually have to dictate to them, and generally less than half of what i tell someone to do gets done, and its often wrong .

on the plus side, raytheon came to have their picture taken with us and our superintendent for a newspaper article, and i went to a show-ish thing at MIT with the boston tooling and machining association. ive accomplished a lot on my bot. ive finished the wiring, mounted the batteries, and the structure is finished. i also, during welding, managed to burn through a flame-resistant jacket... that takes skill. i just wish i hadnt been under the impression that it was "flame-proof"... oh well, everythings mounted, its been test driven, all thats really left is to tie down all the wires, and wait for the steel arm and the titanium... come on Raytheon, pull through for us...

[ScatterPlot]

My engineering class this year is building a trebuchet . Not even a distance competition, just hit a target like 20 feet away over a "wall" like 12 feet tall. Gonna be like the easiest thing to do EVAR.

[slade]

My engineering class this year is building a trebuchet . Not even a distance competition, just hit a target like 20 feet away over a "wall" like 12 feet tall. Gonna be like the easiest thing to do EVAR.

>.< i did that this summer in about two days...

[ScatterPlot]

Yeah, the thing is we have to do all the calculations and stuff that go along with it. Not hard ones mind you, but they have to be done. And we have to build it in one day, 3 guys, we get 3 tries to hit the target. Simple if you know the equations and can get rid of de-efficiencizers (yeah i made it up, wanna fight about it?)

[slade]

Yeah, the thing is we have to do all the calculations and stuff that go along with it. Not hard ones mind you, but they have to be done. And we have to build it in one day, 3 guys, we get 3 tries to hit the target. Simple if you know the equations and can get rid of de-efficiencizers (yeah i made it up, wanna fight about it?)

ahh, we didnt have to hit a target, just launch a golf ball as far as possible with a set weight/size. we did some calculations just to find the optimal dimensions and angles... although considering it wasnt that well made it didnt throw all that far. at least it launched forward consistantly, which only one other group accomplished.

oh yeah, yesterday my teacher said that if we didnt come up with a new shirt design soon, we'd have to use the same one from last year... what a horrifying thought. i was going to ask rob (since he volunteered) to design the shirt, but it had to be in pretty much that day, so i quickly made 2 sketches of the bots. he then scanned them and threw it together using photoshop, and, well, here it is:



yes, Jay, i did steal your name sorry.


oh, and does anyone here have a lot of experience with metals? im trying to figure out what to do with the arm on the flipper bot. i wanted titanium origionally, but thats pretty much out of the question now. last year it was aluminum and, well, the reason i lost was because the arm was torn to shreds, it was both cut up and bent. we had 2 replacements but we never got to use them, since we lost the match due to the damage (although i still think that that was a bad call). so the thing is, i want something harder (so it doesnt get scraped up) stronger (so it doesnt get bent) and not too much heavier. as it stands right now i have 2-4 pounds to play with, although thats just a calculated estimate since i still dont have some of the parts. i was hoping to use chrom-moly steel, although it may be hard to find especially in time for the competition. does anyone know just how much stronger chrom-moly steel would be than regular carbon steel? mcmaster has chrom-moly listed with a yield strength of 75,000 psi, but lists other steel as "unrated". also, would anyone know where to find chrom-moly steel tubing in stock, that could ship soon?