Bots IQ Miami Beach 2007 - Roflcopter FTW.

[slade]

the name was changed from Battlebots IQ to Bots IQ due to an issue getting tax exempt status

anyway, the competition was awesome. there were about 50 high school 120 pound robots, 11 college 120 pound robots, and maybe 80 mini robots.

my team had 13 people and 5 robots. two mini (15 pound) robots, then 3 120 pound robots, one of which i designed and built last year, another of which i did a lot of the design and construction for this year.

heres my robot for this year, Roflcopter:





the robot is made out of 7075 aluminum with a steel wedge and A2 tool steel blade. the blade is powered by two magmotors, which extend so far I had to mill out the front and back of the robot. The entire system is powered by three 24 volt NiMH battery packs made out of D cells, which didn't pout out quite enough power.

the timing was so tight that we had to ship before the robot was complete, but we got it done in time. we had to completely redo the wiring to conform with the regulation that the blade had to stop within 30 seconds of when the robot was turned off, and we managed to add another battery pack. someone from the team copperhead helped us wire the spin controllers that would brake the motors, and he won his team the competition's sportsmanship award.

here's the robot i created last year and redesigned/helped rebuild this year, Pneumagic:



this is our other 120 pound robot, the brick:



then there's two mini's made by the sophomores/juniors, father abraham and ragnarok, respectively:




unfortunately, other robots had trouble with spin down times. pretty in pink had to forfeit a match because of that, but they ended up winning a grudge match.



forums limit the number of images per post, so ill be continuing this over a few posts.

[slade]

roflcopter went up against copperhead, a drum bot, the first match, and won. we pushed them to a hammer and one of their gearboxes broke. it then went up against a pneumatic titanium flipper: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...63437924&hl=en I actually felt bad about damaging their bot so much, since we tore through their titanium, cut their wires, and broke a gearbox, but then their driver called my teammate a cheapshot and called me something i can't repeat here. the rest of their team seemed okay though.





the brick won a few matches, then lost two matches against the flipper that roflcopter killed. the mini, father abraham, won a few matches, then lost a few. their first two matches were rather entertaining: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...63437924&hl=en the other mini, ragnarok, had one win that i unfortunately didnt see or videotape.

pneumagic and roflcopter both won all their matches until they faced each other. we chose to have roflcopter forfeit, because the pairing resulted in it facing the titanium flipper again. the match was much closer, but we won again. Roflcopter then faced E2V2, last year's winner, a titanium wedge. we had had constant problems with the batteries, since we were stupid and didn't space them out or use fans. the batteries overheated, and their capacity slowly lowered but they were fine for the most part. unfortunately towards the end of the competition we were short on time and weren't able to fully check everything, and it turned out that before the match one of the battery packs had completely blown. we entered the match on two packs that were partially damaged, so we had less than half the power we needed. we were never able to get the blade up to speed, and they had a good driver, so we ended up losing the match.



pneumagic went up against blender, a titanium full bodied spinner. blender's first hit disconnected our pneumatic tank, and they easily won the match.




pneumagic was then welded back together and went up against E2V2, which it lost to. E2V2 faced blender for the final match, and blender won: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...49692610&hl=en




After both robots were out of the competition I put together three working battery packs for roflcopter, and challenged blender to a grudge match. unfortunately we had to leave for the airport before we were able to have the match. I really wanted to see the outcome of that match, too. with roflcopter up to speed it would have been fairly even. we could tear apart their titanium shell, and they could tear off our wheels or even a side of our bot.



i put up a lot more videos on google. they shouldnt be hard to find, they all start with "Battlebots IQ miami beach 2007". there are probably some more videos up by now.

Our team was sponsored by Raytheon, Methods Machine Tools, and Batteries Plus. Raytheon gave us a ton of money and help from engineers. Methods gave us a tool steel blade, a steel blade for a mini, lots of stock, and machining capabilities.

Batteries Plus made us battery packs, which due to my mistake were under powered. I would highly recommend that anyone in massachusetts go to batteries plus in marlborough for anything related to batteries. They have great prices, and Shawn really knows his stuff. I just went there for a motorcycle battery today.

[slade]

this team always has really nice looking wedge robots that perform about average. they're a vocational school, so my guess would be that they have really nice machines but not much funding, so they have to stick with wedges. from what i heard, they made the awards for the competition.


nice robot, not the best name.


a drum bot from team titanium knights. its a pretty nice robot, but they had a few problems with it. its from the team that made E2V2, last year's winner and this year's second place.


the same team made this robot (which is currently upside down) it was a horizontal spinner like roflcopter. it had some really nice aspects to it, and some points that really needed work. their first match the wheels wobbled and their blade cut off their own wheels and shot across the arena. after that they only ran the blade at partial speed, and lost again due to that. my guess is that it will be a great robot next year.


thats what happens when your batteries REALLY die, and explode inside your robot. luckily, our battery issues werent quite that severe.


this match was awesome. it was from the college division, where two robots from the same college faced each other, so the entire match was rigged to be a nondestructive spectacle. heres the video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...61574060&hl=en


our van for the win.

there also seemed to be a constant numerical theme throughout the trip:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g197/slade6061/2007%20miami%20beach/PICT0023.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g197/slade6061/2007%20miami%20beach/PICT0031.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g197/slade6061/2007%20miami%20beach/PICT0117.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g197/slade6061/2007%20miami%20beach/PICT0220.jpg

[Nick E]

secks. Do you know if you're going to IRI, or is that(what you do) a totally separate thing from FIRST robotics?

[slade]

Bots IQ is completely separate from FIRST. I've never been able to compete in FIRST.

[slade]

Is there anything against using microwave magnetrons or lasers?

2.6 EXTERNAL LIGHTING
2.6.1 LASER LIGHTS
All lasers mounted on a BotsIQ robot are limited to Class II, with an output of less than 1 mW,
regardless of the color (wavelength) of the light.

5.6 ELECTROMAGNETS
Externally-mounted electromagnets can be used on a BotsIQ robot, provided that:
a. Any electromagnet is powered only by a DC voltage, which may be switched on and off, or
reversed in polarity.
b. The control electronics for any electromagnet does not interfere with any robot radio control
signals or with any Tournament communications equipment.

^^that was the most applicable thing i could find. they have a lot of rules. you won't get away with anything that does not do mechanical damage.

[iambored]

That's awesome. Always wanted to enter one of those battlebot competition things. I like the microwave idea

[slade]

the frequencies used aren't necessarily standard. I'm not sure whether or not it would interfere, and even if it didn't, theres also the rule against voltage over 48 VDC or 80 AC.

and ideas like microwaves/xrays/hydrogen/water/cattle prods are akin to "that newbie" who thinks a paintball flamethrower is the best idea ever.

if you want, look through the rules yourself, http://www.botsiq.org/rules.php as I said, you won't get away with anything that does not inflict mechanical damage. you can't have combustion outside of an internal combustion engine. you can't use any liquids. you can't damage the arena itself. If theres any risk of hurting a person, you won't get through safety inspection.

[rkjunior303]

get that resume done and update it with these achievements..then get it to me. don't slack!

[slade]

get that resume done and update it with these achievements..then get it to me. don't slack!

did you get my IM yesterday? I got a call back last night and it turned out that I had to make my decision on the spot. So I pretty much had to just accept the Raytheon internship. which sort of sucks too, because iRobot is probably more down my alley than Raytheon. But it should be good work, and its a $1500 scholarship with a minimum pay of $400/week. Thanks though, I'll probably ask you for help next year if thats okay.

[slade]

I love it! a paintball flamethrower... nice.

>.< you'd be surprised how many times i've had to hear that.

i don't know much about lithium polymer, but i guess for some reason they're unsafe. batteries have fallen out of robots in the past, so you have to go on the safe side.

you basically can't do anything that could hurt someone or hurt the arena. i mean, as cool as a railgun mounted on top of a robot would be, if that projectile goes through the two sheets of lexan and hits someone, you're in trouble.

the same goes for things like plasma torches, water, or anything else similar to that. its going to be hard to hold the next match when theres a huge plasma torch gash in the steel floor of the arena ...plus everyone watching will be blind.

i think a 15 pounder used a vacuum a year or two ago and did decently. the only problem is, how would you grab a bot like mine that has a huge spinning blade on the top?

there are some good lifter robots, though. look at the video i took of alakran: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...61574060&hl=en

the 20 second limit is because a match would be pretty boring if a robot just picked up the other one and held it for 3 minutes.

and its not *nearly* as limited as nascar, it's just limited where necessary for safety.

[rkjunior303]

i don't know much about lithium polymer, but i guess for some reason they're unsafe. batteries have fallen out of robots in the past, so you have to go on the safe side.

and exploded...

[slade]

and exploded...

actually, batteries have been knocked out a few times without anything too bad happening (it wasnt in a match with spinning blades or anything like that). that picture is from an internal short... which created a rather impressive spectacle.

[slade]

that match was actually one robot vs. another robot on the same team. the last thing they wanted to do was damage their own robot.

and the weight limit is actually 120 pounds.

where does the fact that the blade must stop within 30 seconds come into play in what you are saying?

I really don't think that your idea is at all plausible, but if you think it is, by all means make it and i'll see you at the competition next year.

[slade]

well, hey, if you think it would work, go for it. just keep in mind that theres a rule against "fowling material".