Corvis (temp bot name) rough ideas.

[Bacon Wizard]

robot and piece of floor get airtime.

Yikes!.....

Very interesting bots, I like the thinking. I've been looking at gyroscopes also.

[maddox10]

Your avarage heavyweight FP flipper uses a 100mm bore ram with multiple feeding valves.

5*5*pi*55=4300 kg of force.

In feathers a 50mm bore ram ain't an exception. That's a ton of force...

[Bacon Wizard]

Doesn't seem much point trying to resist it then.. concentrate on SRMECH innit.

I can see why people enjoy FW.. power to weight ratio must be through the roof.

[maddox10]

Hannibalito 4 uses a 78mm bore FP ram.
Containing those 2.5 tons of force ain't that easy.

[grant_ploughbot]

In our Robo Challenge arena we have a 4mm hardox floor which means magnets are a good bet and alot of people use them. In heavies, Its probably not worth looking at as the wooden floors get damaged and your likely to be sucking in bits of dust, broken bits of MDF/Plywood etc and cause your self problems.

[typhoon_driver]

My impression from this thread is that you are vastly under estimating the forces involved which is not unreasonable based on your inexperience

[joey_picus]

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding here (I'm a geologist, not an engineer!) but how good is the non-Newtonian armour idea going to be against subsonic weapons? All your ideas so far seem to be geared towards stopping bullets, but I'd say the vast majority of more conventional materials used in heavyweights would do that too...I could see the logic of using reactive fluid armour against a spinner with a high tip velocity (assuming tip velocity is something that exists and not a measurement I've made up) but surely something like Tibs will just go straight through it with about 6 tonnes on the tip at low speed?

[Bacon Wizard]

Two reasons joey,

One is that kevlar is great against an impact since the fibres don't break and it acts like a safety-net, containing the impact. But anything that might force its way between the fibres, such as a highly pointed object can get through.

Sheer-thickening fluid made with silica, solves this. I suspect tiberious wouldn't get through.. BUT, you don't need penetration to do damage: The armour underneath could still be cracked or bent by tiberious and damage done to the internals or overall structure. I am not sure whether I'd prefer to be punctured in one spot, actually!

More conventional materials yes, but I'm looking for weight save at all opportunities.


The second reason for using it, would be that I'm thinking in terms of having the armour plates (each of which is small, and many of them layered-up) attached to the spaceframe with some slower-acting non-newtonian foam bushes and springs. Shock absorption, basically. I am not totally convinced on that one, yet...

With regard to weaponry, I plan to try the crossbow style actuator first because it has the likelihood of storing a huge amount of force for little weight using carbon fibre.

I have a more reliable plan as backup, but which is far heavier. I feel that it is too easy to overestimate how much weight benefit I gain for walking, since the walker is complex and therefore heavy anyhow, and it has to drag that extra weight around making it even less efficient yet again.

It may be that what I end-up with is dictated by cost as much as anything of course. That's the most likely picture.

[Bacon Wizard]

The real way to do this, would be to have ceramic plates, loads overlaid. But seriously, would you want to find the broken ones and replace them after every battle? No tah!

[craig_colliass]

When dealing with armor and Hydraulic weapons some times it pays to think outside of the box. With Saint I looked at the maximum height the beak Of Tiberius could be raised, and then made the robot that bit taller, Problem solved.
also it can only chew at the edges of most robots. because the tip pressure reduces with distance from the fulcrum. the beak arm has a short reach.
Axes are harder the way I reduced the damage from them, was conveyor belt wrapped round the body of Saint, this has worked for years.

The lesson
Know your opponent. design round their weapons.

[Bacon Wizard]

The real way to do this, would be to have ceramic plates, loads overlaid. But seriously, would you want to find the broken ones and replace them after every battle? No tah!

BLIMEY i've just had an idea!

*sends tea flying while scrambing for calculator, pen an paper*


"mumblemumble 995psi, mumble..... Bladders... Made to fail... Mumble...composite layers...."


hehehe oh gawd he's off again!!

[Ellis]

It's easy to push a robot forwards or backwards, but very difficult to push one sideways. So, mount yer crossbow sideways.

[typhoon_driver]

Whilst the fancy armour is lovely, it's a real pain in the arse when it gets damaged. Typhoon 2 had an aluminium honeycomb base. Granted this was mainly structural but still the lesson works none the less. Stunning stuff that you would think would have many uses in robots but when it got damaged in the states it recently took 3 days to manufacture and fit a replacement piece. The nice thing about steel or titanium is that with a big enough hammer you can mend on the fly at a competition.

[joey_picus]

Couldn't you have used a really, really, really big hole saw?

[maddox10]

Whilst the fancy armour is lovely, it's a real pain in the arse when it gets damaged. Typhoon 2 had an aluminium honeycomb base. Granted this was mainly structural but still the lesson works none the less. Stunning stuff that you would think would have many uses in robots but when it got damaged in the states it recently took 3 days to manufacture and fit a replacement piece. The nice thing about steel or titanium is that with a big enough hammer you can mend on the fly at a competition.

I can't forget the resurrection of Bigger Brother after the fight with Hypnodisk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbKPPp4wBQ0
Afther this beating, Bigger Brother just needed a cheap arc welder, hammers and angle grinders.
Try that with High Tech armor.

And yes, I was there.