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Well after a fairly disappointing trip to Birmingham I've retired Splinter and decided to build a machine that'll hopefully survive the weekend. As much as I've enjoyed the challenge of using recycled scrap this machine will be a more traditional construction, that said it's made from unwanted (and free 
) nylon and tool steel so I guess it sort of carries the Bitza mentality.
This is going to be my final project at university before I start as a Design & Technology teacher so it's part combat robot / part teaching aid. My design basically revolves around a solid control box containing all the electronics which the motors plug in to. The idea is that it can be demoed to a group of students then the control box can be removed and they can build their own machines around it plugging in they own weapons and motors. There is another box that attaches on top which has an Arduino, Genie board in it so it can either be RC or autonomous.
As a side note I've applied for a bursary so I can build 3 more of these control boxes and run a small after school robotics club, should find out in a couple of weeks if I get it. These units would just be RC though.
So to my designs, I wanted something visually exciting that had some of the theatrics that excited kids in the TV show. I found a lump of tool steel which with some advice has been turned into a fairly substantial small dia disk. One of my previous uni projects was a robotic gecko with an articulated tail so I've included a more heavy duty version of that into my design. One of the few things that worked really well in Splinter was the electro magnet so I've fastened one to the end of the tail that'll hold up to 40kgs. The torque required to lift 13.6kg off the floor would be huge but I'm hoping it'll look cool, and stick and drag the Hardox boxes around.
It's loosely based on some sort of scorpion / insect idea, disk at front, magnetic tail at back. I'd like to have done some sheet metal work on the shell running curved strips of ali from front to back, but I think I might end up with a Polycarb shell similar to Tiny Hurtz. 8mm Polycarb baseplate, 20mm nylon frame 6mm armour.
Think that might be it for now. I'm working on it everyday until June 6th so progress should be fairly quick.
Any thoughts / advise appreciated.
Also if anyone understand coding Arduino I could really use some pointers!
) nylon and tool steel so I guess it sort of carries the Bitza mentality.This is going to be my final project at university before I start as a Design & Technology teacher so it's part combat robot / part teaching aid. My design basically revolves around a solid control box containing all the electronics which the motors plug in to. The idea is that it can be demoed to a group of students then the control box can be removed and they can build their own machines around it plugging in they own weapons and motors. There is another box that attaches on top which has an Arduino, Genie board in it so it can either be RC or autonomous.
As a side note I've applied for a bursary so I can build 3 more of these control boxes and run a small after school robotics club, should find out in a couple of weeks if I get it. These units would just be RC though.
So to my designs, I wanted something visually exciting that had some of the theatrics that excited kids in the TV show. I found a lump of tool steel which with some advice has been turned into a fairly substantial small dia disk. One of my previous uni projects was a robotic gecko with an articulated tail so I've included a more heavy duty version of that into my design. One of the few things that worked really well in Splinter was the electro magnet so I've fastened one to the end of the tail that'll hold up to 40kgs. The torque required to lift 13.6kg off the floor would be huge but I'm hoping it'll look cool, and stick and drag the Hardox boxes around.
It's loosely based on some sort of scorpion / insect idea, disk at front, magnetic tail at back. I'd like to have done some sheet metal work on the shell running curved strips of ali from front to back, but I think I might end up with a Polycarb shell similar to Tiny Hurtz. 8mm Polycarb baseplate, 20mm nylon frame 6mm armour.
Think that might be it for now. I'm working on it everyday until June 6th so progress should be fairly quick.
Any thoughts / advise appreciated.
Also if anyone understand coding Arduino I could really use some pointers!
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