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**dragonmaster_1** · 10 March 2009, 15:12

RioBotz Combot Tutorial

BTW, the contents of the tutorial is reproduced below, FYI. Cheers.

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. A Brief History of Robot Combat, 1.2. Structure of the Tutorial, 1.3. Acknowledgments

2. DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS
2.1. Weight Classes, 2.2. Scale Factor, 2.3. Combat Robot Types (2.3.1. Rammers, 2.3.2. Wedges, 2.3.3. Lifters, 2.3.4. Launchers / Flippers, 2.3.5. Thwackbots, 2.3.6. Overhead Thwackbots, 2.3.7. Spearbots, 2.3.8. Horizontal Spinners, 2.3.9. Sawbots, 2.3.10. Vertical Spinners, 2.3.11. Drumbots, 2.3.12. Hammerbots, 2.3.13. Clampers, 2.3.14. Crushers, 2.3.15. Flamethrowers, 2.3.16. Multibots), 2.4. Design Steps (2.4.1. Cost, 2.4.2. Sponsorship, 2.4.3. Designing the Robot, 2.4.4. Calculations, 2.4.5. Optimization, 2.4.6. Building and Testing), 2.5. Robot Structure, 2.6. Robot Armor (2.6.1. Traditional Armor, 2.6.2. Ablative Armor, 2.6.3. Reactive Armor), 2.7. Robot Drive System (2.7.1. Tank Treads and Legs, 2.7.2. Wheel Types, 2.7.3. Wheel Steering, 2.7.4. Two-Wheel Drive, 2.7.5. All-Wheel Drive, 2.7.6. Omni-Directional Drive, 2.7.7. Wheel Placement, 2.7.8. Invertible Design), 2.8. Robot Weapon System, 2.9. Building Tools

3. MATERIALS
3.1. Mechanical Properties, 3.2. Steels and Cast Irons, 3.3. Aluminum Alloys, 3.4. Titanium Alloys, 3.5. Magnesium Alloys, 3.6. Other Metals, 3.7. Non-Metals, 3.8. Material Selection Principles (3.8.1. Stiffness Optimization, 3.8.2. Strength and Toughness Optimization), 3.9. Minimum Weight Design (3.9.1. Minimum Weight Plates, 3.9.2. Minimum Weight Internal Mounts, 3.9.3. Minimum Weight Protected Structural Walls, 3.9.4. Minimum Weight Integrated Structure-Armor Walls, 3.9.5. Minimum Weight Wedges, 3.9.6. Minimum Weight Traditional Armor, 3.9.7. Minimum Weight Ablative Armor, 3.9.8. Minimum Weight Beams, 3.9.9. Minimum Weight Shafts and Gears, 3.9.10. Minimum Weight Spinning Bars and Eggbeaters, 3.9.11. Minimum Weight Spinning Disks, Shells and Drums, 3.9.12. Minimum Weight Weapon Inserts, 3.9.13. Minimum Weight Clamper and Crusher Claws, 3.9.14. Minimum Weight Trusses), 3.10. Minimum Volume Design (3.10.1. Compact-Sized Internal Mounts, 3.10.2. Compact-Sized Drums, 3.10.3. Compact-Sized Shafts, Gears and Weapon Parts), 3.11. Conclusions on Materials Selection

4. JOINING ELEMENTS
4.1. Screws, 4.2. Shaft Mounting, 4.3. Rivets, 4.4. Hinges, 4.5. Welds

5. MOTORS AND TRANSMISSIONS
5.1. Brushed DC Motors (5.1.1. Example: Magmotor S28-150, 5.1.2. Typical Brushed DC Motors, 5.1.3. Identifying Unknown Brushed DC Motors), 5.2. Brushless DC Motors, 5.3. Power Transmission (5.3.1. Gears, 5.3.2. Belts, 5.3.3. Chains, 5.3.4. Flexible Couplings, 5.3.5. Torque Limiters), 5.4. Weapon and Drive System Calculations (5.4.1. Example: Design of Touroâ‚¬â„¢s Drive System, 5.4.2. Example: Design of Touroâ‚¬â„¢s Weapon System, 5.4.3. Energy and Capacity Consumption of Spinning Weapons), 5.5. Pneumatic Systems, 5.6. Hydraulic Systems, 5.7. Internal Combustion Engines

6. WEAPON DESIGN
6.1. Spinning Bar Design, 6.2. Spinning Disk Design, 6.3. Tooth Design (6.3.1. Tooth Height and Bite, 6.3.2. Number of Teeth), 6.4. Impact Theory (6.4.1. Impact Equations, 6.4.2. Limit Cases, 6.4.3. Impact Energy, 6.4.4. Example: Last Rites vs. Sir Loin), 6.5. Effective Mass (6.5.1. Effective Mass of Horizontal Spinners, 6.5.2. Effective Mass of Vertical Spinners and Drumbots, 6.5.3. Example: Drumbot Impact, 6.5.4. Effective Mass of Hammerbots, 6.5.5. Full Body, Shell and Ring Drumbots, 6.5.6. Effective Mass Summary), 6.6. Effective Spring and Damper (6.6.1. A Simple Spring-Damper Model, 6.6.2. Spring and Damper Energy, 6.6.3. Offensive Strategies, 6.6.4. Defensive Strategies, 6.6.5. Case Study: Vertical Spinner Stiffness and Damping, 6.6.6. Equivalent Electric Circuit), 6.7. Hammerbot Design (6.7.1. Hammer Energy, 6.7.2. Hammer Impact), 6.8. Overhead Thwackbot Design, 6.9. Thwackbot Design (6.9.1. Thwackbot Equations, 6.9.2. Melty Brain Control, 6.9.3. NavBot Control), 6.10. Launcher Design (6.10.1. Three-Bar Mechanisms, 6.10.2. Launcher Equations, 6.10.3. Height Launcher Equations, 6.10.4. Range Launcher Equations, 6.10.5. Four-Bar Mechanisms, 6.10.6. Launcher Stability), 6.11. Lifter Design, 6.12. Clamper Design, 6.13. Rammer Design, 6.14. Wedge Design (6.14.1. Wedge Types and Shapes, 6.14.2. Wedge Impact, 6.14.3. Defensive Wedges, 6.14.4. Offensive Wedges, 6.14.5. Example: Offensive Wedge vs. Horizontal Spinner, 6.14.6. Angled Impacts, 6.14.7. Wedge Design Against Vertical Spinners), 6.15. Gyroscopic Effect, 6.16. Summary

7. ELECTRONICS
7.1. Radio Transmitter and Receiver (7.1.1. Transmitters, 7.1.2. Receivers, 7.1.3. Antennas, 7.1.4. Gyroscopes, 7.1.5. Battery Elimination Circuit, 7.1.6. Servos), 7.2. Controlling Brushed DC Motors (7.2.1. Bang-Bang Control, 7.2.2. Pulse Width Modulation, 7.2.3. H-Bridge), 7.3. Electronic Speed Controllers (7.3.1. OSMC - Open Source Motor Controller, 7.3.2. IFI Victor, 7.3.3. Robot Power Scorpion, 7.3.4. BaneBots, 7.3.5. Other Brushed Motor Speed Controllers, 7.3.6. Brushless Electronic Speed Controllers), 7.4. Solenoids (7.4.1. White-Rodgers 586 SPDT, 7.4.2. Team Whyachi TW-C1), 7.5. Wiring (7.5.1. Wires, 7.5.2. Terminals, Plugs and Connectors), 7.6. Power Switches, 7.7. Connection Schemes (7.7.1. Classic Connection Scheme, 7.7.2. Improved Connection Scheme, 7.7.3. Connection Scheme for Reversible Weapons), 7.8. Developing your Own Electronics (7.8.1. Speed Controller Development, 7.8.2. RC Interface Development)

8. BATTERIES
8.1. Battery Types (8.1.1. Sealed Lead Acid (SLA), 8.1.2. Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd), 8.1.3. Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH), 8.1.4. Alkaline, 8.1.5. Lithium), 8.2. Battery Properties (8.2.1. Price, 8.2.2. Weight, 8.2.3. Voltage, 8.2.4. Shelf Life, 8.2.5. Number of Recharge Cycles, 8.2.6. Charge Time, 8.2.7. Self-Discharge, 8.2.8. Discharge Curve, 8.2.9. Internal Resistance, 8.2.10. Capacity, 8.2.11. De-Rating Factor, 8.2.12. Discharge Rate), 8.3. Battery Care and Tips (8.3.1. Shock Mounting, 8.3.2. Recharging, 8.3.3. Battery Storage, 8.3.4. Assembling Your Own Pack, 8.3.5. Billy Moons Rules for LiPo)

9. COMBOT EVENTS
9.1. Before the Event (9.1.1. Test and Drive Your Robot, 9.1.2. Prevent Common Failures, 9.1.3. Lose Weight, 9.1.4. Travel Preparations), 9.2. During the Event (9.2.1. Getting Started, 9.2.2. Waiting for Your Fight, 9.2.3. Before Your Fight, 9.2.4. During Your Fight, 9.2.5. Deciding Who Won, 9.2.6. After Your Fight, 9.2.7. Between Fights), 9.3. After the Event (9.3.1. Battery Care, 9.3.2. Inspect Your Robot, 9.3.3. Wrap Up)

10. RIOBOTZ BUILD REPORTS
10.1. Lacrainha, 10.2. Lacraia, 10.3. Anubis, 10.4. Ciclone, 10.5. Titan, 10.6. Touro, 10.7. Mini-Touro, 10.8. Tourinho, 10.9. Puminha, 10.10. Touro Light, 10.11. Micro-Touro, 10.12. Touro Jr., 10.13. Touro Feather, 10.14. Pocket

CONCLUSIONS
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Bibliography
Appendix A - Conversion among Brinell, Vickers and Rockwell A, B and C hardnesses
Appendix B - Material Data
Appendix C - Stress Concentration Factor Graphs
Appendix D - Radio Control Channels and Frequencies

**Gaseraki** · 10 March 2009, 15:40

RioBotz Combot Tutorial

Waaat
Hes used my flea weight psycho flea as an example of a flea weight! Thats a surprise

Also a bit of an honor

**dragonmaster_1** · 10 March 2009, 21:24

RioBotz Combot Tutorial

dont know whatthe rest of you think but its b----- good

**terrorhurtz** · 11 March 2009, 01:23

RioBotz Combot Tutorial

Yes, impressive piece.
Of course I would take issue with his assertion that you must have a stiff chassis and Lexan would suitable only for a rambot...

**mameggi** · 27 March 2009, 22:15

Re: RioBotz Combot Tutorial

Cheers from Brazil. This is Marco, the tutorial's author. Thanks for the feedback. Please send any comments, corrections and suggestions to this topic. Your feedback will help to improve future versions. I hope this text will be useful. Dragonmaster_1, thanks for posting the link.

By the way, if anybody wonders what are those cards in page 349, they're Brazilian combat robot cards similar to Top Trumps, which you can freely download at:
http://leblon.mec.puc-rio.br/~meggi/combot_cards.pdf
The numbers are actual percentages of the robot weight spent in each sub-system.

Marco Antonio Meggiolaro
Team RioBotz - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

**mameggi** · 27 March 2009, 23:10

Re: RioBotz Combot Tutorial

Originally posted by terrorhurtz

Of course I would take issue with his assertion that you must have a stiff chassis and Lexan would suitable only for a rambot...

John, sorry if I wasn't clear about this assertion. It was in the context of minimum weight design. You can make great robots with a Lexan chassis, Terrorhurtz is a good example of that.

However if you replace a Lexan plate with an aluminum one with 1/3 of the thickness you'll end up with the same stiffness and still save 22% in weight. A great robot with Lexan structure will be even better if the structure is replaced by aluminum. The numbers are even better for magnesium alloys.

High stiffness is important to make sure that the impact energy from your weapon will be effectively transmitted to the opponent. Otherwise most of the energy will be spent flexing your own chassis during the impact (section 6.6 of the tutorial).

I'm sure you know that, Terrorhurtz's axe mechanism is all-metal, its high stiffness surely helps to deliver powerful blows!

Cheers,

Marco

**mameggi** · 19 June 2009, 22:53

Re: RioBotz Combot Tutorial

Several people during RoboGames 2009 asked me to create a printed version of the RioBotz Tutorial. So I generated a press-quality version of the text (better quality than the one from the downloadable PDF) and uploaded it to http://www.lulu.com, which is a very well-known publishing company/website. I've just bought a few printed copies and the print quality is excellent.

The tutorial ended up very cheap, because I'm not getting any money out of it, the price only covers the printing costs. It can be safely bought directly from lulu.com, which will print it in 3 to 5 business days and ship to any USA or international address.

The 374-page black and white version ended up only US$10.23 plus shipping, it can be bought at
http://www.lulu.com/content/7150541
It's 8.5 x 11, with perfect binding and publisher's grade paper, and color cover.

I've also generated a full-color version on very high quality paper, however the printing costs make it US$80.30 plus shipping. The link is:
http://www.lulu.com/content/7148702
It's much more expensive but it is worth it, considering that there are 895 figures in the tutorial, most of them in color.

I hope you enjoy this humble contribution to this great sport!

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RioBotz Combot Tutorial

RioBotz Combot Tutorial

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