Inspiration/innovation in weaponry

[daveimi]

It's a brilliant idea. I think event organisers will take issue with failsafing and weight.

[adamclark]

I think I've been hypnotised

[Giles]

So you will be going with a "randomly drive around until you see something" kind of approach as opposed to landmark/object tracking? That will work with ultrasound no problem but I wonder what hilarious situations this will cause

[killercarrot]

... a debonair swashbuckling raconteur controller of a fleet of mad robots

+1 for Jumbo Johnson

[adamclark]

So you will be going with a "randomly drive around until you see something" kind of approach as opposed to landmark/object tracking? That will work with ultrasound no problem but I wonder what hilarious situations this will cause

I think I might try that, a bit of patrolling. Also have a couple of PIR that seem to be quite efficient. Nice video on SLAM and odometry mapping , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVsfCnyt5jA to digest. I think with such a finite area it might well be possible to determine where we are to a certain degree. I'm going to play with the IMU this weekend, but I think with a hunk of steel it probably wont be of too much use. I remember I had problems before when I had one and a video link and gyro inside corporal punishment. If the BLE chipsets were not so expensive then a shared map array would be nice (call it cloud based to be on trend)

FWIW, an in progress sonar module , single channel, showing 5cm range (20 scans per second) and a PIR trigger of YES (the camera waving above))
IMG_0891.jpg

[Giles]

RANSAC (algorithm) is part of some SLAM implementations, you should read into it, as it will be much easier to run just this instead of full fat SLAM.
RANSAC essentially takes a bunch of points (moments where your sonar detects a surface) and tries to find straight line correlations within the set of points.

A possible use of this could be:
-Randomly patrol around, detecting collisions. Store collision points.
-Run ransac on the set of collision point data.
-Begin to determine where the walls of the arena are (by ransac figuring out straight lines, it will also compute corner positions based on line intersections).
-Now, as the fight progresses, your bot will be able to move randomly, but with a bias towards open areas/not corners (avoids house bots). Also, if the robot detects a collision that doesn't match its wall correlations, then perhaps it will attack the point instead of avoid it.

If you plan to use multiple bots, this could work really well, as RANSAC needs a good number of points to provide accurate lines. Each bot could record collision points and share them with the other bots, so they all work towards building the same data set.

[adamclark]

Yep, lots of reading to go through. Looks like will be starting with a map and some dead reckoning and then looking out for wall elements and trying to map those onto the map to refine the position and build up the map. Now working with 6 sonar and 6 PIR to arrive as its simpler at the moment to detect movement for testing. Eventually thats just software, am I moving Y/N, has the sonar distance changed Y/N etc. Knocking up a chassis topped with a wok next

IMG_0900.jpg

[adamclark]

In addition to the sonar and PIR , we are adding in a VL53LOX laser distance sensor. These look very good on paper. 2m range and millimetre accuracy @£10 price point. 2 of these on a hammer bot I would imagine would guarantee a "hit now something is there" detector. Obvs the walls would trigger it but cheaper than the $200 lidar modules like chomp has VL53L0X

[Runsler]

i don't understand much of the last posts, just something that came to my mind:
how good is the position detection and all that stuff when the bot gets hit?
i could just think most of the systems get a little bit messy when the bot starts flying. or turning really fast after a hit from a big spinner.
would also be interesting how to make sure the sensors and whatever won't get covered/destroyed/tilted when hit, but still are exposed enough to "see".


the last idea for the hammer bot sound quiet good (and not too complex). i imagine a trigger with two stages:
0 (trigger not pushed): "safe" mode, weapon won't fire
1 (trigger pushed half way): "autonomous" mode, weapon will fire when something is detected
3 (trigger pushed full way): "manual" mode, the weapon will fire once this is activated.

So you could drive around, pushed it half way, and if the other bot comes into your aiming area, it gets hit. close to walls just release, nothing happens. and even if sensors get bent and/or you want to use the hammer to self right, just push it completely.

would sure also work with two triggers to do it, but i like to have "fire" on one finger.

[adamclark]

I've just built up a VL53L0X module and it seems very very accurate and fast. Its laser and calculates TOF and seems to be millimetric accurate up to about 200cm and only £10. Two of these spaced apart and if both detect something in range, then fire. That would make sure that something was therefore in the middle. Combine it with the IMU and you could make sure it would only fire on the level and not start hitting at the floor if tilted etc.

vl53lox.jpglaser.jpg

[adamclark]

Always hankered after the idea of climbing onboard and then extruding metal wire into the interior of the robot.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]6180[/ATTACH]
Basically a form of the Harlequins Kiss made real for any 40K fans
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Harlequin's_Kiss

Looks like the option of injecting/feeding steel wire or spring steel is now a viable option with the rule changes allowing some forms of entanglement

[Runsler]

some entanglement is allowed now?
wow, didn't know this before... must have missed it.
Why is this change? spinners getting mighty?^^

[adamclark]

Apparently to give new robot designs a chance. Plus increase in weight for shufflers and walkers. I imagine using entanglement is more likely to stop drums as you can only use a metre of rope/chain/Kevlar etc. But probably still useful against spinners. RW wants more innovative weaponry, like robots that pick up other robots and use them as shields or have pneumatic spikes and can invalidate Newtonian physics.

[team death]

I recall when exterminator got thier axe stuck in the 6mm thick plywood lid of immortalis-they were well
immobilised until the ref bot stepped in-just goes to show cheap soloutions can be effective and wood
in the words of Mr Foxwell is well underated.
Notions on a spinner stopper -hardwood-application and specs undisclosed

[team death]

Ideas coming at record speed now-spinners tend to take an age to speed up, its the nature of getting that heavy weight disc
to maximum revs-so what about a brush head offensive system-could be rubber or bristle to slow down those spinners bits
with a bit of luck may even fly into thier mechanism/drive and cause jamming but because its not deliberate you get away with it.