New roboteer looking to get started

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Cheers for the reply Runsler.

I completely forgot that if the bot is upside down, the angle is reversed and doesn't have any effect on bringing down potential damage from spinners, oops - that minor oversight ruins the whole running upside down thing. I find that sometimes the best defense against spinners is to be as quick as possible and ram them front on before the spinner has time to get up to a meaningful speed, and push them around from there. Although some spinners get up to speed incredibly quickly compared to some. That tactic is more than likely a "do or die" scenario. Either it works, or you get torn to shreds.

I think i've also worked out a schematic where I can control it using an Arduino, and to keep costs down incase replacements are needed frequently, wouldn't even need to be a genuine Arduino, just a compatible clone you can pick up for $5 - I've used a few clones and never had issues with them.

Steel tip sounds rather good, although I'm not sure how i'd do that, I'd need to look up stuff moreso than the rest, as i've literally never worked with any metals before.

[Runsler]

Possible solution:
Make the wedge from HDPE.
Take a sheet of steel , and screw it on the HDPE in a way it is a bit longer where the tip will be. now if you want, you can try to sharpen it (from the floor side, to keep the angle sharp) a bit more, but that's all you'd need. And it doesn't have to be a big sheet, maybe more like a stripe.
Some shops get you stuff like that cut for really cheap, or you could ask a local metal working company (not the really big ones^^) to do that for you, and also let them make you a few spares.

I would only use that on front and rear end, since the wedges on the sides are defensive, you can't really use them to get under someone. There you can also get a little bit closer to the floor, since you won't get stuck with the sides as easily as with something in driving direction. So no use to keep them as sharp.

Another idea: it would be a bit more complicated, but a lot more effective to make the base plate octagon shaped, not square. just to avoid the 90° angles on the wedges, the smoother and flatter those are, the less the spinners got to bite into. but i'd treat that as extra, depending on how you can work with the material and stuff like that.


Plus, if you're going to use an arduino anyway and like electronics... possibly ask Rory Mangles how he made Nuts spin around and still be controllable. i could imagine this working for your bot, too. But again, that's an extra that would effectively convert a push/wedge bot into a full body spinner. And then you'd need fast motors^^

ps.: well, it would still have some effect against horizontal spinners, they'd make you go up (possibly turning you back again) and, depending on their balance, maybe make their blade go into the floor... whatever effect that may have, depending on the bot.
vs. horizontals... if they're weapons radius is bigger than your height, they'll land a big hit, definitely flipping you (but how often) and bend or rip the wedge on that point. If their weapon is smaller, they'll scrape on the wedge just like they did when you were the other way round.

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Just going to reboot this thread I started a while ago with some more questions!

Is there a huge advantage between using a chain for drive instead of a belt? I find that chains can destroy themselves with enough force to pierce your battery packs if they've not been heavily shielded, belts don't seem to potentially wrecks the inside as badly if it fails.

So another question. Does anyone know any very fast motors suitable for featherweights? I'm hoping to build something supremely fast, simply trying to ram, knock & drag opponents until something inside comes loose and they become immobile or they find a hole to be pulled into. Not a good plan, but its the taking part that counts, at least until I get experience with more complex things. Ideally the motor needs to be capable of the same speed in reverse as it is in forward, so both ends of the bot can be used to the maximum instead of one being weakened due to motors not liking to reverse. I'll be trying to pack the bot with the maximum weight allowed for featherweight, so it hits with some force.


Also, something that amused me. In the Robot Wars rules, it mentions hovercraft. Now I want to try doing something like that as I've never seen anything like that before - could be the first, but all these silly things tend to do very poorly, like the walkerbots from the old series of Robot Wars, so horrendously slow and did nothing of value. Good laugh though...