Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Spud1
The cost seems to vary dramatically depending on the materials you want to use. The electronics are (perhaps surprisingly) some of the cheapest bits - as you pretty much just need some ESCs, Motors, Lipos, TX and RX - suitable ones can be had from China for as little as £300 brand new, with the major cost being some decent motors (and you may want a lot of them!).
Everyone seems to use radio control, I have wondered if a wifi link to a Pi3 or Arduino would give a more flexible control system.
Also you can buy rechargeable drills with variable speed trigger quite cheaply, I wonder if that would make a decent starting point for motive power giving you motor, gearbox and speed controller.
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Originally Posted by
Xlucine
I'd love to see an autonomous class, it'd be hilarious. Limiting it to extruded ABS ought to make it more accessible and less downfall-of-humanity - heavyweight robots with no controller is scary
Something withing the budget of a secondary school class/club could be pretty cool. The school my kids go to is already well equipped with CAD systems, 3d printers and cnc machines.
And if the bot goes all skynet, the house robots can just end it :)
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
I had no idea those robots cost so much. Hope they add some decent prize money some day :)
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DanceswithUnix
Something withing the budget of a secondary school class/club could be pretty cool. The school my kids go to is already well equipped with CAD systems, 3d printers and cnc machines.
And if the bot goes all skynet, the house robots can just end it :)
Eurobot with axes! Carbide against a flock of skynetted ABS eurobots would be hilarious to watch, almost as good as when bonk got onto behemoth's flipper
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Well I watched it and enjoyed it immensely. That thing that happened in the first fight was a shame as I would have liked to have seen more of that robot (trying to avoid spoilers). Dara was good as well, injected a bearable amount of comedy in to the proceedings.
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Loved it. Watched just now. The final should be good :)
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Was a little disappointed with some of the battles last week but I keep having to remind myself that there were always less spectacular battles in the old series as well. Rose tinted specs and watching Hypnodisc or Razer highlights on youtube prior to this series skews my memory a little.
Apparently there's a petrol powered robot made of wood on tomorrow's show so if that's allowed I guess the organisers can't have been that worried about a few lithium batteries going bang. :D
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lanky123
Was a little disappointed with some of the battles last week but I keep having to remind myself that there were always less spectacular battles in the old series as well. Rose tinted specs and watching Hypnodisc or Razer highlights on youtube prior to this series skews my memory a little.
Apparently there's a petrol powered robot made of wood on tomorrow's show so if that's allowed I guess the organisers can't have been that worried about a few lithium batteries going bang. :D
The last 2 weeks have been a bit less exciting then the first, which is a shame. We've been watching the US version (Battlebots) and the quality of the robots (and destruction) is generally higher. Quite a few UK teams out there as well.
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DanceswithUnix
... Would be fun to have a lightweight class, or fun to build at least. Something like 10kg so you would have to be 3d printed out of cheap plastic with some metal used sparingly.
Back in the day they used to - list of all weight classes here: http://robotwars.wikia.com/wiki/Weight_Classes
The current series is heavyweight only (with increased limits for walkers), but I remember watching some antweight battles years ago - hillarious things :D
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Thing is <pedantic mode> they aren't really robots as they have no autonomous ability. They are radio controlled 'models' so the skill in controlling them (and I don't undersestimare it) is with the controlling team. </pedant mode >
But the engineering that goes into some of the designs is very impressive.
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
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Originally Posted by
peterb
Thing is <pedantic mode> snip </pedant mode >
But the engineering that goes into some of the designs is very impressive.
Ok, I know I should really let this slide but given your made-up html tags are for pedantry at least open and close them with the same word. :D :tomato:
Personally, I found it interesting that many different qualities came into play in this weeks episode - including, as you say, a lot of driving skill. In the past it has often seemed as though some weapons massively trump others so a battle is a foregone (although sometimes spectacular) conclusion. Speed/traction/handling seemed to be important factors in several battles this week. The gyroscopic effect of a massive flywheel looked to have an affect on handling for at least one robot - it got me wondering whether you could have two contra-rotating flywheels but I don't know whether the necessary mechanism would be too complicated/delicate/heavy/expensive.
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Quote:
Originally Posted by
peterb
Thing is <pedantic mode> they aren't really robots as they have no autonomous ability. They are radio controlled 'models' so the skill in controlling them (and I don't undersestimare it) is with the controlling team. </pedant mode >
But the engineering that goes into some of the designs is very impressive.
They also aren't made from synthetic organic matter, or even made by RUR! :P
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Ah Robot Wars, the most misleading title ever, it conjures up images of Robocop, ED 209, The Terminator and maybe even Amee from Red Planet all putting some serious hurt on each other.
But a more honest title would be "Dust bin lids with pram wheels glued to them driving into each other"
HBO s Westworld might be interesting . .
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lanky123
Ok, I know I should really let this slide but given your made-up html tags are for pedantry at least open and close them with the same word. :D :tomato:
Ah, that's why they didn't work properly :p
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lanky123
Personally, I found it interesting that many different qualities came into play in this weeks episode - including, as you say, a lot of driving skill. In the past it has often seemed as though some weapons massively trump others so a battle is a foregone (although sometimes spectacular) conclusion. Speed/traction/handling seemed to be important factors in several battles this week. The gyroscopic effect of a massive flywheel looked to have an affect on handling for at least one robot - it got me wondering whether you could have two contra-rotating flywheels but I don't know whether the necessary mechanism would be too complicated/delicate/heavy/expensive.
The other thing I noticed was the action/reaction effects, the transfer of energy from one machine to the other was OK, but some teams seem not to have considered conservation of momentum - some machines delivering a blow, but then spinning off away from the intended victim in an apparently uncontrolled way.
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
I would have liked to have seen more from the crabbing robot this week. I did wonder last week if having a robot that moved like that would be beneficial; combined with a Raspberry Pi or something, I am sure it wouldn't be too difficult to turn it into a Twin Sticker! But I think it would come at the cost of traction, which I still think is crucial. Storm 2 looked good in this department, but needs some sort of pincers or device to actually hold an opponent. And live telemetry, really? Cannot see the point of that for a 3 minute round; if your motors are overheating, are you just going to move less? Gas pressure may be the only useful thing, but I am sure most teams know roughly how flips they can do.
However, I am impressed with the flippers. I thought they would be rather pointless as most robots have SRiMech's and they don't really do any damage, but they have been pretty effective throwing others out or just disabling them by dislodging the safety connection.
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
I've enjoyed Robot Wars every week so far, but I felt that the most recent one had the weakest robots in. The final seemed a bit ridiculous, and I'm glad the robot with more potential won, since the other one seemed to lack alot of control. Final one next week anyway, so I'm looking forwards to that. Not sure how it will work though, as we only have 5 finalists, so will they have a free for all between some of the runners up of the other rounds?
Re: Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July
They said that there will be a wild card from one of the second place robots to make it up to 6 (probably Storm 2). I agree that it did seem a bit weak this week.