This robot has many of the same design features as my BattleBots champion BioHazard. It is the same width as BioHazard (36 inches), and at 48 inches long, it's about three inches longer. But unlike BioHazard, this robot was designed to have a hammer or an axe as a weapon rather than a lifting arm.
Heavy use was made of exotic metals like titanium, magnesium and tool steel. There is no welding on this robot - everything is held together with over 820 screws. Click on any of the images for larger pictures. Here are some of the components that went into this robot:
The idea is to use two counter-rotating hammers to help counteract the large torque generated when accelerating a single hammer. This would also double the impact-frequency and put on a crowd-pleasing display of rapid hammer blows. The intention was to use a couple of large springs to reverse the direction of the hammers at the end of the travel. This would enable the hammers to stay in continuous motion and possibly build up greater and greater speed until the killing blows are landed. This could also be used in a simpler one-hammer weapon by bolting both couplings to the single hammer. The drive mechanism for the hammers and the hammers themselves were never completed, (or even designed), and are not included with the robot. My plan was to use a crankshaft and rod device coupled to some heavy-duty chains to drive to hammers. The drive motor would turn continuously in one direction while the crank would turn the rotary motion into oscillating motion that would drive the hammers back and forth at a speed of several cycles per second.
The robot as pictured above weighs in at 160 pounds. A single-hammer design would work well in a 220-pound weight class while a heavier dual hammer design may require a step up to the Super-Heavy weight class. Several of my sponsors pitched in to fabricate all the components for this robot. There is probably around $5000 worth of raw materials plus another $15,000 in professional machine-shop work plus another month or more of CAD design work involved in this robot. (Blueprints are available for all components). Development was halted when the BattleBots show went off the air and the parts have been sitting in my shop since 2003. I decided that I would rather see this robot in a competition rather than as just a pile of parts. So I spent a couple weeks doing the final assembly and all the little details and tweaks that are always required on this type of project. If you get involved with a televised robot competition the robot will need to sport the sponsor's stickers to be fair to them. On the other hand, it could lead to more sponsorship funds from these same sponsors. I will sell it for a fair price that is far below the cost of making the robot. I can take a credit card for payment. Please contact me with any questions.
Carlo Bertocchini
Home |
Motors | Gearmotors |
Motor Controllers |
Batteries
|