Robot for Sale

BattleKits
Robot for Sale

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.

I call it the "AxTerminator".

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:

Both ends of the robot have this arrangement of five magnesium bulkheads. The spaces between the bulkheads are sized to fit Hawker 14Ah lead-acid batteries. NiMh batteries could be used to save weight. Also visible in this view are the square extruded aluminum frame modules which contain the left and right drivetrains and speed reducers. All the sprockets in the drive train have square bores and they ride on square shafts to eliminate any problems with keys. This robot has a total of 24 ball bearings in the left and right drive trains.

The front and rear magnesium bulkheads have a rounded profile on the bottom of the robot.

The magnesium base plate and six-wheel-drive are visible in this view. The base of the robot weighs in at about 65 pounds. This includes the magnesium base plate and bulkheads, and the frame modules with the drive train and wheels, (but no motors).

These custom-made wheels have a special high-traction, yet tough, rubber-like compound, (carboxilated nitrile with a durometer of 45), molded on to CNC-machined hubs.
After molding they were ground to perfect circularity and concentricity. Each wheel has
two ball bearings and a 21-tooth sprocket.

Here are the BioHazard-style titanium fender skirts.

Another view of the fender skirts showing the military-grade hinges ($86 per foot at McMaster Carr), and the magnesium stops that prevent the fenders from being pushed under the robot.

One screw every 1/2 inch on both halves of the hinge

These are the frame rails to which the upper body panels are fastened.
The four closest are made from titanium and they are about 27 inches long.

Here is a view of the upper body panels mounted on the frame rails.
Three of the body panels are made of aluminum and the forward panel,
(presumably the one facing your opponent), is made from titanium.

This is a close-up of one of the the CNC-machined magnesium bearing hangers
with a custom-made bronze bearing at the apex of the pyramid.

These are heavy-duty industrial flexible couplings. (Click on the picture for a larger view). They will isolate the robot from the impact of the hammer hitting the opposing robot. The two couplings are solidly mounted on two coaxial steel shafts that enable them to rotate independently of each other. Both shafts were machined from four-inch diameter solid billets of S-7 tool steel and then hardened to about 55 Rc. The pivot point is about 21 inches from the floor.

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
Powerhouse Engineering Inc.
650-593-6906