My AntWeight test arena
The robot arena was created for safe testing of antweight robots and weapon designs, the base and frame are made from
1inch thick wood with a 3/4 inch chip board base. The protective walls and lid are made from 6mm thick clear acrylic
My Robots
These were early design builds, testing drives, weapons and controls
This design had a rectagular steel chassis, which housed a custom gearbox with a 20:1 ratio from the 12v motors which are coupled via worm gears.
the design also uses a lifter weapon, powered via a 250psi compressor which is plumbed to a single cylinder ram made by modifying a car footpump.
initial controls were very basic using servo's connected with arms to switches, these were
quickly replaced with custom logic circuits to improve reliability and robustness.
These were further improved by moving to programmable components (pic axe, and arduino) to
enable instant modifications to functional behavior, to make building, fault finding simple,
also making the controller both smaller lighter.
This later design was developed to try to improve manoverability and simplify the drive. The wheels are driven directly from 2x 12v power drill motors
and a 3rd castor wheel for stability. The robot had enough power to self right, run both ways up and flip allowing for the castor wheel to be made into an axe weapon.
The design also allows for simple defensive weaponry to be added
Check out the Fighting Robots Association at
www.fightingrobots.co.uk
for advice and details before you start your build.
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