Battlebot boe-bot

Fr0g

hey in my electronics class we are gonna make battlebots with boe-bots and try and push the other bot out of a ring. We are gonna use wireless ps2 controllers to control our bots. Basically i want to make mine flip the other bots over lol. Any ideas on adding a flipping mechanism to a boe-bot thats capable of easily flipping another boe-bot. I want to have it so when i press one button my flipping mechanism loads and when i press a different button the flipping mechanism fires, I just don't really know what kind of motor or whatever i would use and how I should go about constructing the thing. If you have any ideas for building such a flipper make a quick little design in mspaint or send me some links to designs or parts I could use to make my flipper. thanks in advance for any help

allanlane5

To make something move quickly, rubber bands help a lot. Then you need a servo with a 'cam' to move the plate attached to the rubber band and stretch the band. Then, when the cam 'slips' off the bottom of the plate, the rubber band can 'snap' the plate into motion.

Note that 'flipping' mechanisms can be as simple as a 'ramp' you drive under the opposing robot (or the opposing robot drives itself up).

makopolo

These are my thoughts on the subject, sounds like afun project;

You should keep in mind that the way the boe-bot is configure you must be really careful about not flipping yourself over. You might have to do it by driving your robot backwards. Just keep in mid the relative position of the center of rotation and center of gravity of your design.

I would recomend that you also protect the board from damage.

The system can be made as simple as some kind of spring loaded mechanism (might be somewhat suicidal if it does not work the first time).

Inaccordance to the whole center of rotation thing, you might want to try fliing the oponent sideways instead of backwards.

Fr0g

Well I was thinking of adding a tread system for stability because I might already have a tread that will work from some old toys. I was also leaning toward the idea of a spring because I thought of using a spring from a cheap airsoft gun.

Basically my inspiration for this project is my favorite battlebot from the TV show I used to watch it all the time. The bot is called toro and its got a massive arm that flips the other robots way in the air 8)

Is there a way I can use the servo with a 'cam' to load the spring possibly using some gears or something? I don't understand exactly what a cam is do you have some links?

For the spring I can test it out away from my stamp easily and make it nice and sturdy so I'm not worried about malfunctions. If I use an airsoft spring I could probably mount a it in a cheap airsoft piston too, and with a cheap spring I could afford to use plastic and save a lot of weight. I'm not sure but I don't think the motors that come on the boe-bot are meant for moving around more than a pound or two.

makopolo

There are small toy guns that fire the .22 cal platic balls that run fully automatic. You could probably find one an tear it appart. This would give you a complete system without the worries of finding the correct gear, rations and motor.

check this one out
http://www.netlinkenterprises.com/prodimages/17952.jpg

Fr0g

Cool one of my friends that lives down the street has one, the feeding on it is messed up but the motor still works so I will probably be able to get him to give it to me. I'm on break right now and my friend is out of town but I don't think I'll have any problems using one of those. I'll be sure to post pictures up when im done [noparse]:D[/noparse]