Dale's Homemade Robots

Overthruster 30# Combat Robot

May 10 2008 - Progress so far

 

This page is under construction. 

What the heck is an Overthruster you ask? It's a name I stole from the movie "Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension". In the movie the "Oscillation Overthruster" enabled travel to the 8th dimension. If my evil plan succeeds, opponents encountering this new bot will be launched into said 8th dimension or at least involuntarily moved a significant distance in one, two or three dimensions.

 

Prototype Overthruster bot

Flip-O-Matic weapon mounted in temporary wood chassis for testing. Flipper and wedges only implimented on one end during tests. 

The bot is designed to compete in the 30 pound class at DragonCon Robot Battles.  It will be 4 wheel drive and invertable.  There will be flippers on both ends but only the front flipper is active.  The symmetry is such that when inverted the rear becomes the front and what was the inactive rear flipper is now the active front flipper.  The 6 inch Colson wheels will be driven by#25 roller chain and sprockets powered by a Dewalt drill motor coupled to a custom gearbox.  I'm designing for 8 feet per second top speed.

Flip-O-Matic gearbox 

This bot carries my new Flip-O-Matic weapon described here.  In a nut shell,  the flipper automatically fires when pressed against the opponent.  There's no need to press a button on the remote at just the right time.

I built a completely new gear box with a 4 inch high profile and provisions for two output dog clutches so I can have independent flippers on the front and rear.

The overall ratio is 12.5:1 .  The 0.5 inch output shaft turns at 2400 rpm.  The flywheel on the right stores 400 Joules at 9000 rpm.  It's powered by a 550 size 30,000 rpm R/C truck motor.  

Click here to view a Quicktime move of the first test of the flipper. (Note: The flipped object only weighs about 12#)

 

More to come...

 

 

 

 

 

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