Robotics

Combat Robotics

With a team of fellow Tufts Robotics Club members, I designed several iterations of a 3lb Beetleweight combat robot. The first bot we built was for our club's annual, intermural tournament. To start out, we began with an acrylic-framed robot with a 3d printed, PLA vertical spinner. This was our first prototype, which quickly shattered against other bots, this tends to happen when you build your frame out of 3mm acrylic. Though a dismal day for our bot, we deemed it a good concept of design as the bot's drive and weapon systems worked quite well.

We then tried creating a bot with a "beater bar" weapon. We waterjet the weapon and used a drill press to create mounting holes, even tapping the holes to be threaded. We designed and 3d printed (out of PLA) a simple box shape to house our inside electronics. This was our first real competition bot, which we brought to the NHRL combat robotics competition in April 2022. We were expecting for it to be a good learning experience. Though the bot didn't win many matches against the more experienced teams, we found lots of room for improvement.

For the next iteration of our robot, we decided to do a full redesign. I had the idea to design a bot that would allow us to drive while inverted. We achieved this by designing a symmetrically-angled, triangular aluminum cage. I also decided to upgrade the electronics to a more powerful motor with a greater energy output. In addition, we decided to use a vertical spinner, so we designed a pocketed, axe shaped disc as our weapon. We waterjet the weapon out of AR500 steel, which held quite nicely and delivered a decent punch to other bots. This time around, we designed a narrower chassis that would limit hits to the side of our bot. We 3d printed the new chassis out of ABS, which we found to be significantly sturdier then PLA. We called the bot, UH... Foot. This bot did well at competition in January 2023, winning us our first professional match!

For the next competition, a few months later in March, we went through a slight redesign, swapping our vertical spinner for a double-disc configuration. This meant using two smaller discs together in place of one large. Our goal was to have a greater concentrated mass and, as a result, energy. To achieve this goal, I designed our weapon discs asymmetrically and also swapped our weapon motor to a larger one. We decided to do away with our thin aluminum weapon cages as they presented a weak point on our bot. We swapped them out for some UHMW side guards, which would still allow us to drive while inverted. A large issue for us in the past has been drive control. To accommodate, we swapped our old, thin wheels for new, dense ones. Another new aspect we attempted was building the frame out of several 3d printed pieces, as opposed to our typical solid one-piece frame. We printed out parts for each border of the frame and connected them via the top and bottom lids. All in all, we were very excited to test our new concepts. Though, on the day of the competition, we faced numerous, unexpected electrical issues. Electrical components began failing, so I attempted to replace them with spares that we had brought. After several minutes of intensely rapid soldering, I managed to repair all of the faulty components. However, our RC receiver and transmitter somehow came disconnected in the process. Due to these errors, by the time we had rebound the receiver and transmitter, we were forced to forfeit our second match. Though, even after our elimination from the tournament, I worked tirelessly to get the bot working again. I wanted to know why certain components were failing and how I might be able to fix them. Through tedious examination, I determined each fault, eventually mending the bot back to perfect operation.

Beater Bar

First Competition Bot

Large Vertical Disc Spinner

Second Competition Bot

Double Disc Spinner

Third Competition Bot

RoboBed

What happens when you give a group of engineers a bed frame? Well, they turn it into a robot. A team of fellow Tufts Robotics Club students and I obtained a pink, lofted bedframe, and we had the idea to create a remote-control bunk bed. A few years ago, older members of our club created a driveable couch, and so we felt the need to continue this tradition of drivable furniture. This is the most grand scale project I have been a part of, and it has been so wonderful to apply my knowledge of CAD and electronics to such. The big challenges in achieving this project are to create a sturdy chassis for the bedframe to rest on (so that it won't topple over), and to ensure that we have a drive system capable of managing the weight of the bedframe and two people. My initial task was to design the chassis, using 1.5" - 80/20 channels, and custom hardware to mount the bedframe. To create a powerful drive, we designed a hefty 3-motor gearbox that will take 3 motors and transfer their rotational energy to a central axel. We will have one gearbox on either side of the RoboBed, attached to large rubber wheels. To account for the tipping of the bed, we are placing caster wheels under the chassis. This will also allow us to have more consistent drive patterns and movement. The castor wheels are acting almost as if they were training wheels on a bike.

This is an ongoing project that we hope to finish in the Spring of 2023. We have begun assembly, but still require a decent load of fabrication and programming before we have our remote control, robotic bunkbed. As we delve further into this project, I will be fabricating our custom hardware via the use of water jetting, milling, etc., and I will be managing our electronic connections come time of full assembly.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse