I need robot building advice

Factual Questions
1

After spending three hours watching the “BattleBots” marathon on Comedy Central I decided to finally put my engineering training and machinist friends to work and design my own deadly robotic battle beast!

Problem is, I’ve never incorperated a remote speed control before. Most of the fighting robot creators recommend Vantec speed controllers ( http://www.vantec.com/index.html ). Anybody have any experience with them? I’ll be starting in the lightweight/featherweight category so I’m leaning twards the RDFR23. Will this work with my standard 27.8 FM remote control handpiece?

Also, any advice on electric motors I could use? I was thinking of using two electric screwdriver motors in a differential steering setup powerd with a lead acetate gel cell (motorcycle battery probably) and capaciter assembly.

2

I can’t answer you directly, but after watching the show a few weeks ago, I found this battlebots message board. It seems fairly active and informative.

After watching the show, I felt the same way you do.
Seems like a helluva lot of fun! Hope this helps.

3

Thanks Klaatu! That page has everything I wanted to ask (and many I hadn’t thought of yet).

4

[slight hijack]

Do they have any rules at all as to how the bots are created (beyond size & weight parameters that is)? I mean, an extremely effective bot would be one that employed flame-throwing technology or even bullets! But it seems as if no one has tried this yet, sicking with brute-force mechanical gizmos such as blade saws, jackhammers or spikes. But pump some hot lead into your opponent and I’d say victory is secure!

[/slight hijack]

5

Here: http://www.battlebots.com/rules.html

Sadly, it appears that non-tethered projectiles and water gun type weapons are illegal. Rats.

6

I remember reading somewhere that only kinetic weapons were allowed, that had to be attached to the 'bot.

Me, I first thought of a hi amped stunner or cattle prod… followed up by the flamethrower idea…
and of course, a cannon to shoot angry bee’s…

7

cursed simul-post… hehehehe

8

If you want another suggestion, try to design an automatic weapon. A lot of the battleaxe type stuff seems to have major timing issues. Seems like they’re alway taking wild swings, and the weapon is retracting when the enemy is in position for a blow.

If you could put sensors on the edges of the 'bot that would make it automatically hack in the right direction when they touched another 'bot, you’d have better chances of the hammer coming down when theres actually an opponent there to hit.

If you could get it to work right, you wouldn’t have to use the remote to hit the bad guy. You could spend more of your concentration on maneuvering, which should make you better at staying out of the other guy’s sights.

I guess the same reasoning could apply to the flip-over type of 'bot as well.

9

Here is the address of the UK Robot Wars’ website. They have a very active message board.