Battle Bots
Me and a team of 4 other engineers came together to build this robot, “Overcommited”, for UT’s annual Robo-Rumble. This battle bots style competition featured a dozen other 3 pound robots, of which ours came out in second place.
What
We built a Beater Bar, a style of robot that’s named for its weapon. The weapon is made from a block of aluminum with two countersunk steel bolts sticking out of either side. The bar spins upward at a very high rate, so when it comes into contact with other robots it sends them flying.
We machined the chassis out of delrin, a thermoplastic that’s incredibly stiff and light weight. We reinforced the sides with steel sheet metal plates to protect the delrin from other bots’ weapons.
Machining the Weapon
Top/Bottom Plate Top Op
How
Performed topology optimization on the walls of the chassis to ensure the robot would be structurally stable all around while minimizing weight.
We designed and machined aluminum brackets to minimize weight and save space inside the robot.
Machined and threaded the beater bar on the manual mill and CNC.
Performed rigorous impact and vibration tests leading up to the competition.
The robot performed incredibly well and won second place in the competition.
In the final round, the timing pulley driving our weapon took a hit and the wall of the pulley severed as a result. There happened to be only a millimeter of material connecting the wall to the rest of the pulley.
To prevent this from happening in the next competition, we drilled holes into the side of the pulley and bolted a washer in place of the original wall.
Severed Wall
Results
Post-Comp
Weapon Post-Comp
“Overcommitted“
