Robot Battling

[cheesewiz19]

I'm in high school and honestly have never built a robot before.  Our shop teacher thought it'd be a good idea to have a "battlebot" style competion,  we have a budget of 500 dollars and limited ideas.  Any help or ideas would be good.  Also, my question is if you were to spray a ... Napalm like substance on a robot and light it, would it destroy the electronics?

thanks

[JesseWelling]

  your shop teacher would let you do that?

Any ways....What you need to start off with is a radio that has as many chanels as you can get (at least 3)

there are two Plausible ways to do this (well) Ackerman steering (car like steering) where you have steering, throttle and weapon (spinning or hamer/spike kind of thing), which is 3 channels.

or you can do a tank like steering where one channel is forward back on the right side and the other channel is forward back on the left side. And again one channel is a weapon.

I'd go for the tank style it's more manuverable and less prone to breakages in the drive train due to impacts.

One weapon that I'd like to try would be a stun gun. but that's pretty dangerous...I'd stick to a saw or club action. You could probably get a decent saw by going and picking up an old one at a pawn shop...those are built pretty solid like (normaly all steel construction so they wouldn't get taken out...but heavy).

Check out this web site for some good parts:
http://www.robotmarketplace.com/store.html

[Militoy]

If Napalm is allowed, why not just go for Dynamite? (just kidding - sheesh!). Typically, Battlebots are allowed to cut, hammer, flip, etc., but not to shoot out projectiles or release chemicals, etc. For a beginner 'bot, I would think along the lines of a low-profile flipper/dozer, or a vertical high speed saw. I've always thought a 'bot with a high-power EMP weapon might do well in competition, but if I fielded one, the FCC and my employer might both get a little irate.

[Admin]

ALL battlebot competitions explicitly ban:

acids/bases
EMP
explosives
projectiles
flame throwers

and like 75% of the rules are for safety . . .

it might be worth reading it online:
http://www.battlebots.com/bnc_rules.asp

what weight class will these battle bots be in? $500 is enough to pay for a small light weight robot . . . assuming you already have the shop tools to make it . . .

a great way to start designing is to see how other people have done mini battlebots:
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I33QfBfzhEU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb5LbTd59E8

and more:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=battlebots&search=Search

[gamefreak]

YOU CRUEL CRUEL PERSON!!!!!!!

Forcing poor innocent robots to fight each other for your amusement.

Can i join? im the only person in my ENTIRE school who knows the slightest bit about robots. can bring a tear to my eye


You should try ant weight robot competitions(robots have to weigh under 1 pound), should be fun to watch.