Hasty Upgrades and MASSdestruction @ the Artisans Asylum 12/05/2015

Since Franklin, I've only been searching for more ways to use/abuse the MarkForged composite 3D printer. DDT has shown great promise of the device in combat, allowing high design flexibility and better material properties than anything I could have machined (not an advertisement I swear!). Next, I plan on applying this technology to my other robots, starting with Silent Spring; I anticipate printing a new frame/design for the Dec 5th MASSdestruction event.

I also apologize in advance because I have recently seen the new Star Wars twice recently in addition to all 6 movies prior so this post might feel more Force'd than usual.

A New Design

Converting the v1 Silent Spring to v2 should not have been very difficult since DDT v3 was so successful; there were little to no weaknesses that needed to be addressed. As a result, I followed the same methodology in designing DDT. I'll elaborate more on my design methods in a later post (I have most of it written up I promise!).

As a result, the v2 Silent Spring looks unsurprisingly similar to DDT. I at one point made an argument against myself to remove the pockets but in actuality they have an added benefit to the MF machine. The pockets direct fiber paths in slicing which in effect creates higher density of fiber in places deemed more valuable.

One place the designs may have differed is at the wheel output shafts. On DDT, the wheels are directly drive off the outputs of the spark gearmotors but a similar scheme may not be as effective here because the drive motor options for Beetleweights have shafts which are too small. For example, the B-series motors and Kitbots '1000 RPM' motors  have shafts 4mm in diameter which is disproportionate to the 3mm shafts used in Antweights, like DDT. Therefore I had whipped up a solution where the gearmotor shaft would couple to a larger diameter shaft which was further supported by additional bearing sets.

I ended up ditching the idea when I learned that Mark at ROVParts was selling B-series gearmotors with hardened S7 output shafts. Simplicity woooo! The new design intends on using wheel guards anyway so I HOPE this will be a moot point as such on DDT.

Although the robot was designed as a unibody, the printer volume actually could not handle the Beetle-sized DDT frame and as a result, the frame corners had to be chopped into four additional parts which would be combined into the unibody later using screws and adhesives.

The internals, like DDT, would require some minor electrical work. I purchased a new motor (NTM 35-36) and new ESC (Turnigy Plush 40A) for this project. To make everything fit, I would need to move the capacitors off the board and into a floating unit as pictured above. If you do this, be sure to keep the wires short and thick as they are bus capacitors. Im not entirely happy with this arrangement mostly due in part to the capacitors off the BotBitz ESCs. It is possible I shouldnt need those since i have bus capacitors from the weapon ESC. Instead, I could combine the capacitors and use electrolytics of equivalent capacitance.

The Printer Strikes Back

Just like the new DDT frame, this frame proved to be rather ambitious for the printer. This is by no means saying the printer is incapable, but rather the design needs to be modified to print more reliably. The access hole for the electronics is a removable panel on the back. This opens up to a cavity in the frame which is created by printing the roof over a bed of support material. However I discovered that the printer could not reliably make these features as so the rate of failure was fairly high. As a result, I managed to print the extra items such as the corners, back plate, and wheel guards but not the main frame itself. I will need to develop a interim solution for the Dec 5th event.

Return of the Old Design

With only ~2 days left, I began a mad rush to retrofit the v1 frame for the competition. As it stood, Silent Spring could compete with the damage it took at Franklin. However, some upgrades were planned regardless and I wanted another chance to try the MarkForged printed material. At minimum, the electrical system was better organized with shorter wire lengths. I also replaced the Turnigy AE 30S ESC with a Spider ZTW 40A ESC. Hopefully this will alleviate spinup and overtemp issues experienced in combat. The Spider ESC was also preloaded with SimonK firmware which has been making quite the buzz lately for its excelling sensorless startup performance; between the higher current and SimonK, I had high expectations for this new ESC.

The v1 frame files were modified lightly to better use additive manufacturing. The back plate was extended, thickened, and pocketed to provide coverage over the motor pulleys and provide additional space to hide the BotBitz ESCs.

In the A-frame section, the trusses were thickened and the motor mount holes were made slightly taller. These changed allowed for more carbon but also reduced the overall part count (the aluminum "C" spacer could be removed). Another fun change was switching the round hole to a hex hole in the interface wings. Normally, this section required a large hole for a socket to reach the locknut. Now, the hole could be changed into a hex designed to fit the 3/8" hex such that no additional tooling was needed to tighten the outboard shoulder screws.

Both of these printed parts finished at 1pm Friday, just hours before the event Saturday morning. Both parts came in lighter by ~50% compared to their SolidWorks projections for "solid" material yet were about as a stiff and a 7075 aluminum frame.

I took the opportunity to make a few other changes as well. I fell in love with the Fingertech Robotics snap hubs so I decided to make my own. I further integrated them into the drive pulleys as shown above. This provided a minimal solution to indirect drive with easily swappable wheels.

A few hours later, the electronics were transplanted into the new frame to yield the final result.

Currently the downside to printing with these composites is the inability to effectively weight budget. When I print these parts, I don't yet have a way to estimate the total mass of the parts and therefore I often overestimate to guarantee all parts comply with the weight class. This means I often have leftover weight which goes unused.

To attempt to top off the scales before the event, I printed some press-on shaft covers to prevent vertical spinners from dinging the ends and bending the shaft. They worked about as well as you might imagine for a last minute addition (hint: total crap).

MASSdestruction @ AA, Dec 5th, 2015

Thanks to Will Bales and the food I bribed him with, I was able to get a ride to the Artisan's Asylum in the wee hours of the morning. We unloaded and shared a pit table tucked behind someone's chair making bench. This time the attendees were looking pretty serious. Among them were Kyle Singer (of the Ripto robot series) who brought Dick Dastardly and Brandon Nichols who bring his multi-time champion Mondo Bizarro. Best Korea was now sporting an enormous 10" undercutting bar which out ranges pretty much every Beetle in the world. I also think the number of WPI kids in attendance doubled since last time. Absent from the fray this time was Jim Fox and his kids who usually bring Puppy, a durable and powerful wedge robot that beat DDT twice last MASS-D.

Both robots did well; DDT went undefeated and took 1st in the Antweights while Silent Spring suffered only one loss in the finals and took 2nd.

Silent Spring (5-1, 2nd place)

I felt pretty good about the new frame and new components in the v1-style frame; based on its previous competitions, I expected about the same in performance and it did not disappoint. However, the flaws noted previously in the v1 style frame also manifested themselves which ultimately lead to its demise. This event demonstrated the importance of the v2 modifications in any future iterations of Silent Spring.

• Win v Dick Dastardly
• Win v Best korea
• Win v Herpaderp
• Win v Dembitz
• Win v Ginger Baker
• Loss v Mondo Bizarro

Silent Spring got off easy in many matches. In the first match against Dick Dastardly, Kyle's radio suddenly went bonkers after the first hit and he lost control of the robot; Thus losing by disqualification. Best Korea definitely boasted the superior range and even sliced a third off one of SS's tires but his reign of terror ended early when his belt came off. Herpaderp came out strong and aggressively attacked SS. Although Will was careful to not repeat his mistake from the Oct 10th event, he accidentally flipped himself by turning too sharply and was stuck in the corner. By this time, SS was limping. Both drive shafts were bent and their wheels were missing chunks. It managed to hobble around enough to beat Dembitz and Ginger Baker but was no match for the battle-ready Mondo who was likely seeking revenge for the KO at Franklin. By the end of it all, SS had some nice dings, 2 bent shafts, broken hubs, 0 wheels, and a belt blade.

But seriously guys, it still works. I said RETIRE it not disable it. :/

 

DDT (5-0, 1st place)

This time around I had the privilege of testing out DDT's frame against more spinners. Usually because of the design, DDT seldom gets hit on the frame but this time he met a horizontal spinner with a longer reach. Despite the questionable trades, DDT managed to pull out the win in each match and the win overall.

• Win v Sisu
• Win v Spare Parts
• Win v Petit Gateau
• Win v Revy
• Win v Spare Parts

DDT's arch enemy this time around was definitely Spare Parts. In the first match I got a lucky swipe and took out a drive wheel. After that I carelessly charged into his weapon head on to "test the durability" of my front armor. This ended up being my undoing as his longer reach eventually broke through the belt guard and snapped the belt. At that point I thought I had lost but to my surprise the judges deemed his immobility more valuable than my lack of weapon. In the finals I decided to be more cautious by avoiding front hits. I knew my side armor could sustain blows and used those to take the blunt and then turn in to slice his unguarded wheels. Soon after DDT had won by KO.

 

Concluding Thoughts

Even without the v2 upgrades, the CF/Nylon printed v1 frame proved more than sufficient to withstand the big hits from some of the best Beetleweights in the North East. In addition, Silent Spring's performance showed how effective the SimonK firmware ESCs can be in weapon spinup; You'd better believe I'll be trying my hardest to get the Spider ZTW ESC into the v2 design as it may be my new favorite ESC over the Turnigy Plush.

The next MASSdestruction is coming soon on Jan 23. This time it will be hosted by WPI and its unknown as to whether I'll bring new robots or any robots at all. Stay tuned for more. Bot on!

NERC Franklin Institute 2015

Saturday, October 24th, we left in the dead of midnight to make the ~5 hour drive to Philadelphia for the NERC Franklin Institute robotic combat event. Although the competition supports up to 30 pound robots, I brought only DDT and Silent Spring because robots larger than 3 pounds were prohibited from using LiPoly battery chemistry. Even still, some of the best insect-class robots in the northeast were scheduled to attend and I predicted this would be the real test before Motorama in the mid-winter 2016.

Since MASSdestruction two weeks ago, the robots received minor upgrades. DDT at minimum received a replacement motor can and pulley since the last one was actually bent from years of abuse. DDT was also set to receive a new frame printed with carbon fiber instead of kevlar as the tension member because it was noted that the weapon shaft bore began to open up from all the spinner-spinner hits.

Unfortunately, the prints failed due to some trickiness in the CF thread and I whipped up a quick solution using two belleville washers on either side of the frame to distribute loads more effectively. Silent Spring felt the success of the upgraded drivetrain but suffered some difficulties in the tournament due to the scarcity of the choice motors. Now Silent Spring will run a OEM option, the Pololu 9.7:1 HP gearmotors. The leftover weight was spent to upgrade the disk. Thin sections that bent at MASS-D were beefed up which brought the disk weight up by 4 oz to about 16 oz.

For an added bit of fun, I decided to use some voodoo magic from the robot gods in this new disk. We were clearing out the crate where Overhaul lives and I decided to pull out the AR400 plates we salvaged at BattleBots off Witch Doctor. While one plate was pretty well bent by Nightmare, the other was relatively flat which made it a fine candidate for a blade. I never did get that green color palette from Mike so I ran it in AR plate's natural color: rust.

At 7:45 am we arrived in the museum and grabbed whatever tables were left. The arena was HUGE and pretty awesome in construction. Double doors for entry and exit, a nice kick plate, and great visibility all around. It left me wishing I brought the 12 and 30.

This time around, DDT drew only direct-drive brushless drums. The release of the new Kitbots "Saifu" kit was probably a large factor in that. This turns out to be advantageous to DDT because the drum standoffs pose a big weakness generally to undercutter weapons. As long as DDT can stay clear of direct hits from the drum, the match should go in his favor over several small hits as the standoffs wear away. As a result, DDT went 4-0 for 1st place in the Antweight division

W vs Saifu


W vs Poco Tambor


W vs Revy


W vs Revy (finals)

I was feeling pretty good about Silent Spring's destructive capability after MASSdestruction but utilization of that power ended up being its undoing. The unevenness of the floor and massive gyroscopic forces at high speeds meant that stability was low and its first two opponents took full advantage of that. Luckily, enough, Silent Spring was able to survive those outcomes and climb its way through the bracket. Silent Spring clawed its way through the loser's bracket to find 2nd place in a 5-2 record, losing in the finals to Speed Wedge 3, an extremely robust opponent.

W vs Mondo Bizzaro


L vs Project Darkness


W vs Best Korea


W vs Grande Tambor


W vs Trilobite
W vs Project Darkness
L vs Speed Wedge 3 (finals)

Silent Spring definitely managed to bring the pain just as he had at MASSdestruction. Below are some pictures of opponents after matches.

 

 

However, the robots didnt escape unscathed either. DDT lost a rear corner screw when Saifu clipped the edge during a gyro dance but otherwise remained unchanged.

Silent Spring suffered a fair amount of injuries from the first two matches and managed to keep it together for the rest of the tournament. In its first match vs Mondo Bizzaro, SS took a blow to the wheel axle which bent the shaft (and made the disk angle weird) but also seems to have seized up a motor. This caused one of the Vextrollers to fail and I ultimately had to use a postponement to replace the drive electronics. But it was the bent axle that proved to be the biggest issue going into the second match vs Project Darkness. Because it was slightly bent, the disk was no longer planar and so I could not spin up without tilting. Ian is an expert driver (in fact he won best driver award!) and took full advantage of this; he drove around SS while it was uncontrollable and delivered some nice hits deep in the UHMW back and got some nice shots on the drive pulleys which ironically bent the OTHER side's drive shaft. One of these hits actually snapped the wheel hub but somehow continued to drive just fine. I dont remember exactly how the match played out, but in the end PD was the victor and SS had to climb through the losers bracket for a second shot. When I was servicing both bent axles I managed to find a sweet spot where the blade was once again flat. Pretty much "OMG DONT TOUCH IT EVER". In its battered state, it was able to deliver the big hits and crawl back up to the finals without accumulating extra damage.

DDT can continue to compete as is but Silent Spring needs significant repairs to bring it back to a reliable state. Since it keeps doing so well, I must once again delay its retirement even though I want to build something else. I'll assess the extent of upgrades to be received in time for the next competition, MASSdestruction, in December. See you all there!

MASSdestruction at the Artisan's Asylum (Oct 10)

Not too long after the Dragon Con bouts, the crew went right next door to the Artisan's Asylum in Somerville, MA to fight at the first ever MASSdestruction event. As the date came closer, more and more robots registered which helped fund the brand new arena that Rob Masek put together. It was shaping up to be a world-class event.

I brought DDT and Silent Spring with me; neither bot had major upgrades since Dragon Con. Silent Spring received an updated drive train which in turn required re-fabrication of a few critical components. I decided to dump the 33:1 Spark gearmotors in favor of my KW hackmotor which are the drive units I used in Dominant Mode. You may recall, they consist of the KW beetle motors (which are now discontinued) mated to a ~10:1 spur gearbox from the "1000 RPM" gearmotors. Not only is this combination lighter, but it is also faster and more powerful (1500 RPM @ 12V). This change gave Silent Spring the agility it desperately needed to be competitive and deliver the big hit. These tests on an empty Stratasys material cartridge are evidence of its new destructive power.

Saturday morning, Lucy and I hitched a ride with Will and Max Bales who brought a few robots of their own. These included the last minute Hyperderp, lovingly named Turd Ferguson, and Hypershock as seen on TV. All our bots combined, we had 10 ants and 11 beetles. To keep matches rolling consistently throughout the day, Rob proposed a modified swiss tournament structure. All robots will have ~4 matches and points will be awarded for the conditions of the match.

• A win is 4 points
• A win by default (no-shows or forfeits before the fight) is 3 points
• A loss is 2 points
• A double loss (where both robots stop functioning) is 1 points
• A no-show is 0 points

The top four robots in each weight class are then pitted in a semi-finals double elimination scenario to fight for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

In the end, DDT had 6 matches and went 4-2 for 3rd place. Silent Spring (in a weird turn of events) had 5 matches and went 4-1 for 1st place. The tournament results are hyperlinked here. Only a few matches have video from what I can tell. I will update this page periodically with embedded video as more pop up.

Overall, I am satisfied with the performance of the robots. DDT performed well (never stopped!) but was shown some glaring weaknesses to particular wedge designs. In the future, I'll need to practice driving and prepare special blades to handle these types of wedges. Silent Spring STILL suffers from random shutoffs which is incredibly infuriating but before it fails it delivers some of the most impressive blows I've ever seen in a beetle.

Before Franklin Institute, I'll be looking to redo the wiring and improve its overall reliability. One area that needs improvement is the blade durability; in this event I managed to bend both blades I had for Silent Spring not out of plane (say from a vertical spinner) but IN PLANE. This means its own hits are so hard it damages the disk. I would pay $$$ to see some high-speed video of the blade warping under impact! Stay tuned for 10/24 to see how these two bots shake it up at Franklin!

Return the Victorious: Motorama 2015 Event Report

Motorama may very well be the toughest combat robotics competition in the entire Northeast. With that said, it is very difficult to place in any weight class. By chance and skill, I was able to place in two weight classes of three entrants! G3 Robotics was able to end with a respectable 10 wins and 4 losses. See the bot specific breakdown.

________________________________________________

Silent Spring

No place (3W - 2L)

Finally here Saturday morning and still no name for the beetleweight DDT clone. Despite the controls oriented suggestions given by other builders, my friends agreed to Silent Spring, the name that Nate Franklin had originally proposed. Once I explain the reference people think its clever >_>

Regardless of the name SS's day started out rougher than most. During safety, the drive motors would not shut off! I traced the issue back to the receiver, which does not appear to support failsafe protocol on the elevator and aileron channels. Broke a few wires swapping back to the reliable OrangeRx 6ch receiver but that was quickly handled by butchering a bind plug. SAFETY ALERT! THE 3CH S.BUS RX DOES NOT PASS FAILSAFE!

Silent Spring v Rmr

Soon we were ready to fight and SS pulled Rmr, a fellow MIT bot from MITERS. This bot featured an overhead spinning bar and an O-ring track system for drive. 

The fight was against his favor since my blade could reach under his blade to land hits on his body without hit myself. However, without ANY driving practice on SS, It would be very easy to over travel after a hit where Rmr could get my sides or even a wheel.

Because of that, I played on the cautious side and took smaller pokes. One of the first few glancing blows actually did result in him landing a body shot, but without critical damage I was able to continue the attack. Still, some nice scars there.

Silent Spring v Time Warp
Now hearing I would be fighting the modified Trilobite kit, I decided to take my time in repairing the drive belts which appeared to be loose in my first match. I would need every ounce of maneuverability to escape this bot. On top of the Trilobite base, Time Warp featured an angular plow from what appeared to be welded and treated steel. There was no way I could bite through that plow but as it would have it, I didn't need to.


I spun up to full and decided to focus on keeping the blade forward. Time Warp came to me with the plow first and after several big hits the pins keeping the shaft on gave up and the plow came off. If it didnt break at the collar, it might have broken at the beak. Small cracks were beginning to form.

However the blade had slowed significantly by the end. I had not received any visible damage but I could not spin up the weapon. This time dependent shortcoming would plague me for the rest of the tournament.

Silent Spring v Devastating Moment
Joey and I had once fought antweights in 2008. His Swamp Woman vs my DDT. DDT managed to get the better of that one but only because SW was an unweaponed bot. Now Joey had a Weta kit with a custom steel eggbeater. It sounded mean!

Unlike In the Margins (Weta Killer), SS has a thick blade which is better for big hits and less effective for chopping or grabbing. I would only be able to get good hits on hard surfaces and so instead of aiming for the feet, I aimed directly for the weapon bar.

I was essentially relying on the robustness of the robot mechanics since at this point I had not sorted out the weapon ESC issue. If I stopped spinning it could be over for me. I got lucky this time when he shut off unexpectedly  after two big hits and couldn't continue.

Speed Wedge 3 v Silent Spring
I met Ian this year when I spoke to him a bit in the pits. It didn't take long for me to realize a quality builder and solid competitor. When I pulled this match up, I predicted a loss immediately. With the spotty ESC and his driving skill, attrition would work against me. Well, I don't need to say much more do I? Loss by judges decision :P

In the Margins v Silent Spring
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHY DID I HAVE TO LOSE. The most horrible match up pits friends against friends in the loser's bracket and its not even the finals! Last time Aaron and I had fought was actually last year where we went 1-1 against each other in the total annihilation of Dominant Mode.

This year we both built bots to last. Plastic construction, horizontal disks. It was shaping up to be a good match... but ended up pretty sad. Two soft hits in, my power switch opened up and SS turned off. Slim got a nibble on my wheels afterwards. Ah well, Aaron will have to carry the flag for the both of us (but ended up losing to Speed Wedge 3 also :/)!



Beetleweight Rumble
Immediately after the In the Margins match, I put SS into the rumble. Literally, re-tightened the fingertech switch and threw it into the box. I used this time to play with the throttle a bit and see if I could discern the cause of the ESC problems. It looks like if I keep the weapon at max the entire time it will power up quite alright.


That was it for Silent Spring. A solid robot with great potential, hampered by some bad electronics. Without another competition in the near future, I'll have plenty of time to figure this issue out. For the time being, Silent Spring has succeeded in its primary goal: Be entertaining and don't get destroyed :)

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Attrition

1st Place (4W - 0L)

Having started so far in advanced, Attrition's check-in was straight forward. For the rest of the competition, all I ever had to do was swap out batteries and decide whether to use the wedgelets or not. All these upgrades paid off and made Attrition a clear winner this time around.

Attrition v Maul
Maul was another bot that came out of MITERS but one I had not seen before. Partially because I don't frequent MITERS much anymore but also because I was led to believe the robot was still being completed at the event as it was safety checked immediately before the match. - _ -

It appeared to be some sort of thwack bot with cutting tools for wheels. The chassis was made from a rather thick steel pipe and there wasnt any chance of going through it. So, I opted to punt it around until he tapped out.



Attrition v Hyper Drive
When Cataclysm totaled Apollyon in 2013, part of me cheered just because I wouldnt have to face this legendary wedge bot in the future. However, Mike sold the bot to master craftsman Jerome Miles who then put the drive setup from his 60 lber into it and renamed it Hyper Drive. Oh dear.

Hyper Drive is an appropriate name. It has two massive inrunner brushless motors coupled to dewalt gearboxes for drive. It could move and spin fast enough to do reasonable damage in a thwacking mode. If it were more controllable, he could totally dominate this match.

I decided to play it safe. Start with low drum RPMs and gain maneuverability. I also put on the short wedgelets to help with his front wedge. Shortly into the match, HD lost one side of his drive (gearbox slid out) and I was able to flip him over using the wedgelets. How inverted and nearly immobile, I turned up the drum to full to try and lay on the killing blow. That hit took off the wheel on his good gearbox and Jerome tapped out.



Attrition v Isotelus Rex
Here we are! I finally get to fight my pushybot rival! I knew ahead of time that he would be using the snout again, so I best optimize for driving. Therefore I employed the same strategy as I had against Jerome in the match previous.

Things were going according to plan. I was able to dodge out direct attacks from the snout and lay some pecks on the Ti guard. A few flips went in my favor to added aggression points. Occasionally the drum would contact the snout and I actually noticed white plastic flaking off into the arena. At this RPM (and perhaps because my teeth were still sharp) I could bite into this snout instead of being deflected by it. I started going head on into whatever angle I could and was still able to toss him about.

For the last 30 or so seconds, I turned up the drum again like I did against HD. At this point there was enough damage to the plow to render the snout ineffective. Some showers of sparks and a few more tosses for good measure to start strong, end strong, and give Attrition a shot at 1st this year.



Attrition v Isotelus Rex (FINALS)

Isotelus Rex and Ripto fought a close match in the loser's bracket finals. Amazingly, Isotelus Rex came out the winner after 5 mins or so of judges arguing. I figured I would run the same strategy as the first time I fought him but it turns out it was not needed. He suffered damage to his gearmotors in the match previous and was unable to make the repairs in time. This left Isotelus with one drive, which severely handicapped his awesome driving power. After a few hits, he tapped out and Attrition was crowned the 12lb champion!



Motorama couldnt have gone any better for Attrition. Progressing from 3rd, to 2nd, and finally 1st was a hard battle through the years but taught me many things about robust designs. I am happy to say everything I learned about engineering was well worth it and demonstrated in this little robot. Next year I hope to fight against my other rivals in the division such as Ripto and Cataclysm. This will be the true test of this robot. 

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MegatRON

2nd Place (3W - 2L)

With a tightened clutch and new dustpan, I had hopes for Ron at least as a pushybot. It has been forever since I had driven a non weaponed robot and in particular my old old design from my childhood. We would see what the future holds this year at Motorama

MegatRON v Candy Paint and Gold Teeth
The first match was ALSO against an MIT folk! I felt like they were trying to phase us out from the start! Even worse, it was against my buddy Charles and his mean overhead bar spinner. He told me he was going to spin slow and have fun. I obliged but encouraged him to make it entertaining as well. I put on the abrasive saw to make sparks but not penetrate his aluminum frame.

He did not disappoint. At the speed he chose to spin, a slight pertubation from Ron's dustpan caused him to flip over. However, he had enough torque to Tornado-mer dance! What followed was nearly 3 minutes of watching CPGT try to self-right with the occasional Ron interjection with the saw blade. Eventually, Charles burnt out his motor and CPGT was counted out.



There was some damage after the match! CPGT was wailing around Ron so hard, that one of the cast aluminum pillow blocks actually shattered and left the arm in danger of a single supported system. I was quickly able to hack a solution together by taking my spare P60 gearbox face and using it as the far end pillow block.

A very expensive pillow block - _ -.

MegatRON v Whammy Bar
Whammy bar looked to be a deadly horizontal bar spinner. What made it scarier, is the fact that nobody has seen it hit anything yet! Alex tapped out early in his fight with WB before they could make contact so I will be the first to feel its teeth.

I went out to box rush him but missed! Argh! He was able to get up to near full speed when we made contact. The Ron took the hits like a champ but WB could not. Somewhere inside his robot, a component popped loose and WB stopped moving. Ron, and his ineffective saw, moves on :P



Damage pics! That penetration!

Whammy bar adds a nice dent on the inner of one pontoon

MegatRON v The Magnificient Poncho
I've always been impressed by Poncho. It is such a simple robot but with power and good driving it can conquer the toughest opponents. Earlier in the competition, Poncho defeated last year's champ Triggo. I will have to break out my best driving to stop him.

I used a lot of spin tactics to deflect his charges since I knew a head on collision would most likely be against my favor. I had a wide wedge and sloped sides that could be used to scoop around his pushing angle. This was effective for getting under him.

In the second half of the match, I was noticing a lot of over steering in my driving. I could see from my driver's stand that my one side of wheels were free spinning! Ah! the banebots keyway had stipped out! Luckily I could still drive a bit but I was definitely trying to just outlast poncho at the end. We got stuck together twice which helped in stalling for time. (normally I would able to spin him out of the tray if I had both drive sides...) The judges voted in my favor and MegatRON goes to the finals!



Some pictures of the wheel casualties.

4 old megatRON wheels. Since last year.

Banebots keyed wheel sheared section.

Thankfully, Jerome was nice to give me two replacement wheels. they didnt match the 40A's that I had as spares, but they would work for now. Thanks Jerome!

MegatRON v Triggo (FINALS 1)
Oh man, it is finally time. Many people would fear fighting Triggo but to be honest I wanted this fight to happen. As soon as Triggo was announced over Whammo, Charles and I had actually cheered.

I knew this fight would be among the hardest I've had in awhile. And to not drive a weaponed bot make it all the more exciting. There is some thrill in depending on skill. Being the robot that could be destroyed, trying to outlast the stronger robot. That is what I was looking forward to and that is what I got.

Starting out a bit tentative, I let him spin up a bit because I thought the dustpan was steep enough to deflect him. While that worked for a bit, he caught the right corner of the dustpan and spun the bot around catching another edge and flipping Ron. I had the clutch relatively loose to prevent stalling the motor but in this case it proved harmful as Ron could not invert. I had to tap out  to save the robot before Triggo's next attack.



MegatRON v Triggo (FINALS 2)
This time, I went as hard as I could. A solid box rush from the start slowed him but not enough to stop him. From there I had to stay on him as much as possible and keep him off his toes. A careful balance of poking with the wedge would tilt him and force him to spin down or lose control.

However, the two hits from the previous match took its toll on the dustpan; it was slightly tweaked on the right side and could actually go over the shell as he teetered out of control. During these times I was unable to control Triggo and wasted a lot of critical moments.

Finally I was able to herd him into a corner but... Ron stopped moving! ARGH!  He crapped out in front of my drivers corner so I could see that the powerlink (an XT60) was much much higher than it was supposed to be. Meanwhile Triggo was slamming himself into the pan and into the walls to push himself free. When he finally escaped, I tapped out to prevent a juicy juicy free hit on the arm.



People tell me I was winning that match but I didnt really care. it FELT EPIC! And that feeling alone was satisfaction enough. MegatRON would take 2md place to the 2014 champ Triggo. No shame in losing in the finals to a spectacular robot.

Triggo, the 2014 and 2015 Motorama 30lber champion

MegatRON after the 2nd triggo fight

Triggo nibbled at the wheels.

.. and did damage to the dustpan

The right side corner which was already raised was further chewed by Triggo. The left side is still pristine!

To conclude this post, I'd like to shout out to the many many people who made this event a great success, a great time, and overall made the experience of robot combat a wonderful idea. First is my bud Charles Guan, who I give credit to for the numerous resources and help used in building my bots. He also drove the group of us through the snow to get to Moto. None of this would be possible without you man! Then I'd like to mention the MIT and GT crew for a friendly competitive atmosphere and help in repair time. I find that things are most fun when you have your friends and robot fighting is no exception. Not to mention their unyielding support. Xo, Aaron, Gabe, Chad, Adam, Dane, Charles, Paige, Cynthia, Rebecca, Ciaran, Ian, and James here is to you! And I really really hope I didnt miss anyone. I would also like to note exceptional builders who made it a really great time. Zac, Mike, Alex, Kyle, and Jerome were kind enough to offer me parts and help in times of repair. And most important are the folks at NERC who kept the show running. That's Ed, Beth, Jon, James, Kyle, Rob, and Mike and many many more Im sure. Thanks for making Moto one heck of an event!.

Attrition, 12lber champion of Motorama 2015

MegatRON, 30lber runner-up of Motorama 2015