RC Battle Bot

Problem

• Design, manufacture, and test and 85 lb RC Battle Bot- with a primary weapon designed to eliminate other weapon/wedge-based robots.
• Successfully integrate off the shelf components with a custom built chassis and weapon to create a functioning Battle Bot.

Approach

• Sourced an AmpFlow A28-150 3 HP Neodymium motor to drive the battle bot and its weapon.
• Selected a vertical spinner as our weapon morphology.
• Integrated a 24V DC battery pack along with an ESC for RC control, with a manual killswitch.
• Selected square steel tubing fo our chassis, with polycarbonate plate armor for exterior protection.

Design of the Battle Bot chassis in Fusion 360.

After the design process was completed, and we met our constraint requirements, we could begin manufacturing of the chassis.

MIG Welding the Battle Bot chassis.

Skeleton frame of the Battle Bot chassis.

As the chassis was being built, manufacturing of the weapon assembly began with Fusion 360 toolpath creating for a CNC milling machine, custom weapon fixture construction, concluding with CNC milling of the weapon itself.

G-code of the toolpath in the CNC mill for the weapon.

The milling of the weapon in a HAAS CNC mill.

Custom built pulley gears were manufactured out of polycarbonate on a different CNC milling machine to drive the weapon assembly.

Half the weapon assembly after machining. Photo includes one steel tooth below, followed by the polycarbonate gear, and steel pins to secure the assembly.

The weapon assembly was then finished, mounted to the chassis using two ball-bearings, with a removable steel center shaft to allow for modular disassembly.

The Battle Bot chassis with the weapon assembly mounted.

During the manufacturing process, testing of the ongoing assembly was completed to ensure we met the final robot design specifications.

The weapon assembly being weighed, meeting the weight limit.

The Battle Bot chassis and weapon assembly being weighed, meeting the 85 lb. weight limit.

Outcome

• Utilized Fusion 360 CAM to create toolpaths for the Haas VF-2 CNC mill to manufacture the weapon assembly.
• "Flipside" was a fully reversible, 360 degree invertible, and dominant Battle Bot.
• Designed custom weapon motor mount, and ESC mount to integrate with our chassis.
• Achieved excellent weld quality on the chassis- with no support structures experiencing any failure during combat.

Flipside in a side profile view.

Flipside in front view.

Flipside in combat.

Flipside after combat- with no chassis failures shown.