I’m still working hard on my full event report going over all of the fights for The Power Of Friendship, but in the meantime, here’s a video showing the dumb fun I had with Bird Strike! at WPI’s first plastic Antweight competition of the year.
Plastic botsa lotsa fun! When I started building combat robots (late 1980s) they were basically wood (😲) with maybe a bit of aluminium here and there. We set a weight limit of 100 lbs, and a maximum spend of £100 [about $125]. We wanted to keep things affordable. They lasted pretty well because plywood's quite tough and (compared to today's feisty bots) our motors, batteries and weapons were pathetically feeble. I'm a big fan of low cost combat; these little plastic beasties are great. I bet the builders wish they could 3-D print parts as fast as they could smash 'em...😁
you probably want a lower Center of Gravity so that the bot can self-right more easily. also maybe fix the problem of the spinner(s) hitting the floor and tearing the robot from the inside out? idk cool vid though
Hi there, wondering if any prototype service may help for upcoming upgrade work? Including custom PCBs, 3DP, CNC machined parts? If so, we'd love to give our support and reach any collab together. (PCBWay zoey)
WHat's up? Hey, how do you get the weapon to stay on the motor? Is it just press fit?? My students are about to start printing weapons for their antweights.
Good question. What I do is I take a heat gun and apply heat to the middle part of the weapon that goes onto the motor. Then, once I think I’ve applied enough heat, I immediately press fit the weapon onto the motor (which is made easier due to the plastic being heated up). After that, the plastic fully hardens again around the motor.
@@teamgetwreckedcombatrobots776 ahhh. Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Is it relatively easy to remove if it gets damaged or something? And what infill and how many walls do people make antweight weapons usually? (This is my first time in this weight class)
You can remove the weapon by using the heat gun to apply heat to the same area to make it easy to just pull off manually. Also, I believe most people (myself included) print Plastic Ant weapons at 100% infill. I don’t know for sure if you could get away with a lower infill rate since I haven’t tried it.
@@johnathanclayton2887 oh absolutely it is cheaper, but also it seems like the rules are slightly different. in the big bot battles, if you can move even if your battery is exposed, you can continue to fight. I am guessing the thermal runaway would damage the small arena, so once the battery is exposed the fight stops in the smaller bot battles.
I’m still working hard on my full event report going over all of the fights for The Power Of Friendship, but in the meantime, here’s a video showing the dumb fun I had with Bird Strike! at WPI’s first plastic Antweight competition of the year.
Daww, it's adorable how mu- Holy crap, it ripped that 2x4 apart!
I love how wholesome the antweight categories are!
We had a great time at the event, you had an excellent robot - Send IT!!!
Thank you. And once again, thanks for the signed broken piece as a trophy.
will there ever be a fight where bird strike doesn't implode itself or its opponent?
Probably not lol.
After the beating our bot took, I truly don't think so
I didn't know plastic antweight could get this exciting. WOW!
Awesome robot and great fights
Plastic botsa lotsa fun! When I started building combat robots (late 1980s) they were basically wood (😲) with maybe a bit of aluminium here and there. We set a weight limit of 100 lbs, and a maximum spend of £100 [about $125]. We wanted to keep things affordable.
They lasted pretty well because plywood's quite tough and (compared to today's feisty bots) our motors, batteries and weapons were pathetically feeble.
I'm a big fan of low cost combat; these little plastic beasties are great. I bet the builders wish they could 3-D print parts as fast as they could smash 'em...😁
what kind of plastic do you use for the weapons?
The weapons are made of PLA +
@@teamgetwreckedcombatrobots776 would that also be good for a chassis?
@@hunterovitt4426I would say so. I used it for Bird Strike’s chassis as well and it worked out fine.
Putting down some big hits!!
Bird strike: the doller store equivlent of our boy droopy ❤😂😊
Also re run got blended into plastic pulp at 3:07😲😬
What plastic is the wepons made of
Probably abs or petg
you probably want a lower Center of Gravity so that the bot can self-right more easily. also maybe fix the problem of the spinner(s) hitting the floor and tearing the robot from the inside out? idk cool vid though
Hi there, wondering if any prototype service may help for upcoming upgrade work? Including custom PCBs, 3DP, CNC machined parts? If so, we'd love to give our support and reach any collab together. (PCBWay zoey)
Thank you very much for the offer. I don’t really need anything like that right now but I’ll be sure to contact you whenever I do.
@@teamgetwreckedcombatrobots776 Sure thing! Pls don't hesitate to contact anytime you need! (You can find my contact info under this account)🤗
Plastic brings certain advantages like 5:29 and 6:11
WHat's up? Hey, how do you get the weapon to stay on the motor? Is it just press fit?? My students are about to start printing weapons for their antweights.
Good question. What I do is I take a heat gun and apply heat to the middle part of the weapon that goes onto the motor. Then, once I think I’ve applied enough heat, I immediately press fit the weapon onto the motor (which is made easier due to the plastic being heated up). After that, the plastic fully hardens again around the motor.
@@teamgetwreckedcombatrobots776 ahhh. Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Is it relatively easy to remove if it gets damaged or something?
And what infill and how many walls do people make antweight weapons usually? (This is my first time in this weight class)
You can remove the weapon by using the heat gun to apply heat to the same area to make it easy to just pull off manually.
Also, I believe most people (myself included) print Plastic Ant weapons at 100% infill. I don’t know for sure if you could get away with a lower infill rate since I haven’t tried it.
Very cool! I think you'd probably do better in a bigger arena though, seems like you're getting stuck near the walls.
guessing that this helps finalize designs for bigger bots?
It's also just really fun. And much cheaper and quicker than the tens of thousands of dollars for the heavyweights.
@@johnathanclayton2887 oh absolutely it is cheaper, but also it seems like the rules are slightly different. in the big bot battles, if you can move even if your battery is exposed, you can continue to fight. I am guessing the thermal runaway would damage the small arena, so once the battery is exposed the fight stops in the smaller bot battles.
They did more damage to themselves than their opponent did.