flippers, pneumaatics vs servos

[Hogi]

I was very impressed with anticide and duff the pneumatic ants at AWS 40 but I saw most of the flippers and lifters were run by electronics with a servo being used to lift the blade up and down. so which is better?

[Shakey]

They each have their various pros and cons.

Pneumatic:
Generally heavier and more difficult to implement. However the flips are normally faster and more powerful. A limited number of flips with them constantly getting weaker.

Electric:
A slower flip, can still be very powerful. Generally lighter and much easier to build. A very larger number of flips with consistent strength.

[Hogi]

I am but a novice really with only a pusher ant and a super antweight kit built flipper. I think seeing the effectiveness of my super ant's flipper I will stick to servo powered weaponry like flippers, axes and crushers. my next robot thunder has already been fitted with a servo for a flipper but my next robot piranha attack will be a servo powered crusher designed to grab and hold opponents then push them out of the arena or into the pit if competing in the mini roaming robots arena. I don't think i'll bother building an axe because they just didn't seem very powerful at AWS 40 apart from baby hell who did put some chips in hogi's paint in the practise arena after we'd both been eliminated from the main tournament. the flipper blade will be made of 2mm HDPE.

[Rhys]

Pneumatics are very difficult to get right in ants. We've seen about 5 built/being built in the past year, by some of the most experienced roboteers out there, and only Anticide has been genuinely impressive. To make even a middle of the road pneumatic flipper you will need to modify/custom build several parts of the pneumatic system. I've built 2 versions of Duff so far and was pretty disappointed by both of them. Here's hoping the third version is much better.