Hello!
So I've finally decided to get into combat robots, and I'm building one or two antweights aiming to go to the AWS at the end of June (conveniently after my exams!). My plan is to go for a front hinged flipper (Firestorm is one of my favourite heavyweights).
The part list I'm running with:
NanoTwo V3
Corona CS-239HV Slim-wing
Turnigy Nano-Tech 260mah 7.4V 2S
600RPM @ 12 V gear motors from eBay
Shakey's motor mounts and 25mm wheels
I've also got a load of 1.5mm HDPE for chassis and armour. If I've done my calculations correctly (which I have no confidence I have!), then I should be able to get two layers of the stuff all over the robot, giving me 3mm.
I started with some rough sketches on paper, which quickly evolved into me learning Sketchup Free to create some 3D models.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/psSKV2r.png)
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/fPqFZfQ.png)
Sketchup was quite useful for arranging the internals inside the robot and measuring everything.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/KAHXZ2J.jpg)
I've made three mock-ups out of card. From left to right- the first one I found was too small to fit all of the components inside. Then I found out that I don't have to rest the bot on its wheels when fitting it into the 4" cube, so I redesigned it larger, moving the pivot point for the flipper higher up when I started thinking about how I would hinge it. The wheel placement meant that they would protrude through the side panels, so the third iteration has those bits cut out, as the remaining side would be flimsy and more or less useless.
The idea is to armour up with the HDPE panels screwed together with brackets. Currently, I'm seeing if I can get some brackets 3D printed for me by a friend, once I have those I should be able to put together the first version of the bot.
As an aside, I think I'm going to go with computing themed names for my robot. This'll be called "Hello, World!", after the first program every programmer writes
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)