Gyro-Walker weight limits/bonuses?

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botomatic1000
Posts: 231
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2016 5:59 pm
Location: Kings Heath, Birmingham

Gyro-Walker weight limits/bonuses?

Post by botomatic1000 »

So not too long ago I decided to look at what spare parts I had and noticed that I had practically everything Electrical and Mechanical (not including the disc) I needed to build a gyro walker in the style of the BattleBots competitor Wrecks or the 1lb Antweight from the US called Gyrobot (not to be confused with the UK Ringspinner of the same name), for those who don't know what a gyro walker is I'll try and explain it the best I can but the way I put it will probably still sound like alien jib-jab to you :P. A gyro walker (or at least one in the style I'm thinking of) uses a large high speed Vertical Spinner at the front to create a gyroscopic force and then a rear "leg plate" is rotated side to side via a motor to edge the robot forwards using the gyroscopic force of the spinner (I apologise if that made no sense at all). So I gone to look at the AWS weight rules to see if it qualified under any of them and I was surprised to see it wasn't mentioned at all. Now technically it does use a 360 degree motion to move (the front disc but also the rear "leg plate" if you're using a standard non servo motor or a hacked servo unlike me can be used to do a 360 degree "self righting" motion but the full 360 motion is not typically used for going forward) which would eliminate it from being a true walker in theory but I'm not sure if its much of a shuffler either, all I am sure about is that it definitely isn't wheeled. The main question I wanted to ask is what (if any) weight bonus would it get in competition? Thanks in advance to any answers given :)
Ethan Wall KINGS HEATH COLLIDERS
Current Robots: Sprat Bait: The worst 150g Wedge ever built...
Elysium 1.4: Antweight Undercutter, built by Team Riptide, Brummie glass cannon edition!
Barracuda: Beetleweight Vert... hates working...
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Lincoln
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Joined: Sun Feb 29, 2004 12:00 am
Location: Olney, Milton keynes

Re: Gyro-Walker weight limits/bonuses?

Post by Lincoln »

My interpretation of the rules would say that a gyrobot would count as a "walker" and get the full 150% weight allowance of 225g as its contact point does not rotate more than 180 degrees. But the community overall may have a differing opinion. until we see a rise in competitive gyrobots and walkers then i don't think the rules will change. don't be surprised they are not mentioned in the rules, gyro bots didn't really exist the last time the rules were updated. The added weight allowance is really to encourage interesting designs and compensate for the fact that walkers used to be much heavier and complex to make. (this has kinda changed recently in that walkers are getting easier thanks to 3d printing and rubber moulding. like my new walking mechanism that will be on most of my new robots from now on)
Team RobotMad, home of the Smart robots, and very mean pots :)
Chris and Lincoln Barnes
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