The smart ant's and flea's

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Team RobotMad
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

(this account is the same person, i forgot my login to the old account and don't have access to its recovery email address anymore. so i made a new account)

finally committing to getting to AWS 57 so i guess i need to make some progress towards a working team.

SmartAnt 5 V2.1 was completed a while ago and will be ready for aws with a little fine tuning.
SA8, maybe renamed RUDI, Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Imminent, has now got a working prototype, but with only a 3d printed plastic beater bar it would not do very well in a fight. so we shall experiment with different metal inserts or bolts and if that is still not good enough then we will CNC mill a block of 7000 series aluminium into a solid mental spinning bar.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kKAv1Q6XRuAc8cAA8

here are 2 testing videos mostly at 1/2 power with a few seconds of full speed to test out the 'Death Humm'
one of the videos was filmed though a mostly clear but slightly cloudy plastic box for safety.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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Team RobotMad
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

With only a week and a bit between the end of exams and AWS, i won't have time to complete the spinner. (this is probably about the 10th time i've had to put off completing it over the last few years)
this means my 10 degree angle wedge flipper (this needs a better name as currently its SA9 which makes no sense as SA8 doesn't exist yet) will probably be the robot being built in that week, adding to the team of SA4 and SA5, 4th entry yet to be decided possibly a quick reprint of SA7 as its currently very damaged but still technically functioning.

After this AWS i will be spending my time developing an autonomous drone and then in September ill be going off to uni and i don't know if i will continue to build antwights or not. i have plenty of ideas for new robots but budget, access to facilities, time, and other projects may mean continuing antwights not possible.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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peterwaller
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by peterwaller »

That would be a shame but your education comes first and you can always return to robots after if you are still interested.
You never know your uni might have a robotics club.
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Team RobotMad
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

new plan for the next AWS
SA4 with new hopefully more grippy wheels
SA5 v2.1 the slightly improved version of SA5 v2 which was an improved SA5
possibly SA7 v2 a reprinted SA7 with a better flipper shape, i say possibly because the other robots will be prioritised over building this one.
i previously said i would make SA9 (SA8 is the spinner that is still being prototyped) which will be a 10 degree angle wedge roller, but using having a team of 3 rollers is too boring.
so meet UnorthodoX
a wide flipper walker, with a insane servo weighing just under 70g that's twice as fast as the one i normally use and over twice the torque.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/N35Zw1ZwyJy6hwQ96
here's a couple of pictures.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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MarkR
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by MarkR »

Unorthodox was amazing at AWS58, please, tell us how the walking mechanism works?

Or is it a super trade secret?
Robots: Betsie - RaspberryPi controlled flipper bot with gyro stablisation - too clever for her own good?
Stacie - tidy flipper; 4wd driven by hair bands
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GeorgeR
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by GeorgeR »

MarkR wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:35 am Unorthodox was amazing at AWS58, please, tell us how the walking mechanism works?

Or is it a super trade secret?
It's a 4 way cam system, there's a pic at the bottom of page 3 of this thread. Amazing how quick it is really.
Team Zero - AWS 58 Champion!
Zero - rambot - - Axiom - axebot - - Valkyrie - drum spinner
Blueprint - rambot - - Vampire - horizontal spinner - - Particle - ???
RBMK - quad spinner gyro walker - - Duality - dual spinner gyro walker
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peterwaller
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by peterwaller »

I was surprised how much smoother a 3 cam system was over a 2 cam allowing more speed and less bounce.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/rGi0D-vwqDk"
Taking it to 4 seems to add even better results
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Team RobotMad
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

Just got back from holiday, so late post AWS 58 summary.

Started off with SA5 taking some pretty good damage against a drum spinner i think was called quasar.
It seemed to force the flipper open as it tried to close and instantly sheared the output shaft inside the servo, first time I've ever seen one of those servos break. good thing i had a spare. after losing that fight SA5 won a few more fights before losing due to my bad driving.

SA7 V2 the resigned wasn't as smooth as i expected, we found it couldn't self right! so in the morning before tech check we bolted on a small brass plate to get back the self righting ability. SA7 lost the first flight then won a few more before being knocked out.

UnorthodoX
literally wasn't even an idea 3 weeks before the event, get to the end of my A level exams, a week and a half before AWS 58. Quickly cad up this monster. got the servo from servoshop.co.uk, was initially going to use and even faster servo but i couldn't find one i could get delivered quick enough thus sadly it only does 0.032 seconds per 60 degrees the one i wanted does 0.025. If i can find one then unorthodox may get that upgrade. It took several very late night of fine tuning to get it working properly as it was CADed so quickly it didn't get the proper interference checking i would normally do.
Was very impressed with this robot at the event, I think it was pretty lucky in the draw to be honest and its weakness was quickly shown when it got to the top 16, which is still pretty good, being immediately pushed straight out as soon as anyone got to any side of it other than the front. this seems to be because of the very low pushing power of the walker mechanism, but this seems unavoidable without going up even more in leg numbers to lower the time between strokes. which i may do as my walking mechanism has not been improved in about 3 years, it just took unorthodox to really make it shine, maybe something to do with the wider stance means it can turn fast enough to keep up with other robots.

so walkers get lots of extra wight which means you can do creative things like using a 70g servo but come at the cost of pushing power.
as Geroge pointed out there is a picture of the second version of the walking mechanism on page 3, i'm currently using the unpublished v3 and may soon make an improved v4 with more legs and make it easier to assemble,(its a pain in the butt at the moment to put together). I've considered publishing the full cad files for v3 but it currently requires you to have a professional grade 3d printer to be accurate enough to work out of the box and the ability to mould silicone rubber on the feet. I also think its not too hard to work it out with a couple of prototypes, then everyone could make there own version. so i will not post more in depth pictures or cad files of the walker mechanism. I may however make a small module and sell pre-made walker assemblies which could simply be bolted to a robot. or possibly kits of the parts.

much like my electronic module that never made it anywhere near being sold that will probably never happen. possibly a new electroincs module may get made soon though.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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Team RobotMad
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

Roboshowdown was fantastic
I find these more relaxed events much more fun than the very competative AWS events tbh.

UnorthodoX enterd the 2v2 with flipant just beacuse pete was next to us on the pit bench table, they made quite the duo. flipant saving the match when unorthodox is easly pushed out. ended up that the semi final was against the team oink and team effot boys which we narowly lost, we then won the 3rd place play off putting us back againts them for the final, great match that we lost but 2nd place anin't bad for a walker. I think the last aws and this has shown that walkers are no longer a joke and can be a pretty serious contender, mostly due to what the extra whight alows you to do. (massive servos) :D

UnothodoX imedatly lost it's winning streak in the 1v1's putting it on the back foot but made it pretty far in the tornmant. it redeemed itself buy winning the madness that was the non spinner rumble.

Having done nothing to the robots since the last aws we gave tham a quick test the day befor, all working. go to fight SA7 and dicoverd that it had a broken power wire that had to be hastly fixed. thanks to the crowd vote for alowing a rematch to get it fixed. did pretty well, unfotunatly was put out by coming up against unorthodox.

SA5 had a reasnbly good day losing in the same round as SA7 but due to mantis that got a very good grip due to the holes in the top of the flipper.
think it may be time for a replacment for SA5 and posibly 7 as well.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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Kyro
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Kyro »

yeah sorry about that... mantis had taken a beating against 2 spinners before we faced off... it usually grips really well regardless of holes but my sillicone pads were practically useless by the time we met so i think the holes did actually benefit me this time.

i was worried about this fight as low, fast wedges with good acetate usually easily overpower mantis due to no acetate and it having a high centre of ballance...

basically mantis is weak against everything except for nice small slow grabable bots with high ground clearance... so its always good when i manage to pull off a win against one...

im glad you enjoyed our event. you confirmed exactly what we were trying to achieve with it being more relaxed and fun.

i also am still highly impressed with both walkers and the power of your flippers... seeing how effective they are really shows people that walkers are no longer joke bots and can actually be really competitive now.

how easy would it be to make a 4 wheel......? 16 leg drive version

Luke
Team Rocket
Trappist 1(4wd grab 'n' lift)
Ton 618 (4wd expanding bot)
Io(4wd flipper)
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