My first antweight thread

[andrea.taras]

Hello everyone, long time no see! I hope everyone is safe.
I'm coming back to this forum to finally present to you an actual antweight! Yep, it has taken me a while to actually make a working ant and most importantly under the rules but I blame this on the lack of free time and me never being happy with the final result.
This is actually Mk.2 of a project I did a while ago, but by all means not the final result. It's rather the first presentable result!
So, without further ado, I give you Wipeout (hopefully the name hasn't been claimed yet!). Yes, it is a tribute to the videogame lol
The specs: the actual weight is 151g (yup, I still need to shave 1 gram!), it uses 1:50 HP Pololu motors powered by a Turnigy 300mah 2s LiPo battery and hooked to a DasMikro Speed Controller. Servo for the flipper is a Turnigy S306G-HV and the rx is a 4-ch AFHDS3 antennaless micro receiver binded to a Noble NB4 transmitter. Body and flipper arms have been 3D printed in Prima orange ABS. Thinking of using actual polycarbonate for the flipper itself in the future, hopefully it won't cause me a headache for the weight issue! It has been designed and engineered completely by me on Sketchup, over a tedious trial and error process... For being my first try, I'm very proud of it and it does pack quite a punch!
A few notes: when I did design Wipeout I never thought of using it in proper official competition, but rather to fight with the Mk.1 version of it that I kindly donated to my brother, that's why the switch is on the outside (and not hidden) and why it has a 300mah battery rather than the more lightweight 180mah.







Below is a video of it self righting in slo-mo, just cause it looks cool lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NueCPLCTKKk

All comments are welcome and constructive criticism is always appreciated! Also, sorry for the mess on my desk! Hopefully one day I will be able to meet with you all and actually take part in ant competition! In the meantime, stay safe!

[peterwaller]

That is a nice looking and well thought out robot. The only slight worry is the very low ground clearance combined with the rear overhang would mean in a pushing contest any lifting at the front will result in the tyres losing contact with the floor and hence result in loss of grip.

[andrea.taras]

That is a nice looking and well thought out robot. The only slight worry is the very low ground clearance combined with the rear overhang would mean in a pushing contest any lifting at the front will result in the tyres losing contact with the floor and hence result in loss of grip.

Cheers Peter! Yup, you're absolutely spot on there! I unfortunately discovered it the hard way. As a matter of fact I was working on a Mk.3 version with a rounder back panel and wheels pushed all the way to the back in order to get enough grip when being pushed around but my 3D printer really doesn't like printing round edges... I shall work my way around that!

[Dazmund]

Looks sharp! If only those 180maH LiPos did not get discontinued then you wouldn't have a weight issue. Only thing I can think of is maybe put a few holes in that flipper linkage to shave a gram or two off, but the flipper design looks like it can launch opponents high!

[Lowtech]

Looks solid!