THIS MONTH:
Back to Basics
As a mechanical engineering
student, Evan has been learning
about things like how Bessel
functions are the eigenfunctions of the
Sturm-Liouville Equations that can be
used to describe heat conduction in
nonrectangular geometries, and how
computational methods like the
Newton-Raphson method can be used
to find the solution to large nonlinear
systems. Such highbrow concepts in
engineering — however interesting they
might sound — can only be mastered
with a firm grasp on the fundamentals
of engineering and physics.
In our last article with the V-Bot,
we alluded to the simple R/C cars that
we outfitted with aluminum armor and
weapons for “rumbles.” While these
simple emulations of the action we had
seen on Battlebots might have seemed
like nothing but wholesome fun, we
were actually learning the fundamentals of engineering that would be the
foundation of our success in big bot
competitions like FIRST and beyond.
have been hobbyists or professionals
for a long time, you have to learn
sometime.
The R/C car rumbles were a great
project to practice our shop skills on,
because it was just for fun and conserving time and material was not an issue
like it would be in a competition like
FIRST. So we were able to build our
confidence with tools in a relaxed
setting, and with all the metalworking
we did, we even became acquainted
with the properties of materials.
The Burning Means
It’s Working
Keeping the Team
Together
Our first foray into robotics came
when we were in middle school, and
14 SERVO 03.2008
with the help of our dad and
scavenged parts from Cosworth
Racing, we competed in Botbash 2001
with our 60 lb entry Troublemaker. The
thrill of competition inspired us to
spread the joy of robotics to our peers,
and when we got to high school we
formed a robotics club, Club CREATE
(Chaparral Robotic Engineers and
Techno Explorers).
Our original ambition with Club
CREATE was to enter a combat robotics
competition, but the design and
fundraising process was daunting and
slower than the lowest setting on a
crock pot. Brainstorming sessions
began to lose their luster when we
didn’t have much to actually work on,
so we had to think of something else
to do; something fun, yet productive
and instructive.
To keep the team interested and to
hone our skills in combat driving, we
organized a series of rumbles with
souped-up R/C cars. The extent of our
modifications was basically to outfit
our cheap R/C cars with aluminum
weapons, but that was already a good
lesson in some shop skills. We learned
to use aviation shears, hacksaws, and
jigsaws, and while these skills may be
taken for granted by many folks that
Our most sophisticated endeavor
in crafting our weapons was a
rudimentary foray into heat treatment
of materials. We employed used
engine oil as our heat treatment fluid,
and the objects of our treatment were
nails that we thought lacked the bite to
be truly fearsome. We used an
acetylene torch to heat up the future
instruments of destruction, and then
we quenched them to seal the deal.
While we might not have known the
subtleties of the effects of heat
treatment and quenching on grain size,
simply becoming familiar with the
