Motor City Massacre
uses Nutstrip and
threaded standoffs to
hold the waterjet cut
chassis together.
Apollon showing how the
Nutstrip is used to attach
the 1/8" titanium wedge.
chassis. I have used Nutstrip
successfully in two robots: the
Antweight “Motor City Massacre”
and the Hobbyweight “Apollyon.”
This use of a universal
connector greatly simplifies design,
construction, and
maintenance. From a
design standpoint, you only need to
add the appropriate hole pattern to
the designed parts to allow them to
be connected to other portions of
your chassis. With all the holes pre-tapped and the armor panels
exclusively using clearance holes,
there is little wasted time dealing
with alignment and extra fixtures. If
a part is damaged, spares can be
made relatively cheaply since they
need no post processing. If the
Nutstrip is damaged, they are easily
replaced. SV
Pretzel R botics—
Rookie Powerhouse
● by Chris Olin
September 2010. An unknown father-son robot team arrives
unannounced and unexpected at
their first competition (HORD 2010)
with their new Antweight robot, Low
Blow. Later that day, this mystery
team drove home having won fourth
place out of a field of nine, and
were named “Rookie of the Year.”
The following February, Low
Blow’s more evil twin, Vile Ant, took
fourth place out of a field of 29 at
NERC’s Robot Conflict at Motorama
2011 (Low Blow finished 2—2 with the
second loss being a forfeit to Vile Ant).
This past September, they
returned to HORD and out of a field of
nine ants, Vile Ant finished seventh while
Low Blow finished second, losing the
final match by a narrow judges’ decision.
Who are these guys, where
did they come from, and how the
heck did a rookie team learn to
build such effective robots?
Glenn Purvin, the elder half of
the team, is a mechanical engineer
from Harrison Township, MI, with a
strong background in the fastener
industry. He describes his son
Warren as a bright 13 year old. The
family became interested in robotic
combat while watching Battlebots
on TV (2000-2002). In 2005, they
attended Rochester Robot Rampage
and met many of the big names in
robot combat. That is when Warren
first wanted to build
his own robot, but it
was decided he was
too young and would
have to settle for
Pinewood derby cars
and the like.
Plans for their
own Antweight robot
began in early 2010.
Glenn and Warren
combed through back
issues of SERVO
Magazine, making note of the
success of Thomas Kenney’s fast
and low wedge Gilbert, and used
the article “The Intro Ant” (SERVO,
June ‘08) as a guide for selected
components. They also read
“RioBot Tutorial” which suggested a
horizontal spinning blade would be
SERVO 12.2011 33
