have dabbled in some autonomous
robots. Namely, a micromouse wall
follower and three mini Sumos — all of
which have enjoyed some success.
About five years ago, I developed
a range of small robot controllers as
the commercial ones were too big and
heavy. After building one for a friend,
I ended up making them unofficially
for many other roboteers. I built just
over 100 for other people before I
was able to retire them when one of
the other roboteers from Reading
University started making smaller and
cheaper ones.
Probably the most fun robots I
have built have been Antweights with
suction to give more grip. The idea
wasn’t mine but from a chap from
Sweden, and we actually had a fight
on the underside of the arena
polycarbonate lid. The main problem
with these types of robots is that they
are reliant on a really good smooth
arena surface and even if it starts like
that, after a few spinners have
chewed it up you lose all suction. One
or two people are now having more
success using ducted fans to produce
down force, although they take a lot
of power.
My worst disaster was attempting
to build a full body spinner with
suction.
I had several attempts at building
full body spinners but where the
spinning mass is a high
proportion of the total robot,
they seem to become unstable at
high revs and leap into the air. I
decided to add suction to keep it
on the ground, but when testing
it drove over a damaged part of
the arena where suction was lost and
it leapt into the air and exploded
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj_Nl
eCYeq8).
[BD: This is one of the over 100
videos on Peter’s Antweightwars
You Tube channel. Suckspin (steady,
exhale quietly, okay — no really, it’s
the name) starts to whine mightily,
the vacuum pump sucking the 150
gram bot to the floor of the arena.
Add in the shriek of the weapon
motor — spinning steel impact blades.
The thing is VERY stable as the top
mounted blade spins up past seeing
and begins to move. A turn, no
wobble in the motion at all, a quick
dart forward, and it grenades in fine
fashion, parts in all directions.]
Peter explains:
My robot design philosophy is to
build a robot that is competitive, easily
Resources
Peter's Website
http://antweightwars.co.uk
Peter's topic pages on the Robot Wars Forum [this is fascinating reading]:
Antweight http://robotwars101.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1933
Fleaweight http://robotwars101.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2268
Nanoweight http://robotwars101.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2210
Peter's You Tube Channel
www.youtube.com/channel/UCeJQVzAOehGjc0w5GS5d2CQ
28 SERVO 07.2015
Shuffler feet.
Suckspin.
His game is tight.
