Servo - December 2013

SERVO 12.2013 31

These wheels were discussed for their ease of use and suitability for use on robots weighing 30 lbs or less. If your application requires something that is not offered by the wheels covered here, you may be able to find something that will work at one of the following websites:

www.robotmarketplace.com/products/ wheels_main.html www.fingertechrobotics.com/products.php ?cat=Wheels+% 26+Hubs www.andymark.com/Wheel-s/229.htm www.vexrobotics.com/vexpro/wheels-and-hubs http://teamwhyachi.com/wheels.htm

Nearly six years ago, my wife and I completed our greatest accomplishment. We had successfully made our first fully autonomous (sometimes too autonomous) biped walker. Since then we've completed a second walker, but now we're into the really challenging part of working with bipeds: raising them.

My two boys have been following me to combat robot events since before they could walk.

My oldest son, Cayden, is turning six and my youngest son, Ethan is three and a half. Cayden has been to at least a half dozen events. Not too bad for someone whose hands are too small to hold the remote and drive at the same time. Ethan has been to probably three or four.

This article is a mini build report from my perspective of getting the bots and boys ready for their first event with their own "real" combots at Battle at Maker Faire, which took place on October 5th at the Orlando Mini Maker Faire.

History

Cayden has previously competed in two events and Ethan one. They both fought in the unmodified toy class at the Gulf Coast Robot Sports event in Bradenton, FL. The GCRS unmodified toy class was exactly as it sounds: Intended for the youngsters, kids brought their small RC cars that were unmodified and tried to push each other into the pit. The two boys ultimately went 1-2 in a field of about five. Daddy was extremely shocked and proud.

I knew at that time that we had something that could really flourish. I just had to get them into something a little more competitive. That's when I took my old broken Antweight vertical spinner and bolted a wedge on the front. The robot Speedy was born and Cayden used it at another GCRS event.

The wedge spent a previous life as a VCR case. It was relatively lightweight, but was easy to work with and gave me a nice sharp wedge. Cayden did well driving it, but unfortunately facing the tougher bots with more driving experience was too much for him. The important thing about having his own bot and competing against "the big kids" was that he was bitten by the bug.

Building Angry Bot

I was in the garage digging through my spare robot parts trying to get inspiration for my next robot, when Cayden came out to join me. We have a very similar personality when it comes to robots. We look at