SERVO 05.2015 29
At this point, I have been in the combat robot circuit for four years now (starting in 2010),
and I have understood much more
about engineering in general from
being in this sport. This particular
article chronicles my first leap into an
all-custom competitive Beetleweight
robot: El Destructo.
My primary robot has been Play'n
Krazy (PK) — a Weta kit that I built up
from a chassis given to me by a
competitor named Zac O'Donnell at
the Franklin Institute Competition in
October 2011. I constructed Play'n
Krazy (Figure 1) using a
Pete Smith of Kitbots. It can be found
at www.teamrollingthunder.
com/Kitbots/3lb_Kits/Weta1/body
_weta1.html.
PK has gone on to win third place
at Franklin Institute 2011 and at Bot
Blast 2013, as well as Highest Hit
Award at Bot Blast 2013. PK has
competed in many tournaments and
has been a very reliable work horse.
However, I have always yearned to
create my own robot by using the
knowledge I had accumulated after
talking to builders and working on PK.
The process started when I had
purchased the last few 24 mm 16:1
gearboxes from BaneBots. I loved their
insane amounts of power and speed,
which allowed me to have superior
driving to out-maneuver the
opponent. However, these motors are
much longer than the usual 1,000
RPM motors sold by KitBots. The
result of such width inspired me to
create a beater bar that is wide
enough to handle this.
Since I was — and still am —
unable to create a beater bar, I asked
Mr. Smith to machine a custom beater
bar (Figure 2) for me that is much
longer than the usual Weta beater
bars he creates. The combination of
the beater and the motors are the key
to El Destructo's
design.
I then shaped frame rails similar
to that of Weta’s (Figure 3), only I
made the chassis profile thinner and
more tightly angled. For this phase of
construction, I was able to contact a
friend whose father owned a machine
shop, and managed to receive some
wonderful frame rails (complete with
custom lettering!) and began to go to
work (Figure 4).
El Destructo competed in its first
event at Franklin Institute 2012, and
A Brave New World
● by Brandon Young
Figure 3.
(Photo courtesy of Kitbots.)
Figure 2.
Figure 1.
Figure 4.
