Servo - November 2015

also mount the Maxon gearbox pinion to the brushless motor shaft as in Figure 9.

Figure 10 is the final assembly. While the Loctite is curing, thread the motor into the gearbox joining the gear head and the motor. This effectively centers the motor in the gearbox and assures alignment. Final speed and torque will depend on the reduction of the gearbox (typically, either 17:1 or 68:1), size of the wheel, and drive voltage. Paired with the aerobatic firmware-based brushless drive, this brushless drive solution could provide the same speed and torque of a motor 4-8 times its weight while maintaining the fine low speed control of existing brushed gearmotors. This solution should also be quite durable with proven components. SV

30 SERVO 11.2015

The most recent season of BattleBots™has been a real inspiration to many. My son, Dylan, is one of those. He couldn’t wait for each episode to come on, and watching it gave him many ideas for making his own fighting robot. Once he learned about the Robot Battles event at Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA, he was ready to get building.

His robot, Caution is an update to an old robot design. It was created by using an old hacked BattleBot R/C toy and a kid’s plastic hardhat. The bot was completed a few days before the competition, so he took that time to practice driving. He took to it quickly and was able to control his test targets well. By Sunday, he was ready for the competition!

As we walked through the doors of the International Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Dylan was awestruck. The room was huge and filled with chairs pointing towards the stage where two Insect arenas stood: one for Antweights, and one for Beetleweights. To the right, the pits were about half full of builders already working on their bots and charging up batteries. We chose a table next to some familiar faces: Team Busted Nuts Robotics, the makers of Witch Doctor — a BattleBot that Dylan loved watching in action on the show.