How I started building Robots

Simon Windisch · Post by **Simon Windisch** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:33 am

I have a memory of a similar topic in the past, but I couldn't find it, so might I suggest that we all put in a few words of how why and when we started building robots, partially for our own interest and also for any new visitors to this site:

So Nathan (then four years old) was robot crazy back in 2002, so much so that I contemplated building a robot, then came across antweights on the web, went to see them at the Easter Robot Rumble in 2003, and attended my first robot event in a naval base near Portsmouth (Everyone else pulled out so I was the only one there!) then the Featherweight Smash at Redditch Town Hall on August 8th 2003, and the rest is history.

Andrew_Hibberd · Post by **Andrew_Hibberd** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 3:04 pm

I read a guide in the cybot magazine about 100g antweights (before it was 150g) and it looked really simple, so at 16 i bought the parts from the guide. My first event was the roaming robots event in preston 2004, then aws14. Working on trying to get more reliable robots!

Socrates Christidis · Post by **Socrates Christidis** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 5:03 pm

Andre was also a robot fanatic. He was 6 years old when we first attended a robot event (RRC 10) in September 2006. It should be said that Simon's enthusiasm was infectious and help invaluable for us to develop into this hobby.

Team Orr · Post by **Team Orr** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 7:47 pm

iv been a robot fanatic for as long as i can remember, but it didnt really go anywhere more than rc cars and cardboard untill i came across the antweight robot wars fights on youtube, i was amazed and did some more research and found anougher video called robot builders guide, after learning the basics from that i came across simons site which was awsome, and then found this site

i came to my first event back in 2008 which wa aws 26 and the rest is hisory......i now have 10 ants (and fleas) and 3 feathers, and 2 heavys, i also now host rfrc and am hosting aws 30 in ovember 2009

jack

Team Terror · Post by **Team Terror** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:19 pm

I have loved Robot Wars for years, about this time last year, I discovered this website and bought a Pants kit, and Dave Weston helped me get into the sport and taught me about various aspects of ants. I also learned alot from Simon's 6 step guide to building an antweight.

razerdave · Post by **razerdave** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:19 pm

With me, I started out trying to build a heavyweight, having been a huge RW fan since day 1, but found I was way in over my head, so after hearing about the smaller weight classes I decided to try at the smallest, and I bought Pete's kit after learning more about ants from Pete at Kettering, Build FIN and Baby Hell with it, attended AWS 19 with them and the rest is history

3 years on and I have much improved robots, much better understanding of electronics and mechanics, and I've met some fantastic people along the way.....

But I still can't drive the damn things!!!

Flippt · Post by **Flippt** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:29 pm

I'll speak as the only remaning Swedish antweight roboteer;

Name: Joacim Schwartz
Age: 20
Resident: Sweden

Since Robot Wars series 4 (Sweden was always a year behind with each season) I have been hooked on this hobby. I remembering standing almost hypnotized in a Pizza restaurant which had the TV on and showing Robot Wars for the first time.

Soon as we got broadband (0,5mb/s, Oh yeah!) I started searching for tips and guides. But I sooned realized that they were all in English, which was not easy for me at age 13.
But I managed to read enought to find antweights! Soon I found a Swedish forum and started to build my very first antweight, Flippt! (yes, the exclamation mark has been there since start), which concisted of cardboard and alot of ductape.

Over the years I have followed the evolution of Antweights, been traveling over seas many times, met new fantastic people and even won a Antweight World Series once, taking the trophie home to Sweden.

I'm glad to have been a part of this hobby, although I have been inactive lately. I'm comming to fight for the trophie once more at AWS30!

Damn, thats alot longer post then I thought it would be.

peterwaller · Post by **peterwaller** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:28 am

Like most I saw RobotWars on television and thought that looks exciting. So I set about building a Heavy Weight but being me it had to build my own catapiller tracks and designed my own 225 Amp speed controller which was the part that failed. I can't remember the exact date I started but it took about 18 months to complete and I have a picture of it dated July 2000. It only won one of the qualifier heats for RobotWars so never got on the show. I then saw the antweights and thought I could build one of those in doors rather than in the cold garage and CombatAnt was born and I never went back to the heavy which is still collecting dust at the back of my garage. My first event was AWS 3 at Guildford Uni in Oct 2000.

Post by **BeligerAnt** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:41 pm

James and I had followed RobotWars and TechnoBots on the TV (like everyone else!). The idea of building a robot appealed and I had the knowledge, but not the equipment - and I?m no good at welding. Also the cost was prohibitive and the entry level was getting higher with each series.

Then we went to Brighton Modelworld in February 2002. (James was 8 years old.) We met a certain Mr Collier and a bunch of nice people with some very small robots...

With my experience in model-making I could see that this was a much more achievable goal, the cost was much more reasonable, I already had most of the necessary tools, and we could do it on the kitchen table!

We had the first version of R.O.N.N.Y. (Robot Of No Name Yet) built in time for AWS 8 in North London in June 2002.

The rest, as they say, is history...

joey_picus · Post by **joey_picus** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:10 pm

Some quite interesting stories here

I'd followed Robot Wars almost since day one, it was my main obsession while growing up until about the fifth series when, for reasons I can't really remember, I drifted away from it (I still think to this day the earlier series were among the best, you got all sorts of designs which were of dubious effectiveness but had a certain charm and innovation that you didn't get in later series).

I stumbled back into robots in late 2007 while surfing the net one day, and quite a lot more robot related surfing followed before I started working on fulfilling my dream and getting into the community, initially I just did fanfic and got in the way a lot before beginning to seriously plan a featherweight - which I am actually getting done now! - plans which went through several revisions before I bought a large aluminium sheet from Dave Weston, who offered to sell me some micro geared motors as well...and thus I threw those motors together with parts bought and begged from various places, turned up at AWS29 with the first Jigsaw, caught the bug from seeing the battles in the flesh and meeting lots of like minded people, and thus got fully and irreversibly into antweights largely by accident