Build Diary June 2001

Things have been moving along at a fair old pace so far this month. We finally got the rest of the drive system sorted out and mounted. Then we attached a new base-board (the old one got a bit knackered when the cylinder went through it during Robot Mayhem 2000) to the chassis.

We started re-building the axe mechanism. One of the problems with it last year was that everything was a bit wobbly. So this year, we have put packing in on the axles to try and stabilise it. That seems to have helped alot. It also seems to have speeded things up slightly - no doubt there is less energy being wasted in the mechanism. The other thing which was needed was the new arm. The old one was bent in about 6 places after the RM2000 fight. This year we are using scaffold pole. It is much stronger, stiffer and holds its shape better. It is also 3 times heavier. The inital tests seem to show some major improvements.

This is a close-up of the new axe head (or one of them anyway). This is made from 6mm steel plate. We looked at the problems with last years blade and made the shape different and longer. We will also coat the blade to stop it sticking in plastic. The edge is very fine this time and it penetrates everything we put it through. It is mounted in a similar way, but we will pack the head area with more metal if we have time/weight.

The picture to the right is another new pneumatic component. This is the resistance valve on the retract side of the axe mechanism. This is needed as the retract is fair too violent currently and caused some minor damage last year. This valve allows the speed of the retract to be altered from full pelt to totally closed.

The picture to the left is another view of the robot in its current state. It also shows another possible position for the speed controllers. We are currently trying to source some of Dan Dannicks 4QD interfaces to replace the old analogue system. There are several options for new positions of the speed cons, but it will depend on the interface we end up using.

On the left side of the body you can also see the top of the new valve chassis which holds both the extend and retract valves securely. Last year these were held on with wire ties and I was never happy with it - it was done the night before RM2K!!