Build Diary 2000
Here is a rough version of the layout of Big PAnts. If you want to see the original PAnts antweight robot, click on the back button and go to the Antweight section. From left to right, the axe arm is driven by the large central ram. The ram is driven by CO2 from the fire extinguishers: the little ones being used as buffer tanks. Just behind that is the new speed controller system. The drive system is more or less lifted straight from MPM and is two C5 motors driving a 45:1 ratio downshift to the go-kart wheels. The frame is all being pre-drilled and the drive system has been made lighter to allow for the weight of the weapon. Control will now come from a 6 channel PCM controller.
The building principle behind Big PAnts is simple enough - the weapon is everything! The weapon has three functions: axe, self-righting, flipping of opposition. To be able to provide this ability, it needs to be both strong and powerful, so if other areas have to be skimped to make way for the extra weight, sobeit. In this picture you can see the axe mechanism in construction. The design is similar to that used in several axes - including Shunts for series III. I'm trying to build in interchangable axes so that different cutting heads can be used for different materials. The ram can produce about 1000N of force at 10 bar...but who said we were sticking to 10bar:-) The biggest problem is flowrate - this requires a huge switchvalve to be good enough.
The first picture of the layout proper. This is the bottom subframe welded and drilled with the drivegear all mounted ready to go. The position of the fire ex, speed cons, buffer tanks, etc is not fixed at this point in time. Much lighter than More Panda Monium was at this point though.
The top subframe also now welded into place. The angles were tricky to get right...even moreso when I realised that I couldn't actually get the robot in the car!! Note the test axehead that I made with some guidance from Arfa Chilcott (Mortis) - thanks Arfa!! The axe at this time have been through steel plate, polyprop (from Panda Monium) and ally. Nice!
This is just an arty shot of the axe really...just wanted to try something different. The length of the axe has changed quite a bit and so has the shape and material...not much really:-)
The sidepods have proved to be difficult the next two pictures were used to try and work out the correct shaping for them. They were going to be made of ally like the top, front and back, but I decided on polycarb in the end as it was lighter and easier to shape. You can see below the use of cardboard to check the dimensions before cutting. Sometimes the simplest ideas really are good and cardboard (like wood) is hugely underrated for this kind of task. The whole of Panda Monium and much of Big PAnts have been modelled in card.
The card has just been tapped in place to check fittings and dimensions. Quick and easy prototyping!