The PVC Bots
6 Leg Bot -
This robot was an experiment to determine if I could make some
leg linkages that can be spun really quickly. I was trying to minimize
the amount of lifting that each leg does while maximizing their horizontal
motion. The legs were inspired by the way Pressure Drop works. I was
trying various different foot designs to try to achieve very smooth
motion. This robot works reasonably well but has too many moving parts
for me to consider turning into a battle-bot (on our first try at least!).
2 Leg Bot -
This robot is has only two legs and drags itself. It really
needs an onboard micro-controller to keep the legs synced as it currently
bounces around too much. Turning is also very slow. I'm not sure about
the viability of this design idea for battlebots. I think it could be
good if the leg syncing and turning issues are solved. I had planned to
put a huge vertical spinning disk between the two front legs; kind of an
unholy union between Pressure Drop and Backlash.
Circular Bot -
This robot is just a simple two wheel drive robot that I
decided to build after getting frustrated with the low mobility of the
legged bots. There was a serious design flaw with this robot; I tried to
make the two casters and two drive wheels perfectly level. While I did
get the robot pretty level, this greatly reduces the normal force on the
drive wheels; causing them to spin out a lot. I found that the design
worked a lot better by making only one caster ever contact the ground and
let the robot "tip" a little whenever reversing direction. Another flaw
is that the casters don't always straighten all the way out; causing the
robot to drive in arcs rather than straight lines.