Gravity: Digital 5A RelayPrice: $2.95
MX-106 Arbotix Starter KitPrice: $699.95
MX-64 Arbotix Starter KitPrice: $509.95
MX-28 Arbotix Starter KitPrice: $369.95
AX-18 Arbotix Starter KitPrice: $239.95
Forum User jpieper has made a 3DOF quadruped robot of his own design, using Dongbu DRS-0101 servos. It starts off slowly, but is surprisingly speedy and exceedingly steady. This robot has since been upgraded with a turret and a gimbal, making it Mech Warfare Ready. Check out the thread for more updates! jpieper has a new chassis in the works, and intends to use an integrated odroid daughterboard in the next version. Very cool!
RTEAM Robotics Club from Tuscon, Arizona has been expanding their army of Mech Warfare combatants! Currently, they are testing out the use of Piezoelectric Speaker Scoring Panels instead of the FSR panels that have become a standard lately. This came about due to the expansion in number of mechs, and a lack of materials for half of them. User giantflaw offered some insight as to the continued use of Piezoelectric Speaker Scoring Panels:
RTEAM piezoelectric target plates are fully compatible with the existing target plate system and I think offer 6 advantages over the FSR plates. 1.) They are much more sensitive than the FSRs 2.) They register target plate hits reliably every time and never resgister any robot vibration or shock to the robot. The target plates are oblivious to walking gait. 3.) They are much cheaper than FSR target plates and easliy made with analog components. 4.) They can be de-tuned to be less sensitive and mimic an FSR low sensitivity target plate. 5.) There are no dead zones in the target panel like there are on FSR target panels. 6.) The target panel can be any shape or size unlike the FSR target panels. 7.) The target panels are tougher than the FSR plates and are not easily damaged.
If you’d like to see what the buzz is all about, hop in on this thread!
After a short break and a successful Kickstarter campaign, RoboGames, the world’s largest robotics competition, is back! Trossen Robotics participated in Mech Warfare at RoboGames multiple times, winning awards and inspiring the next generation of roboticists alongside friends in the robotics community. We’re glad to see them return. If you can’t make it out to the event in San Mateo, California, don’t worry. RoboGames will be producing professional, high quality video of the event to be released online, on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc, so you won’t miss out on the action!
Production value on the videos taken at this year’s event will be of higher quality, but here’s a bit of video from the 2012 Mech Warfare at RoboGames.
The Arms are done!
We’re proud to unveil our new arms, the PhantomX Reactor Robot Arm and its little brother the PhantomX Pincher Robot Arm. These arms are based around the Dynamixel AX-12 Robot Servos and are controlled with the Arbotix RoboController, so you have an amazing amount of control over these arms. The Reactor Arm also has a ‘Wrist Rotate’ option, to add another level of functionality to your arm.
Stay tuned for more videos about the design of this arm, as well as examples of all of the amazing things it can do.
Last week Mech Warfare Veteran Upgrayd came to Trossen Robotics to solder a batch of the new Mech Warfare transponder boards (You can see a video of him soldering the first batch of boards here.) In no time flat he had the boards built and ready to get sent out.
This year Mech Warfare is using a new custom built score keeping system – the MWScore System. Designed by Upgrayd, the MWScore System is completely open source (the MWScore Server, the transponder PCB files, and the transponder firmware are available for download here.)
The transponder interfaces with several force sensing resistors to register hits against the mech. These hit are reported to the MWScore Server via an Xbee connection, and displayed on the central server. The hit also triggers the new LED sub-board, that will flash 4-ultarbirght LEDs whenever a hit is registered. More details about the system are available at the MWScore site and this TRC forum post
Here’s a video of the scoring system in action.
Our old friend Che is a bit special. He has pet ducks, snakes, really ugly dogs, and a really hot wife. He wears his mom’s leather pants. He’s also into robo-masochism: meaning he lets his paintball-equipped robots shoot the crap out of him, all the while filming it for the internet’s enjoyment. We have weird friends.
He also has a great custom humanoid project that he has shared with the TRC, Hi No Hikari. This rather large humanoid robot is a kung-fu competitor and Mech-Warfare veteran. “It” also wears dresses, kimonos, and sometimes has flowers tucked into it’s mechanics. I don’t know, don’t ask me. We’re fully supportive of alternative robot lifestyles, but sometimes it’s better that we just not ask. Giger did not appreciate the dress at last year’s Mech-Warfare. He muttered something about “damn hippies” and proceeded to shoot Hi No Hikari in his/her flowery face.
With all that said, it’s been a great learning experience for Che, and one that he has shared with us every step of the way. This was his first attempt at a PLM design and he started off using AX-12+’s, eventually upgrading to the more powerful RX-28s.
Seeing this project progress from Hi No Hikari’s first steps to what he’s achieved now has been great! Check out his latest progress in the video below, we can’t wait to see even more come from this project!
Cire came to our forums with a background in mechanical engineering and an insatiable urge to get involved with Mech Warfare. Inspired by Starcraft 2, he wanted to build a Mech that was based on the Protoss ranged support unit, the Immortal. He did his research, started with rough 3D CAD drawings, and ultimately decided to use AX-12+ Dynamixels & the Arbotix Robocontroller with it’s NUKE engine as a basis for his platform.
His project thread documents the progress he made, from someone with minimal previous electronics and programming knowledge, to someone with a highly competitive and fully functional Mech Warfare platform. Aesthetically this quad Mech hits the mark perfectly with its custom machined aluminum frame; Immortal is only very polished project that is sure to prove a fierce competitor at Robogames this April. Cire also went the extra mile and integrated a 4th degree of freedom in each leg; the position of the tip of each leg uses the angle values of the rest of the leg to maintain a perpendicular orientation to the ground. Be sure to check in with the competition results to see how he fares at Mech Warfare 2011!
So this video is SERIOUSLY long overdue, given that Mech Warfare 2010 happened back in April earlier this year at Robogames. We got crazy busy over the summer & fall and publishing this video sort of slipped under our radar. But- here it is in all it’s glory! If you don’t know what Mech Warfare is please do yourself a favor and check out the website or join our community for the latest Mech Warfare discussions!
When we were out at Robogames 2010, the multimedia crew from WIRED Magazine showed up and hung out with us for a bit. They loved the Mech Warfare competition and asked if they could do some interviews with the competitors. Here is the result!
We came, we blew stuff up, we conquered! Mech Warfare at Robogames 2010 in San Mateo was an absolute blast! We had Fon Davis of Fonco Creative & MORAV show up with his crew and custom build us a fully destructible 1/24 scale urban arena! Needless to say, the arena looked AMAZING this year! We had a total of 14 teams registered and close to 30 people participating this year; the competition is growing leaps and bounds over its first year. We’re still recovering from a long weekend at Robogames but we’ll have plenty of more coverage of the event in short time. For now, here are the winners, some pictures, and a great post & video by BotJunkie that highlights the event very nicely. We had some really awesome and nail-biting matches that were down to the wire, and everyone involved had a TON of fun- we hope to see even more people getting involved for next year!
