Remember when Dicovery Canada came to shoot a video segment? Well here’s the video you’ve all been waiting for (Andrew’s segment starts at 7:15). We know what we think about the video…
Posts Tagged ‘Mech Warfare’
Mech Warfare Video on Discovery Canada
Friday, June 1st, 2012
Discovery Canada Visits Trossen Robotics
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Yesterday, a camera crew for Discovery Canada stopped by Trossen Robotics to interview Andrew Alter and get some footage of his mech, Insanity Wolf. This footage, along with footage taken at RoboGames/ Mech Warfare 2012 will be part of a segment for Discovery’s Daily Planet show. The segment will be focusing on everything Mech Warfare.
Andrew gave the crew a tour of Trossen Robotics, showing off our Laser CNC, our robot army and the rest of our facilities. The crew was eager to get some great shots of Insanity Wolf, even putting themselves in the line of fire to land the perfect shot.
The segment will air later this month and it will be available online on Discovery Canada’s Website. We’ll keep you posted with a direct link as soon as its available.
Forum Friday – Mech Warfare, a Kinect Arm and more!
Friday, May 4th, 2012
It’s friday and it’s time to take a look at what’s going on in the Trossen Robotics Community!
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Gertlex has posted some photos of ‘Numa’ from Mech Warfare, including a photo of the 2012 Mech Warfare champions.
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Hivemind uploaded a picture of the awesome ‘KaiNaut’
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Kamondelious has some shots of an imposing looking walker
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The Mech Warfare 2012 Video Thread has some great footage of this year’s matches and a even a Video Montage from Botjunkie.
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Darkback2 has some Great Videos of an updated Hi No Hikari including a motion test and a firing test.
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User Gort has been working with his Kinect to control a basic robot arm. This arm might be made out of popsicle sticks but this projects, combined with Gort’s other work, has alot of potential.
Until next week, keep the posts, pictures and projects coming by registering for the TRC and sharing on the forum and image galleries.
Mech Warfare 2012- The Final Match
Monday, April 30th, 2012This year Mech Warfare had quite a few new upgrades. Between a new scoring system/server, a new arena and even more new competitors, there was a lot on the line. Well, we’re proud to report that Mech Warfare 2012 was a huge success. 15 qualifying teams battled it out to see whose mech would reign supreme.
In this video you’ll see the final Mech Warfare 2012 match. Squaring off were Mech Warfare 2011 Champion “Immortal” and our own Andrew Alter’s “Insanity Wolf”. This match was incredibly exciting not only because of the amazing technical ability of these two mechs but also because of the excellent piloting of their creators. Be sure to watch all the way through to see the conclusion to this down-to-the-wire match.
Stay tuned for more videos, pictures, and inside scoops on Mech Warfare 2012.
The Road to Mech Warfare: Score!
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
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.
“Read More” for more build pictures and another test video!
TechZwn Interviews Mech Warfare Founder
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
TechZwn has just posted a great article on Mech Warfare. The article includes an interview with Andrew Alter and explores the history of this awesome competition. It also explores how Mech Warfare works, its appeal and the need for a new arena.
In addition to TechZwn, Engadget,Gizmodo, PC World and IEEE Spectrum have posted some great articles about the Mech Warfare Kickstarter project.
Mech Warfare Needs a New Arena!
Thursday, March 15th, 2012
4 years ago our own Andrew Alter founded the Mech Warfare Competition. Since then, the event has grown massively with more and more competitors from around the globe. As the competitor pool and the event itself grow, so must the arena in which these robots battle. The PVC pipe and canvas tent just isn’t cutting it anymore. This year the Mech Warfare organizers want to build a lexan & aluminum armored arena to house the robot competitors.
That’s where you come in. $6000 is needed to make this new arena a reality and the organizers of Mech Warfare have set up a Kickstarter Project to fund it. The project is on its way, but it still has a ways to go. Your donation will help build an arena that will house Mech Warfare competitions for years to come, inspiring competitors and spectators alike.
Now we know that just the knowledge that you’re promoting the robotics cause is enough to get you to donate, but there are also some great thank you gifts for backers. These gifts include listing on the sponsors page, Mech Warfare and MORAV posters, and even having your name/company/website integrated into the arena itself. Just imagine your face looking down from a billboard onto the Mech Warfare Arena!
So checkout the Kickstarter Page and sign up to donate. Every little bit helps towards getting an awesome new arena for these awesome robots.
The Road to Mech Warfare: The Challenges
Thursday, March 15th, 2012With just a little over a month to go, the Mech Warfare scene is heating up! Back in December, Yoshihiro Shibata issued a challenge our good friend Che Edoga. Well Che certainly couldn’t take that sitting down : here’s his response.
Cross Dressing Robots!
Thursday, August 18th, 2011Our 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!
Project Spotlight: Immortal, Quad Mech
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011Cire 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!