Posts Tagged ‘Mech’

Mech Warfare Featured in Issue 15 of Robot Magazine!

Friday, January 16th, 2009

The Mech Warfare competition, which was founded right here at the Trossen Robotics Community (TRC), continues to gain momentum as we count down the months until the debut at Robogames 2009 this summer. Our friends over at Robot Magazine had caught word of the competition, as well as the viral excitement of the builders involved, and asked me to write up an article outlining the competition, the rules, and the participants and their Mechs.

For those of you who may not have heard of Mech Warfare yet, it is a robotic competition in which participants construct remotely piloted walking robots armed with airsoft guns and other weapons to duke it out in an urban style arena. Think of it as small scale R/C MechWarrior.

If you’d like to check out the article, you can pick up the current issue of Robot Magazine in most major bookstores or order it online from our store. For more information on the Mech Warfare event, check out the Official Site and the Mech Warfare Forums. We hope to see you and your Mech at Robogames 2009!

Pololu Custom Laser Cutting Service Rocks!

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Creating custom parts for your bot can be a daunting task. That is, if you don’t know about Pololu’s Custom Laser Cutting Service. I recently needed some custom parts created for the upper torso of one of my bots for Mech Wars, and after look around a bit I decided to try out their service.

I have to give my highest recommendation to this service provided by the great folks at Pololu. I personally can’t afford a CNC or Laser Cutting machine, but now I don’t need to. I sent in a 2D CAD file of my design (they can also create one for you from a drawing), selected what type of plastic I wanted it cut from, and they got back to me promptly with a price quote which made my jaw drop. Extremely affordable, prompt and courteous service, and the results were fantastic. Again, I can’t recommend their service enough, it should literally be considered another tool in your toolbox. If needing a custom part for your project ever held you back, look no further.

Here are some pictures of the parts I ordered (Click to Enlarge):

Here’s the assembled upper torso with Airsoft guns mounted.

And here’s the frame of the Mech, Hagetaka, put together (for the most part, needs a lot of work and a paintjob):