The Idea Dump

godughifu wrote:

Sean Rubin wrote:

Jeff L wrote:

godughifu wrote:

Sean Rubin wrote:

and you would also need to find out how and where the shrapnel from the opponent's robot will go. If inside the robot...need an open space. If outside...how?

You'd basically have to make the robot kind of like a carwash type thing

Have the stationary blades just 'open' on the top and/or bottom (not open as in move, open as in they're just sort of sitting out there with no armored casing). The blades would be only capable of taking a certain sized chunk out at a time, which would likely ride along on the blade until it just fell out. You would want the robot capable of driving over the little chunks that would fall pretty much under your robot though, unless the blade spun upwards, which would mean the debris could be dealt with much easier.

But then it would be a drum. Wouldn't shred easily. It needs to spin down.

No it needs to spin sideways.

@ Sean: spinning upwards is fine, so long as the stationary blades are positioned correctly.

@ Dughi: It actually doesn't matter at all what direction it spins, you just want to pick the direction it's most likely to catch onto something and pull it in. Downward is actually the easiest and most reliable method, particularly if the crusher is built into the surface of a wedge.

but car wash type thing is cooler.

MAKE YOUR NEXT POST A GOOD ONE!!

It also wastes valuable weight.

Oh, and for clarification, I'm thinking this weapon could have a single blade (or set of blades on one axle), and the other set is completely stationary and non-driven.

Jeff L wrote:

Oh, and for clarification, I'm thinking this weapon could have a single blade (or set of blades on one axle), and the other set is completely stationary and non-driven.

BUT THATS NOT AS FUN JEFF, WE NEED TO MAKE THIS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

godughifu wrote:

Jeff L wrote:

Oh, and for clarification, I'm thinking this weapon could have a single blade (or set of blades on one axle), and the other set is completely stationary and non-driven.

BUT THATS NOT AS FUN JEFF, WE NEED TO MAKE THIS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shredding robots into tiny pieces is fun enough already. If you want more fun, give it a silly paint job or ridiculous running lights.

MAKE IT PINK WITH FLUFFY THINGS AROUND THE TOP AND A BIG RIBBON!!

AND CALL IT BUBBA!!

Jeff L wrote:

godughifu wrote:

Jeff L wrote:

Oh, and for clarification, I'm thinking this weapon could have a single blade (or set of blades on one axle), and the other set is completely stationary and non-driven.

BUT THATS NOT AS FUN JEFF, WE NEED TO MAKE THIS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shredding robots into tiny pieces is fun enough already. If you want more fun, give it a silly paint job or ridiculous running lights.

They both need to be spinning Jeff, what if something gets caught in the non-moving one and we can't get it out cuz that one needs to go in reverse to get it out?

godughifu wrote:

Jeff L wrote:

godughifu wrote:

Jeff L wrote:

Oh, and for clarification, I'm thinking this weapon could have a single blade (or set of blades on one axle), and the other set is completely stationary and non-driven.

BUT THATS NOT AS FUN JEFF, WE NEED TO MAKE THIS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shredding robots into tiny pieces is fun enough already. If you want more fun, give it a silly paint job or ridiculous running lights.

They both need to be spinning Jeff, what if something gets caught in the non-moving one and we can't get it out cuz that one needs to go in reverse to get it out?

Nope, jamming would not be a problem with a single spinning blade and a fixed blade, as long as the rotation direction for the spinning blade could be reversed. Trust me, you do NOT want do have to deal with two sets of spinning blades.

i was thinking about this and i thought up a kind of funny way to suck robots into the grinder. have a super-strong and thick cord or cable or something like that, and have it so that one end is fixed, and the other is retractable but very powerfully so, so it makes half a loop extended out on short arms. Have them rotate so that they start off pointing up, then very quickly snap down so the cable goes around the bot, then retract the end of the cable to squeeze the other bot into the grinder...

something like that?

The cable idea could work out pretty well, but for this setup it's not entirely necessary. Mainly it depends on where you decide to put the shredder; if the shredder is on top of a wedge, just driving into another robot should be enough to keep it in position.

if you look on Near Chaos robotics website one of the team members has already designed something similar that i guess he is making some progress on
IMO its almost like melty brain

yeah, the only problem I can think of is making sure it's the shell that spins and not the internals. It shouldn't be impossible to make sure the right parts spin though, helicopters manage to make it work just fine. It'll be a bit of a different kind of engineering challenge though.

but helicopters do it with that funky sideways rotor to stop the body from spinning... the internals would need some sort of high-friction ground interface or something...

You might be able to use an internal wheel with its own motor contacting the disk to hold the internals steady - similar principle to what helicopters use, different implementation.

very true...

Whats wrong with internals spinning? didn't you see blender mini this year?

If the internals are spinning you're wasting energy that could be going 100% into driving the weapon. Also, making a good control system would be a royal pain for spinning internals. With 'heli-style' internals you can actually do some fairly interesting things in terms of maneuvering - for example, you can rotate to face a new direction insanely fast. It wouldn't move quite as fast forward or backward as a robot with an omni-drive would (since it would rely on its weight shifting around), but that's fine really. Along with that, you actually could make the entire robot 100% invertible, and far more resistant to damage (no wheels). Really, it's sort of in-between meltys and typical spinners.

I don't care what anyone says. spinning internals can be cool too. mabye not as effective but who dosn't like gravity defying robots???

i just noticed something matt, your shell changed color at the comp because it is red in another video.

jeeves_m_d wrote:

i just noticed something matt, your shell changed color at the comp because it is red in another video.

Well you see. I used a special charged molecule that allows me to change the color of my shell by running different colors through it.

ok mabye not.

actually the red one was my backup shell. . I had enough divets here and there on the first shell from the first match that I said why not and changed it out. I liked the red one's looks better anyway!

the bad ones totally bad ass
And as for spinning internals, if you had them spinning right with the shell (ie melty brain) your not really waisting energy but adding weight to your weapon

aha, but this one should be considerably more difficult to immobilize, so long as it's made out of the right materials. There's also just the plain coolness factor of having a giant top for a robot with no apparent exterior mechanisms to control its movement.