The Blender

The Blender from Richardson High School in Dallas, Texas won the 2007 BotsIQ competition.









Make sure to read the bottom of E2V2. In case you can't make it out, it says "If you can read this, we're screwed."
Talk about an action shot.

A big part of the competition is luck. The Blender is a fantastic bot, but so many bots in the high school competition are WEDGES! They were going to make san francisco mandatory active weapon, but repealed that for the high school division...

Dan Curhan wrote:

A big part of the competition is luck. The Blender is a fantastic bot, but so many bots in the high school competition are WEDGES! They were going to make san francisco mandatory active weapon, but repealed that for the high school division...

They shouldn't have. What's engineering a robot without innovation? I think it completely kills the meaning and purpose of Battle bots.

SenaiERI

I absolutely agree!
I hate wedges cause they're so unimaginative...

Dan Curhan wrote:

I absolutely agree!
I hate wedges cause they're so unimaginative...

That's why we have to make sure the drum spinners and full body spinners own the competition.

In 07 (the year after E2V2 won) there were a lot of wedge robots because a wedge won the previous year. The next year, there were a lot of full body and drum spinners, and a few...interesting attempts at bar spinners, and that was simply because a full body spinner won the previous year. Hopefully we'll see some new concepts this year.

"True engineering only comes when you want to see two robots fight it out."-me


SenaiERI

You have to admit the chunk of steel they call mighty knight is an awesome bot tho

isn't mighty night the bot with a 1/2" titanium wedge and huge aluminum blocks to ADD weight to it?

Dan Curhan wrote:

I absolutely agree!
I hate wedges cause they're so unimaginative...

You haven't seen our wedges yet!! They have a secret "weapon"!! And they are far from unimaginative...

CuddleBunny wrote:

You haven't seen our wedges yet!! They have a secret "weapon"!! And they are far from unimaginative...

You're 100% correct. Our wedges are more imaginative than your spinners, ours has never been done before; your robots all pretty much have been done before, or at least, that type of robot has been done before.

Actually, SpiderPig's weapon has been done before, but as far as I know it has only been done once by a much smaller robot several years ago. Also, I don't think that one was quite as overpowered as SpiderPig...

If you have ever seen the inside of the blender, You would know that the way we spin it is far from unimaginative. and as far as I know, we where the first to do it and still one of the few who do it well. Considering that the blender has been around since 2002, when it was thought up, It was a HUGE step forward from what exsisted before.

Is it the same method used in Blender Mini? (dual friction-drive with suspension for optimal contact?)

Yeah, it is acomplished differently in Blender but the same basic concept. it takes all the forces away from the motors and gearbox. the wheels will actually do burnouts when we hit someone. The whole system acts like a slip clutch making eccentially a one way valve for energy. The spring pressure is always experimented with.

Ah, nice. Well, I can say with some certainty then that SpiderPig will not break Blender's weapon.

Although I'm increasingly uncertain if even one would be able to damage the other - the bits & pieces I'm getting from RE Robotics suggests it might make Mighty Knight look fragile by comparison. Hell, from just the chassis pictures alone I can already tell you it's more heavily designed than anything Bergen has put together up to this point in time.

Spider Pig reminds me of The Brick. I'm not too worried about spider pig because it is aluminum and Tool Steel vs aluminum is not good odds no matter how thick it is. We once broke through 3/4 stainless in the shop so 1 inch aluminum shouldn't be suck a large stretch.

Aha! Yet another person failing to make the distinction that chassis =/= armor plate! SpiderPig is a wedge - and none of the surfaces on the chassis in those pictures are angled.

I'm Not quite sure what you mean. Are you trying to say that it will have wedges on it too?

Either that, or it's the first wedge-less wedge ever in Battlebots history.

Jeff L wrote:

Either that, or it's the first wedge-less wedge ever in Battlebots history.

LMFAO!!! but then again...cuddlebunny was supposed to be wedge. now it is going to be a plow. who knows what decisions they have made for the 120 during spring break...