Tested out my new Combat Robot this weekend, over at the TechCenter Takedown competition in Norman, OK. I named it 'Ozempic', a joke on it's EXTREMELY THIN size. This was a fun project, and the first battle bot that a designed by myself and I am extremely proud of it!
To win in Combat Robotics (by SPARC rules), you must score points in the Criteria of 'Damage, Control, and Aggression'. Ozempic is a type of Combat Robot that would be considered a Wedge, which means it has no weapon and relies on winning by the other two criteria of Control and Aggression. I researched and looked at a lot of wedges, and asked "Just for fun... How flat can I make this?"... And got to work.
The biggest points of note in how I achieved this size is by 1) removing 'unnecessary' pins and wire headers and soldered wires directly to the ESC and Receiver pads. And 2) The battery... I could not find any LiPo battery packs (2S and up) available in a flat form-factor. I researched the wiring and actual teardown videos of 2S LiPo's to understand them and how they're created... Then I tried to make my own lol.
It works too!! I created a 2S LiPo cell pack. Gives power, charges, and balances when used with my club's LiPo Battery Charger. Tested a few times now. I'll include a schematic on the concept of creating a 2S LiPo Cell Pack, but there's 2 main things to consider: Using the same batteries from the same manufacturer, and big enough wire gauge to avoid any magic smoke.
I managed to get Ozempic's total size to 19.75mm (≈0.75in), and I hope to make it even flatter someday! It's first real test was at the TechCenter Takedown competition, and it did REALLY good for a first test. I made it to Round 3 Qualifiers. I won Round 1 by a technical knockout. Round 2, despite the opponent scaring me on a few close hits, I completely controlled the arena and won by the necessary criteria. It was a REALLY good fight, and had I had a lot of fun. Hope we can do another battle someday!... Round 3, however, I got obliterated. Took my forks off one by one, then completely broke my bot in half. Still fun, but sadly I was out of the match after that.
To watch Ozempic in action, check out my Youtube compilation here: https://youtu.be/xpIEY6QQk4g. You can also check out the whole competition here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NKJJNQu_mA, there were a lot of cool bots and fun moments!
-Thanks for reading, Allen.