Robot Basics

Overview

Welcome to Battlebots! The environment of Battlebots will be fairly fast-paced. We only meet once a week for the first semester, which in the first few meetings will be spent on the ground work for what is probably the most engaging and important phase ... designing your robot. The purpose of this guide is to educate the reader, our new battlebots members, on some key factors relating to designs of robots and analyzing the pros and cons.

Types of Robots

The first step of designing your robot is to decide what type you want to build. There have been several different designs throughout the history of battlebots and competitions. However, this guide will cover some of the generic designs that show up consistently each year in competition. It is important to keep in mind that each type of robot has their own advantages. However, it goes without saying that they also have their disadvantages and difficulties.

Drum Spinners

Drum bots have a rotating cylindrical-shaped weapon (medium to large sized) usually attached with barbs or teeth attached to the cylindrical weapon to tear apart and flip opponent's bot. Drum bots are a good bot type for beginners and are quite common for new 3lb members to use as their first type.

Advantages

Drums, as mentioned, are a great bot for beginners. Their weapon is simple, yet quite reliable and destructive upon certain hits. Drum's weapons are generally sturdy because they are usually made from a block of metal, which means that it will be difficult for it to break. They allow your bot to be stable when you are attacking an opponent bot, dealing several quick and continuous attacks. If correctly designed, drums are capable of launching or flipping the opponent bots in the air. If your opponent's bot is not invertible and they get flipped, it is more than likely that they wont be able to continue and you will emerge victorious in that match. Speaking of invertibility, drums can be designed to be invertible which gives you an advantage when you get flipped.

Disadvantages

Because the nature of the weapon, Drum spinner bots generally have a very small strike zone. The heavy mass in the front of the bot rotating at high RPM will making driving your bot fairly difficult. Sometimes, with powerful weapons at high RPM, the gyroscopic forces acting on the bot could cause lift to occur on one side of the bot when turning. Similar to Horizontal/Vertical Bar Spinners, upon your weapon's contact on an opponent bot, the recoil from the impact could potentially cause damage to your own bot, sometimes making it immobile. If not properly designed or built, as with any heavy hitting weapon type, the weapon could be ripped apart. The weapon is generally sturdy, however, after direct attacks from opponent bot or extended contact, it is likely for your weapon to be damaged and will be less effective.

Summary (Drum Spinners)
Advantages	Disadvantages
Sturdy weapon	Small strike zone
Powerful weapon capable of flipping opponent bot	Gyroscopic effects cause control and turning issues
Could be designed invertible	Potential self-inflicting damage
High damage output	Weapon could get ripped off / damaged