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.