Looking for an outlet to my electronics itch that I've been feeling lately, I turned to a show I grew up watching: BattleBots. It's always something I've thought would be fun to do, but never felt like I have had the tools to do so. Nowadays with my 3D modeling capabilities, access to necessary tools, and funds to support this journey, I'm finally starting.

Unfortunately, the show has been halted until further notice so I will not be creating a 200 lb weapon death trap within my apartment. However, there's a few local leagues that offer an antweight division where I can start at 1 lb with only plastic parts and work my way up from there.

So far I've purchased the parts necessary to get the bot moving: remote transmitter, receiver, gearmotors, motor ESCs, power switch, battery, and foam wheels. Although ItGresa Robotics had beginner kits with everything needed to start, I preferred to design my own bot and got the parts individually instead. So far I've been working on a rough concept model that I've been refining as I reiterate quickly on 3D printed parts. The image in the header of this post is what I've come up with so far. The big focus has been on figuring out how to fit all of the electronic components within the chassis efficiently so I've started with the motors seeing as they're the biggest parts. To flush mount them inside the chassis I created this part to have a heat set threaded insert so it can be fastened to the chassis from the outside:

The image above is an example of what I am going to start with. Horizontal spinners like this one have proven themselves highly effective at generating enough energy and momentum to deal lots of damage in a few key hits. However in the short searches I've done, I haven't seen many used in the plastic antweight leagues. I think most people prefer vertical spinners that don't put so much shear stress on their weapons, but I want to make this concept work if I can.

Side note: I actually know David Eaton, the creator of Rusty, who participated in BattleBots while it aired. I used to stack hay with him at his family's farm.

After a few iterations, I got a test print off and things fit very well. I'll keep y'all updated as I continue to make more progress.

Thanks for reading!