Battle Robot's First Race

The day finally came — our baby robot deathbots raced and fought their way to glory.

We invited the rest of the company to play the game after work. Set in the loading dock, we bribed apprehensive attendees with adult refreshments. Participants picked up the robot controls quickly and healthy competition developed. Two final winners were selected based on their performance, who will choose the next weaponization option for the robots from a selected list.

The Game

The game was inspired by classic video games - Sonic and Mario Kart. 3 rings were modelled and laser cut in house before being spray painted. These rings were the ultimate objective - collect all three in your home base without losing all of your health before your opponent. Health balloons were created to save the bots from as much damage as they could potentially come under as the team had a limited budget. 

The rings were staggered across the loading dock floor for the bots to pickup. They could be 'lanced' and transported across the floor by the knife arm, of the robot, to home base. Health balloons were confetti filled clear balloons that created both a large noise and visual spectacular when one exploded.

The Robots

Bob and Ben - nicknames given to the red and blue robots respectively, had the final touches put on only the day before the race. Once rough prototypes were created to test the knife arms and health balloons, we got to updating the bodies in Fusion and laser cutting and printing the modifications. 

Knife arms were attachments made of lasercut wood that held spare Exacto knife blades. Easily changed out, and non-essential to the bot body, the weaponized arms proved resilient and easily repairable during the race.

Health balloons were purchased from Ginger Ray, and held on with 3D printed attachments to the bots for easy replacement during the races. The shape was designed to protect and hold the balloon base while exposing the head of the balloon for the competition.

Repairs and Modifications

We acknowledged going into this race that we would need to make repairs and modifications to the robots after the race based on challenges encountered during the event. Participants were going to use the robots in unexpected ways, and as this was an internal project, there were no funds for testing prior. Besides, it added to the magic of the live event — right?

Wheels were attached to the bodies with screws dipped in Loctite to 3D printed wheel wells. However, with the use and abuse of the race, we had one wheel on each bot fall off — usually after crashing. We will be testing new adhesive methods to ensure attachment with the continued ability to replace the part.

Health Balloons had a tendency to become un-attached when the bots quickly navigated at higher speeds. This appeared to increase as the size of the balloon increased, so we will be testing proper fill levels for the balloons.

Check out some race footage below and stay tuned for the next race, where additional weapons will be added based on the input of our two champions.