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Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 7:13 am
by The Monsterworks
Yeah, I could see that working, though a lot of people will make the case that they can just angle in on your claws unless you have a really nice drivetrain. I take it you're going control spinner on this one?

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 9:02 am
by British-Robotics
How strong are those claws?

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 10:30 am
by Cha0sFerret
<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>The Monsterworks</dt><dd>Apr 8 2017, 07:13 AM</dd></dl><div>Yeah, I could see that working, though a lot of people will make the case that they can just angle in on your claws unless you have a really nice drivetrain. I take it you're going control spinner on this one?[/quote]Yep. I don't really think of it as a spinner, it's more like a flipper that can eat wheels sometimes.

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>British-Robotics</dt><dd>Apr 8 2017, 09:02 AM</dd></dl><div>How strong are those claws?[/quote]About 8 armor worth of strong :v:

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 5:48 pm
by Wolf51-50
Steven would love this :P it's definitely an interesting idea

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 1:51 am
by Cha0sFerret
Introducing my first hammerbot that will actually compete:

Image

I used a completely different lighting setup from usual for this render, with an HDRI map for lighting and environment reflections. I also remembered that the subdivision surface modifier exists and used it to make the upward curve of the floor smoother.

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:32 am
by patrickrowberry
its a render version of smackdown

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 2:06 pm
by Cha0sFerret
I haven't changed anything about the bot, but I learned how to make more realistic shadows and I just want to post a side-by-side comparison because I'm super freakin' excited.

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/5eMZAZ5.png" alt="Posted Image" width='400' height='225' /> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/DsLYKD0.png" alt="Posted Image" width='400' height='225' />

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:38 pm
by Cha0sFerret
We all know the overhead thwack. It's a successful sub-archetype of brick that doesn't get quite enough love. I made one earlier today. Say hello to Wedgelord:

Image

On the surface, we have a pretty standard 2WD wedge. The placement of the thwack tail is a little non-standard, but I'm pretty sure it should still work, provided the motors and whatnot are positioned in such a way to accommodate it. The wedge itself has some small indentations in it, tiny enough that only the lowest of undercutters should be able to take advantage of them. What's their purpose? Well, having a low wedge has to do with keeping pressure against the arena floor, and part of the pressure formula is surface area... look, I'm only an engineer by technicality, I don't do a lot of physics stuff, but my understanding is that having these wedge indents should make my wedge wedgier than it has any right to be. I guess they can be angled into but they're so small that doing so successfully isn't easy. TLDR: it's Underall all over again.

Let's bring the tail all the way over:

Image

We have a good view of the thwack head here. It has side spikes for a horizontal thwacking option, but that's only there as a formality. The real star of the show is the little tip on the bottom of it. See, overhead thwacks rarely do significant damage, so I figure I may as well use them for other things. Like clamps. Greed/Avarice explored the full-body clamp idea about as far as I'm comfortable taking it, so I'm trying something new by using a small tooth to latch on behind plows and the like.

So, time to answer the real question: why is the thwack head so wide? Well, here's Wedgelord's secret weapon:

Image

I'm allocating a point for a clutch to let me hold the tail in place. This lets me do some cool stuff like reverse with the tail down, drive forward while grabbing someone, or, as the picture shows, put the tail up in the air to be a hammer blocker.

<hr />
Let's review:
-brick
-clamp
-anti-hammer
-all in one configuration

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 9:12 pm
by Venice Queen
I love your excessively engineered thwacks.

I love all your excessive engineering tbh

looks great

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 11:43 pm
by Cha0sFerret
Thanks.

Excessive engineering is my favorite kind. Unfortunately they don't offer a degree for it here :v:

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2017 12:22 am
by The Monsterworks
That is just purrty. Wish I'd thought of it.

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:48 pm
by Cha0sFerret
Mudcrab 2, coming to a minor event with featherweights whenever that happens.

Image

Most of the iconic Mudcrab features remain intact:

-Individually hinged claws, providing flanking-without-flanking utility and anti-flanking defense.
-Wide drum for both offense and defense
-A focus on match control without neglecting damage (that's better reflected in the stats, which aren't final yet)


Mudcrab 1 was good, but it had some issues that I wanted to address:

-Undercutters hard-counter the conventional 2wd drum design. This weakness cost Mudcrab 1 a championship win, so for Mudcrab 2, I made a few changes to eliminate that weakness. First, instead of wedgelets, I decided to use a full wedge. In doing so, I sacrifice a little bit of wedging power, but now undercutters don't get free corner damage for running at Mudcrab's front recklessly. In fact, I intentionally put corners in a small area in the middle of the wedge to make that the optimal place for undercutters to aim, giving them two options: hit the middle of the wedge, which, as a spinner, you never actually want to do, or go around to the ends of the wedge and risk exposing their sides to Mudcrab's drum in close quarters, where they're almost guaranteed to get hit. Second, the drum itself is much taller, preventing overcutters/inverted undercutters from bypassing the new wedge and going over the top to the wheels. This makes Mudcrab functionally uninvertible, but the size and shape of the drum makes self-righting easier.

-Mudcrab 1's claws were great flanking deterrent, but were targeted by clamps. For Mudcrab 2, I made the claws slightly shorter, forcing clamps to get closer to the drum to grab the claws.

-The original claws would sometimes get flipped over mid-match, which was annoying. Mudcrab 2 features longer protrusions on the back of each claw that will collide with the floor, like so:

Image

This means opponents will have to put actual effort into flipping the claws while Mudcrab's drum is spinning just a few inches away from their exposed sides.

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:16 am
by The Monsterworks
Looks good dude&#33; I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 8:37 pm
by Cha0sFerret
Ruination 4 team.

Image

Cha0sFerret's robots and stuff

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 6:05 pm
by Cha0sFerret
Dumping a thing.

Blacklight Shrimpfest
Image

Contains 2 counter-rotating spinning rings and a wedge. Good times for all.