Glitch BattleBot

Introduction

This was a project for the armor subteam for Combat Robotics at Berkeley, a student organzation that competes on the T.V Show Battlebots. I was tasked with improving the side and front armor panels from the previous design.

Design Considerations

• Easily removable after combat
  • Should only require 1 person and limited number of tools
• Shock Isolated from the frame
  • Reduces impact forces on the frame
• Protects critical exposed frame sections
  • Namely the weapon towers
• Deflects weapon hits
• < 1 inch ground clearance
  • Lower ground clearance allows for the armor to act as a wedge
• Modular
  • Is swapable with the wedgelet configuration of the robot
• Under 15 lbs
• Material: AR 500 Tool Steel sheets
• Tab Slot Construction
  • Easy to weld
  • Low cost of manufacuring

CAD

Original Armor Design

The Original Armor was bolted directly to the frame, causing issues after fights were bolts would shear and be unremovable from the frame

Full Assembly of the intial concept

Armor Fully Mounted

Manufacturing

Post Welding

Final Design

Final Design Fully Mounted

Reflection

This project allowed me to apply some of the knowledge that I learned from building and designing Axolotl for Season 5 of Battle Bots, namely building a modular system that can be removed if damaged. One of the big failures with Axolotl was that if a section of the frame was totaled, the whole robot would need to get scrapped because everything was welded together. By making the front and side armor modular, it allowed for 2 major improvments:

1. The armor could be replaced, and as such 4 copies were made.
2. The armor could be isolated from the frame, allowing for it to not only deflect impacts but also dispate energy Overall I think this project was a success, and it went on to be fielded in a number of robot fights.