Post-championships recap [HardWired II's progress]

Robochallenge 2014. What an absolutely fantastic time.

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone involved for making it such a terrific event, and especially to the Robochallenge team for a brilliantly organised event - will see you all next year!

So, onto the match reports.

Fight One: HardWired II vs Ironside vs Binky
(Knockout - 4 points)

Two vicious spinners, one horizontal and another vertical. This was the fight I was dreading, but what a result! HardWired's 6mm Hardox scoop took the hit from Ironside very nicely, though it did leave a nice battle scar. As it happened, the impact also caused Ironside's gearbox to break, and it knocked its own weapon link out.

Scarred.

Ouch...

HardWired was still completely functional after the impact though, I'd assumed Ironside was but just dazed from the impact. So, I was gaining my confidence and thought 'Binky, come at me bro' - I decided to charge the disc, but actually skidded off course slightly and wedged myself on Binky's chassis. Alex (from Team Eventorizon, the team that built Binky) then tapped the machine out, said it was on fire - I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I'm led to believe some bolts in the motor had come loose, which was causing a short. Sure enough, Binky was removed and it was at that point Shane (Ironside) realised that one of his wheels had gone, and tapped Ironside out. I'd won my very first combat  robot fight and now held 4 points in the league system!

Wait a minute, HardWired won a fight? It was a complete and utter fluke, it'd be HardWired Pâté if both machines hadn't had slight issues, but a win's a win! Very relieved, as these were too very good machines.

So, luck was on my side, there's no way possible I could lose my next fight!

Fight Two: HardWired II vs NST vs Carcinus
(3rd - 1 point)

NST? Hah, I laugh in the face of your spinner! You can't do anything to m-oh. Maybe I should have put the link in properly.

Perhaps my nerves got the better of me, but I completely forgot to set my link in properly, if you look carefully you can see it poking out the right side of the machine. Normally, I push it right into the bowels of the robot to prevent damage but I completely forgot this time. NST dished out the hits, and HardWired took it even deflecting NST onto the pit and nearly out of the arena a few times. In fact, my plan was to pull a Ricochet and knock NST into the open pit, you can actually see that I panic and open the pit as NST lands near it. A few more hits later, no actual damage is being taken (other than a slightly dented top plate) but NST manages to get the bar to hit right on my link. Dead.

Carcinus ended up being battered by NST enough to disable it, and NST came out the victor. With 5 points total, I'd need a win and a 2nd place finish to qualify.

Fight Three - HardWired II vs GiAnto vs KillerJoule
(2nd - 2 points)

KillerJoule? That's the Robochallenge Hammer isn't it, the one that's got a scary amount of force behind the hammer? Well, better take precautions.

Much engineering. So precision. Amaze. 

Overhead weapons scared me this championships, A LOT. 2.5mm Stainless is not much at all, and given the fact that my battery and motors were touching the top plate, I did not want to risk it. Enter the Precision Engineering Top Plate, my master plan. It's really just a sheet of HDPE from Hatchet, but needs must. Worst thing was that RoboChallenge had reliably informed me that KillerJoule was indeed working, and the hammer was 'fully operational'. Did my nerves wonders!

I charged GiAnto to get some points in, since I knew KillerJoule would make mincemeat of me before long. What I didn't expect, however, was it sending itself out with a swift 180 flip when it got the hammer caught in the railings. What are the chances?! After that it was a pushing match, as the inevitable slowly happened - I got pushed closer and closer to the pit, and the lack of traction meant I overcompensated and went straight in. Bother. Still, two points ain't bad. Now I need a win by knockout to ensure that I qualify for the next round.

Fight Four: HardWired II vs Beauty 8 vs GiAnto
(3rd - 1 point)

Well, HardWired had a good run, but now it's embarked on a new career as a satellite.

I really don't think there's even any merit in describing this one, I was out of the arena in 10 seconds, GiAnto out in a further 5. At least I can say I went out to the eventual runner up, and generally brilliant machine. I think I could have put up a much tougher fight against Beauty had I had grip on my wheels, more torque and a little better driving, assuming I could have kept the front end facing it, but Will (Beauty's driver) just wouldn't let that happen. I emphasise the 'better driving' part of that too, if you look closely I actually drive partly onto Beauty's flipper. After that, the writing's on the wall...


Still, it was a great outing and I had such a good time, even better I've learned more about the sport and I can safely say that I know what I need to do to get HardWired II a more competitive machine. Already counting down the days until my next event!

I'll be updating within the next week or so with details on the Whiteboard fights I entered, and the Gladiator fight, how I got on with that (I was the first one out).

Stay tuned!

Last minute upgrades

The robot has wheels that are too small for it to be invertible. Solution? Make the wheels bigger. They should give me about 5mm more clearance either side, if I have an extra layer of plastic on the top, it'll be 3mm more. The bottom will be unchanged though, aside from that extra 5mm or so of clearance. Should be ideal, makes me more susceptible to flippers and the low drums but I can no longer be beached which is much better! 

Complications / updates

So, if you've been following me by other means such as Twitter (@FlagCaptured) or indeed on the Fighting Robots Forum itself, you'll probably know that I broke a weld on one of the motors. 

Long and short of it, the pinion gear came off and without that solid link between the pinion and motor shaft, I've got no drive on one side. 

Damn.

It's not all bad though, a friend of mine is getting me a spare, and that's actually due to be here today - basically, HardWired II will very likely be up and running again today or tomorrow.

Course, I've not got much time at all to get things running. HardWired still looks like this on my kitchen side

...the championships are on Thursday. I'm travelling on Wednesday. Tuesday is literally the deadline. Oh dear, this could get very close.

No matter though, I'm sure this is just worrying for the sake of worrying, but I can't really help being apprehensive about it. 

At the very least, there's very little electrically and functionally in there, so if I get everything else done, I can do that on the way down or something.

I still need some of the basics, mind you, but I'll be able to manage hopefully. LiPoly charging bag, slightly modified safety link and power LED are all on the list. 

Whilst I'm at it, I might as well explain the machine. At it's heart, HardWired II is just a brutally fast rambot. That power translates into raw force, which is essentially a 13 kg hammer hitting at about 15-20mph, which is extremely fast. There's also the the fact that I can push other machines in the pit, which will be a major tactic of mine if I can't end a fight any other way. That leaves me severely vulnerable to certain flippers, but that's just an unfortunate drawback of the times.

Flippers these days have such high pressure weapons that they can actually flip themselves out of the pit which means that they're invulnerable to one of my two main immobilisation tactics AND I can get immobilised by them quickly with an out of the arena flip. Or even a regular flip if I don't get these wheels sorted.

It's swings and roundabouts though - my absolutely insane front armour (6mm hardox steel) should just laugh in the face  of spinning weapons. Really, the only thing I have to fear is the potential of them knocking something loose, but that's literally it. NST, could be dealt with in a quick drive forward, send that bar off balance and it'll go flying. Same goes with the potential guise of Ironside. Binky's a little different, but you can read all about that in my last post.

The aim for this championship is basically to qualify, anything else is a bonus!

More soon

Robochallenge 2014- The draw

So the draw happened yesterday, the 31st of March. Here's my pretty good draw for HardWired 2's inaugural competition, along with my opinions on each.

Binky vs Ironside vs HardWired

Binky: powerful vertical spinner, relatively new machine from the experienced Team Eventorizon. Experienced technical issues last year, looks much stronger this year.

Ironside: unknown, most likely a spinner. Could be a robot re-using an old name, details are elusive.

This is a funny one, for my first matchup. Starting with the unknown, Ironside, I can't seem to figure out whether it's the hexagonal pusher, the spinner or the bar spinner (most likely the bar, I think) really only poses a risk from battering my electronics out of their sockets, spinners won't do much at all to HardWired I don't think. Course, I don't know what it is, so this is one I'm being cautious of. Binky is the major threat here, mainly due to that spinning disc sending me potentially out of the arena. Most likely going to use HardWired's speed to avoid that. Again, spinner - probably not going to do a whole lot to mine, but still a fun fight for my first ever venture into combat robotics.

HardWired vs Carcinus vs NST

Carcinus: clawed robot with overhead saw blade, Dead-Metal style. Older machine, recently updated, from the very successful and experienced Drumroll team.

NST: Nasty Spinney Thing. Lives up to it's name - extremely powerful horizontal spinning bar. 2012 UK champion, 4th place last year. Ranked 4.

Carcinus has the claws, and I think the grinder atop, which would be back for my wheels, but I hope I can take it on. Might not have to, since number 4 seed NST's reared it's (very well engineered) head. Again, a spinner won't be bothering HardWired too much, but need to be careful of the shocks to the electronics. Few good hits and it'll hopefully send itself out of the arena - despite it's pedigree, I'm quietly confident about this one. This will be swiftly deleted and henceforth forgotten if I'm sweeping HardWired out of the arena. 

Joule vs Gianto vs HardWired

Gianto: very little on Gianto. Participated in Robot Wars 7 but likely a new featherweight version of the very good heavyweight, Tanto. Very experienced team, likely new robot. May be a very strong pushbot with heavy armour.

Joule: Very strong overhead hammer, powered by a 5 HP motor. Featured on the BBC's "Absolute Genius" as Stingray. New machine from the very experienced Robochallenge team. They host the championships, they know their stuff.

Just what I didn't want. Joule terrifies me, despite the obvious technical issues an electric hammer could pose to itself, this is a very well engineered machine and could absolutely murder HardWired. I don't have the advantage I'd have with Little Hitter either, being able to get it to waste CO2, electrically driven axes I'd assume are just consistently brutal. I'd guess that it'll jump a lot, and HardWired's low front will help considerably here, and the energy dissipated into the machine will be much less, I would guess. Really, I'm just praying that there's a bit too much power in the axe and it conks itself out, is that wrong? Gianto is an unknown here, going to take an educated guess and say it's not Gianto from Robot Wars but a featherweight Tanto, which is still something to be very cautious of. Assuming this, it poses less risk in the way of straight up tenderisation, but more in the way of brute force. If Joule goes, it's just a pushing match and driver skill will prevail, not something I'm all too confident on. I'm great with RC cars, just inexperienced in combat. 

Beauty 8 vs Gianto vs HardWired

Beauty 8: Pneumatic flipper from team Beast, who also run second seed and 2013 runner up Beauty 2. Could be lethal, but hasn't yet reached the heights of it's counterpart.

Gianto: as above. 

Over in ten seconds, if Beauty has it's way. I've seen Beauty 2, less of Beauty 3 through 7 so I really can't comment, but would assume it's just as dangerous. My planer blade on the front will be crucial here. Gianto's here again too, and I have no idea what it is or anything so again I can't really comment further than what I've already said. Hopefully I can get Beauty to waste those flips, since I can't keep it in the pit either whilst it still has them. Going to be a tough one again.


Pretty pleased overall, managed to miss most of the flippers and most of the ones that would give HardWired the hardest time. That's got to be a good thing! 

All this said, I cannot wait to get there, it's going to be a ton of fun, and finally living that childhood dream! Albeit 17 years late, but I got there eventually!

In the beginning...

Despite being established almost 2 years ago now, Flag Robotics is now finally taking part it it's very first championship. 

HardWired II, which is still a work in progress is my machine, and is designed around simplicity, and as such sports no weaponry, just a powerful drive system with thick armour all round. 

Basically, I'm not really good enough to do weapons yet, but this fighting robot will definitely be able to hold it's own in the arena.

Since the days of Robot Wars, things have changed pretty dramatically and robots are a lot tougher than they used to be, particularly the spinners (robots with a high speed spinning disc or bar designed to tear into others) so I've naturally had to rethink HardWired I's 2mm thick aluminium. 

The solution? 6mm Hardox steel. Perfect.  Bearing in mind, robots such as Tough as Nails and the older Ripper use 4mm Hardox, and they're Heavyweights - HardWired is only a Featherweight, at about 13kg! 

This blog will be a documentation of my time leading up to and at the 2014 Robochallenge championships. I'm a bit behind, so there'll be a bit of catching up to do, starting with the draw and the build, of which the draw will be first because I still need to finish the build. Whoops.

Matt