Contruction of a Rampaging Chariot

Your team’s mission is to design and construct a powerful robot to compete in an Assault Course competition and to play in a two-a-side Football Tournament.

Introduction

Teams have to construct a radio controlled robot to:

This project is challenging, but hugely rewarding. Students will work as a team to produce a robot that has a very sporty performance and is not a toy. Safety is therefore a prime consideration. The assault course and football tournament will provide a major challenge and an exciting climax to the project.

The construction task is to:

• Build a chassis to a standard design from a kit of wood, plastic and metal parts.
• Construct two electronic motor controllers from a kit (requiring soldering skills).
• Dismantle two cordless electric drills.
• Install in the chassis: two drill motors, four wheels, two batteries, radio receiver and aerial.
• Wire up the components.
• Test.

Teams of four or five students will build a standard Rampaging Chariot. Two or three students should work on the chassis and two students make the two electronics boards. The team will then install the components, wire up and test their robotic creation. If the electronics boards are made in parallel with the chassis, our experience is that a Rampaging Chariot can be finished within six or seven periods of 90 minutes each.

Having achieved a working robot and fully tested its capabilities, the team should consider the design and brainstorm improving its performance. If they wish, they can then construct an improved personalised chassis and transfer the main components into it.

Tools

You will need the following basic tools:

• Small & Medium Posidrive Screwdrivers
• Pointed Nose Pliers
• 17mm Open-ended Spanner
• Coping Saw
• Hacksaw
• Flat and Round Files
• Scissors
• Wire Cutters
• Hand or Power Drill
• Bits 3.5, 7.0, 10mm (1.5, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6mm provided)
• Countersink
• Soldering Iron with a small Bit
• Solder
• Electrical Test Meter

Main Components

• Proportional 40 MHz FM radio transmitter
• Radio receiver
• 2 Cordless electric drills with batteries and chargers
• 2 Motor controller electronics kits
• 4 Wheels and axles
• 12mm MDF chassis parts
• Miscellaneous aluminium angle parts
• Nuts, bolts and screws.
• Velcro
• A full list of components is at Appendix C

Rules for the Scottish Robotic Games

• No weapons of any kind may be fitted.
• Dangerous projections will be disallowed.
• Robots must not have any device that can physically hold the ball, but may have guides fitted to the front of the machine to gather and control a small football (Ball diameter is approximately 125mm)
• Up to 2 Ball guides with a maximum projection of 50mm may be fitted.
• There must be easy access to the push-on battery connectors so that in the event of a run-away the robot can be inhibited easily.
• Maximum overall dimensions: 600mm (length) x 450mm (width).
• Maximum Mass: 12 kg.
• Electric power only.
• Maximum battery voltage: 36 volts
• Radio control - 40 MHz band.
• All team members must be under 18 years of age on 1 September of the year of the competition, although adult supervision is permitted.
• Robots will be examined at Tech checking to ensure their build is consistent with that anticipated from an under 18 team.
• The full rules of the UK Robotic Games are available at www.ukroboticgames.co.uk.

Design

A good design is always a compromise, but by careful thought students can produce (using the standard parts supplied) a very high performance robot that is unique.

Keep the design simple and easy to construct using the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle. You must allocate your construction time to allow for a reasonable period of testing. This may be followed by some design changes.

This is not a combat robot, but your creation may fall off the ramp and minor collisions are inevitable during the football competition. Your construction should therefore be reasonably robust and easy to dismantle, service and repair.

The project is split into sections with an introduction to the technology, design considerations, construction hints, photos and advice. A basic robot design is described and this should be constructed first. Students should then be encouraged to think of ideas (within the rules) that will improve upon the standard design and thereby gain a possible advantage over their opponents.

Next

The next section is on safety.
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