[TC11] Bison

[agrof]

Prologue:

I must admit, I’ve never thought to be able to reveal a proper entry that soon, but all the sparks came so suddenly and all of those fitted into the concept in my head, that the first digital model was ready in 1 night. Some fine tuning was done during another night, and now it sits beside me in it’s Brick Built Beauty. Excuse me for presenting via digital pictures for now, but this way I can give You nicer overview (according to my actual skills), live pictures and video will be done, of course. As it is basically ready, I decided to share it as inspiration to the community, I hope to see many awesome and fun creatures!

 

Let me introduce my entry for the TC11 contest:

Name: Bison - my robot is chubby, robust, has lot of power to push and for butting heads, and has biungulate heels to kick all around – just like a bison. 

My main objectives were to use 2 motors only (for intuitive control, which is essential in the battle arena), and to build a double sided robot, which is functional upside-down as well. Also, I wanted to follow the regular MOCing rules: ease of build, BB access must be simple, legal techniques (LDD compatibility).

Parameters:

• Skid steering
• 4x4 drive via friction gears
• Motorized kick-heels via friction gears (signature move)
• Massive dozer blade (? signature move ?)
• Very robust structure (to survive rough beating)
• Modular build
• 439 parts (without batteries)
• 37x26x9 studs
• 1070 gramms (with Ansmann rechargable batteries)
• 0 gears

The 2995 tyre works here very well, as it is more grippy than the average LEGO tires, and so is the 55978 too, as result I got a nice combo for my friction gear set-up. This can provide quite a lot power, but also works as clutch in extreme situations (motor protection).

The only deviance what I had to apply (with staff approval): to fit the 2995 tyre to the inside of the 2996 rim lip (Click for picture - on the right), so I could fit them perfectly on the wheel hubs, without building those in offset with the housing.

As here can be seen, it is pretty crowded in the inside, which I am very pleased with.

After some minutes of test, I am satisfied with the result, it can easily push 3 kgs (milk cans), quite fast, and really works like I imagined.

Let’s get to pictures, update will come!

EDIT: video is ready, see post below.

 

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by agrof

[ColletArrow]

This is a very elegant 'bot, good job. I wonder how well it would fare in a real competition. I think it's main weakness would be the ground clearance - a flipper with a flat, strong blade may be able to get underneath it. Oh wait, it can drive when it's been flipped over completely... that's very cool. Good thinking!

[Jim]

Very nice creation, and a nice presentation!!

Looking at your robot makes me realise that 45x45x45 is actually not that big for a Battle Bot.

[agrof]

Thanks Guys!

@ColletArrow The best part: even the heels have the same functionality (to pick up), whatever side is looking upwards.

54 minutes ago, Jim said:

Looking at your robot makes me realise that 45x45x45 is actually not that big for a Battle Bot.

And this makes the challenge really interesting. 

Edited March 11, 2017 by agrof
added answer

[aminnich]

Your bot is very compact and looks tough.  I am not sure about how reliable your drive train idea is going to be.  If a bot take out the wheel connected to the motor, the crankshaft for that side is also destroyed.  With my bot, I am having the most trouble with the space constraint.  Yours is great, but if we had more space, I feel like you could add more motors for the crank to have its own motor, not having to reply on the rotation of the wheels.  

Just now, Jim said:

Very nice creation, and a nice presentation!!

Looking at your robot makes me realise that 45x45x45 is actually not that big for a Battle Bot.

Like I said, the size constraint is the hardest part of this contest.  And you originally were going to have the size constraint be 35x35x35, that would have been much harder.  

I would ask to make the size constraint larger, but this late in the contest, it probably is not fair.  

[Alex Ilea]

Looks very good ! I also tryed to use tires on my bot but it could bareley steer . I hope your will steer better .

[offroadcreations]

Looks very cool, great presentation! Good thing I am not competing against this (I'm in the SBrick category), because yours is great!

[krtwood]

That's cool and looks great!  I think this style of low and fast bot would be troublesome for my bot.

6 hours ago, Jim said:

Looking at your robot makes me realise that 45x45x45 is actually not that big for a Battle Bot.

45x45x45 is 91125 L^3

37x26x9 is 8658 L^3.

So it's less than 10% of the available volume.  There will be some much bigger bots :)

[Lipko]

That is sweet!
Honestly I didn't like the contest idea at all but your entry made me rethink.

[Didumos69]

Very elegant and promising bot! Very smart how it can roll over and carry on as if nothing happened. Your presentation images are very cool too, as always.

Side note - just because you were involved in my WIP thread - when I remove the dashboard, seats and engine from the chassis of my rugged supercar, it can also ride upsidedown . 

 

[agrof]

Thanks All!

7 hours ago, aminnich said:

Your bot is very compact and looks tough.  I am not sure about how reliable your drive train idea is going to be.  If a bot take out the wheel connected to the motor, the crankshaft for that side is also destroyed.  With my bot, I am having the most trouble with the space constraint.  Yours is great, but if we had more space, I feel like you could add more motors for the crank to have its own motor, not having to reply on the rotation of the wheels.  

The drivetrain looks reliable to me (within LEGO constraints, it is plastic after all). These wheel hubs give very strong support for the wheels:

If the wheels get disconnected from these, than my robot will have bigger troubles, than just loosing one crankshaft.  Probably I could add separate motors to the heel side, but I purposely wanted to keep everything this compact.

7 hours ago, IA creations said:

Looks very good ! I also tryed to use tires on my bot but it could bareley steer . I hope your will steer better .

Yes, the steering is not that fluent as could be, but also not bad as the cluth function of the friction gears helps a lot. I believe it can be used in the battle arena fine.

1 hour ago, krtwood said:

37x26x9 is 8658 L^3.

So it's less than 10% of the available volume.  There will be some much bigger bots :)

It is small, but the 90% of the volume is ABS material.  Much bigger bots, with much higher center of gravity? Bison says: YES, please! 

20 minutes ago, Lipko said:

That is sweet!
Honestly I didn't like the contest idea at all but your entry made me rethink.

I love the engineering perspective, some driving is just extra fun.  Maybe a deep buried primal instict of destruction is also involved...

@Didumos69 Thanks Sir!

Edited March 12, 2017 by agrof

[Jim]

On 12-3-2017 at 1:11 AM, aminnich said:

Like I said, the size constraint is the hardest part of this contest.  And you originally were going to have the size constraint be 35x35x35, that would have been much harder.  

I would ask to make the size constraint larger, but this late in the contest, it probably is not fair.  

I was actually thinking about it, but that would lead to lots of protest. Maybe if we add a couple of weeks.

The size limit was to avoid really big robots, but 45x45x45 is in fact pretty small for a battle bot.

[nerdsforprez]

I see the concern for size. On the one hand, you want to avoid anything too big, but I think this is hard to limit.....for reasons well exemplified with this submission.   Appendages are going to add a lot to size dimensions. Perhaps a 45x45 body-only restriction is not that small, but if the size restriction includes weapons/Appendages then, yea, size limitations will make for some fairly small submissions. 

Not sure if is worth a vote?  Increase size limitations and extend submission dates or just keep things as they are? I think it is at least a big enough deal for a vote.  I know it is more work for admin., but it might make for a better contest

[Aventador2004]

after seeing this i may enter this competition

aventador

 

[agrof]

During the "Grab N' Shake" test I figured out, that the heels can disconnect from the pushrods (Achilles syndrome), so I had to create some reinforcement for it. The solution doesn't look very smooth if the bot is upside-down, but now everything is secured, as required. The heels touch smoothly the ground in both end positions, the geometry turned out just perfect.

The goal is reached: keep it simple, and thus super reliable. This was the most instinctual design process I have ever had (including my professional experiences), so this little beast has a very special place in my heart.  Some garage pics:

 

Edited March 14, 2017 by agrof

[PKW]

Excellent build, sad I have not those big wheels because it is in size and weight to attend one of my lego robot combat video, I have only some questions:

 

Are the rear moving tail powerful or it is just a fun move that maybe can help in combat?

 

The square footprint is really good for skid steering, but since you said that those wheels are more grippy than lego ones, how does it turn?

Are you planning to use am SBRICK or move the receiver? Because it looks like it is covered my many pieces and control won't be so easy, at least I can say you'll replicate radio interferences that caraterized the firsts series of robot wars!

 

edit: also the scoop has a lot of ground clearance, I know you don't fear flippers, but maybe grabbers or lifter can really have an advantage of that, are you considering to make some hinged parts to lower the ground clearache or the strategy will be to move backward and use the rear ones?

Edited March 14, 2017 by PKW

[nick97]

Looks great

I like that it drives at both sides, so the trick to win is getting it on his head

[Thirdwigg]

I love it. But every time I look at it, I get confused. Which side is the front? Which side is the top? Maybe you need to add some horns and a snout so my mind doesn't implode. 

[ColletArrow]

@Thirdwigg Looking at the most recent picture, I think the front is the left (because a bison would lower it's head and charge, ramming into things like a bulldozer blade) and the right is the back (because Agrof calls the flipper-bits 'heels').The point is that it doesn't have a top; it works perfectly both ways up, which is a pretty cool design.

[agrof]

6 hours ago, PKW said:

Are the rear moving tail powerful or it is just a fun move that maybe can help in combat?

They have several usage.

• Psychological: to scare the enemy by kicking all the time.
• Wedge & Flipper: they are not super strong due to the friction gear drivetrain, but together with the powerfull drive, Bison is capable to get underneath of another bots by lifting them, and in case to tip them over. Successfully tested with my 42037 MOD (576 gramms), just like described. It needs some practice to control it though, as the continuous movement of the heels needs precise attack timing. Therefore are 2 motors only, for intuitive operation, as described in the first post.
• Blocking: as the heels are pretty robust, they can block rotating blades, wheels, tracks, whatever, and thus confuse the opponent.
• And the best: ability to imitate the noise of a gallopping bison! 

6 hours ago, PKW said:

The square footprint is really good for skid steering, but since you said that those wheels are more grippy than lego ones, how does it turn?

It is OK (not perfect, just OK), the video will explain properly.

6 hours ago, PKW said:

Are you planning to use am SBRICK or move the receiver? Because it looks like it is covered my many pieces and control won't be so easy, at least I can say you'll replicate radio interferences that caraterized the firsts series of robot wars!

I keep IR, I like physical controllers, no plan for Sbrick for me at all. The top of the receiver - where it cathes the signal - is not covered, but still well protected, check the last picture in my previous post. The control distance is more-less the usual. Opponent's and my IR channel should be set differently, and that's it.

6 hours ago, PKW said:

edit: also the scoop has a lot of ground clearance, I know you don't fear flippers, but maybe grabbers or lifter can really have an advantage of that, are you considering to make some hinged parts to lower the ground clearache or the strategy will be to move backward and use the rear ones?

Correct, I don't fear to being flipped, grabbed, smashed, etc... After excessive shaking and dropping, I am confident in it's thoughness. I will try to present this in the video. Also it is fast enough to escape - I think. LDD file will be shared (close to the deadline, as things always might change), so anyone can analyse.

1 hour ago, Thirdwigg said:

I love it. But every time I look at it, I get confused. Which side is the front? Which side is the top? Maybe you need to add some horns and a snout so my mind doesn't implode. 

As a battle bot: this is the point, there is no front/back, there is no top/bottom. There is only the question, which tool do You want to use: dozer blade, or the heels? 

@ColletArrow If You consider it as a Bison, than You are correct. 

Edited March 14, 2017 by agrof

[agrof]

@Thirdwigg Before we loose a great MOCer, I found use of my Bionicle bin for fun...  Actually I might keep them.

[Thirdwigg]

@agrof Perfect! Now my head feels a little more stable. Those are the perfect parts.

[agrof]

I decided not to add the horns, I don't want to have any parts that can fall, or hang, also I prefer the clean technocrat appearance. HERE you can check the LDD file, as usual, it is groupped.

And a small add-on, as an orientation tool.  (Big gif, might load for a while.)

Inspiration for the cuteness: https://www.flickr.com/photos/moctown/28905637066/

And the LDD file for it: HERE. The nose parts are not available in black... yet. I try to find the right time and place for creating the video... I have so many visions, and I am just not able to translate them properly...

Edited March 23, 2017 by agrof
connectors order corrected in LDD file

[agrof]

I took this day for creating the video, I hope You will like it, enjoy!

EDIT: I re-uploaded the video, but it seems the stacatto style around 1:07 is still there, must be the youtube converter... the raw material is fine. Whatever.

Edited March 27, 2017 by agrof

[Aventador2004]

Very cool, how did you make the feet move

Never mind found it

Edited March 26, 2017 by Aventador2004