Engineered For Destruction 8 Tournament Recap

The Tournament

Arrival and Setup

For this tournament we were headed down to Nashville, Tennessee's Adventure Science Center. We ended up getting there around 10:00AM Saturday morning of the event. We unloaded the car, and moved inside to the room that the tournament was going to be hosted in. We got set up at our table and got the bot ready for weigh in.

Ready for a tournament!!!

The box was pretty cool, with a pit on one side and a free spinning disk in the middle. So when attempting to accelerate tangent to the disk, the disk will just spin out and cause you to not move where you are expecting to, or when driving over the disk it may create variable driving conditions that few drivers are used to.

The box we will be fighting in.

I compiled all the fights and the rumble together into one video. Below the video I have some comments and thoughts I had about each fight. Due to the size of the bracket there were a max of 4 fights for the day. Sorry for video quality of the rumble, we didn't have video stabilization on :(

Fight 1 Honeycomb vs Tweetle - Quarter Finals

Tweetle is an overhead saw bot with a wide base and aluminum scrapes on the front. However, I noticed early on that the center 2 forks actually ride up a bit above the ground, and I suspected if I just went head on with my wedge, I would most likely be able to get underneath him and knock him around and really control the fight. All goes pretty well and I end up winning this fight with no issues. Only thing to do is recharge the battery.

Fight 2 Honeycomb vs Pyramid of Death - Semi Finals

Pyramid of Death is exactly what it sounds like, a pyramid shaped robot that is very low to the ground on all sides, and on one side it actually has a ground scraping metal wedge. I figured that my wedge could get under it on the sides without the metal wedge, as they were not actually touching the ground. Additionally, the drive train for Pyramid of Death seems relatively powerful, but slow and lacking wheel traction, so I think if I can get to one of the sides I should be able to push POD around and really control the fight. It ends up going well, I end up getting tearing up his wedge a bit and close out the fight with a nasty hit which completely flips POD over and he gets counted out.

Fight 3 Honeycomb vs Tweetle Round 2 - Finals

Tweetle ends up making it all the way through the losers bracket and we end up meeting again in finals. Over all my plan going into this match was about the same. Part way through the match however, I break my mid plate which holds my two bearing plates the proper distance from each other so my weapon shaft doesn't fall out. The two bearing plates separate from each other enough for the weapon shaft to fall out. This renders my weapon useless for the rest of the match, and I lose this match to judges decision.

Fight 4 Honeycomb vs Tweetle Round 3 - Finals

Since I was undefeated for the day, Tweetle had to win 2 times since we were in a double elimination bracket. After the break in the lasts match I pressed the two halves together and wrapped duct tape around it so that it wouldn't come apart again. I think as long as I continue to use the 3D printed center part, I may continue to just tape it as these 3D printed parts are good with compressive forces, but are pretty weak under high tensile forces, shear, and shock. So maybe the tape will be good insurance that the two sides wont come apart in the future even if the mid-plate breaks like it did during fight 3. With the weapon fully working, I was able to get a lot of good hits off during this last match. Tweetle ends up driving into the pit after a while. This is the final round and I ended up winning the tournament 3-1.

3lbs Rumble

The remaining functional bots took it to the arena to bout it out for 5 minutes. During this shoot we forgot to turn on our image stabilization so during some refocusing of the camera it ended up being pretty shaky for the majority of the match. :(

The Recap

Just like last time I think I still have some of the same issues with just material properties. Currently, I am designing a new 3lbs robot, and when I go to have parts cut for the new bot, I might have some new parts cut for Honeycomb to make it more reliable.

I think I could also cut down the size of my battery to 850mah, 650mah, or possibly even lower. Currently, I'm running a 1000mah 3S battery which is definitely over-spec'd for this bot. I could probably up the power of this bot by cutting down to a 850mah or a 650mah, but up to 4 cell battery for higher weapon speeds. Need to do some rough calculations, but current estimate is I can definitely reduce to a 850mah battery, possibly the 650mah.

Overall, this was a really fun tournament that wasn't too far away, hope to make my way back for the next tournament hosted by MTRAS. (Also love coming down for the BBQ :P)

1st Place!!!