SpeedBump (1lb Combat Robot)

Speedbump started out as a contestant in a plastic ant competition (1lb robots made entirely of PLA parts and electronics), that the Rose-Hulman Combat Robotics Team held as an internal competition to start the season. The competition started early in my freshman year, and I went into it unexperienced but with a good idea of what I wanted. I found a partner with CAD experience and got to work designing.

The first attempt did not accurately account for the space that the electronics would take up. The original chassis was way too small. The competition was three days from that point and we were without a working robot. With 2 weeks of SolidWorks experience, I redesigned the robot completely from scratch, ending up with a half-baked robot I was honestly unhappy with. That robot went on to win the competition.

I am now a part of Deep Dive Robotics, a combat robotics team started by a friend of mine and now consists of many of my peers (more information can be found at deepdiverobotics.com). I had one goal, and it was to redesign SpeedBump and bring it to its full potential.

It's first competition was in Michigan, where it went up against many great robots. It did not perform as well as I would have hoped, but I was able to recognize a few weaknesses that I could iterate on to fix for its next competition. These changes included larger wheels for more ground clearance and strengthening the TPU body with a titanium wedge.

It's next debut was in Chapel Hill, TN. There it went 2-2 in it's fights and did what it was meant to do -- survive. SpeedBump's weapon is small and not very effective. However, the weapon of most robots are the most vulnerable part. The high impact speeds that the weapons must endure put them at risk for failure. SpeedBump's specialty is going head-to-head with these weapons and basically have them break themselves.

I am planning on taking a break on SpeedBump to design and work on new robots with the knowledge I have gained from this experience.