Images of the Mad Monster Robot

Beetle Mode

This mode is the most stable and widest walking configuration. A 70cm bot's legs fully extended at length 1.5metres will span about 2.3 metres! That's enough to span The Pit and then use the central leg to simply make some poor Roboteer's day go from bad to worse.

You just can't keep a good psychotic robot down, these days.

Four legs extended, fifth one up as a "head" for frontal attack - spin and mash with 10kg, 1000 RPM and unbelievably high torque.

Sixth one overhead for general mashing of opponents below it (especially rectangles on wheels with that lovely low centre of gravity, low ground-clearance etc. all touted as really good features of Robot Wars designs, which just makes my eyes gleam in destructive delight.

Sixth leg also used for converting to "War Of Worlds" Walker mode, by pushing robot up onto only three legs.

Shadows from overhead show positions of legs at back.

Placing "fifth" leg on ground and then retracting any of the other "four" allows instantaneous turning through +/-72 and +/-144 degrees.

By spinning all legs in contact with ground clockwise (or counter-clockwise), robot can be rotated to face threats. This does have a small side-effect of making a really large mess of the Arena floor...

Ruler in front is 30cm. Scale is 70:15 (for 70cm bot).

Cat not to scale, in neither weight nor size. You can't get persians from local pet shops in 523kg, 80cm high and 1.5metres long.

Sorry.

Photo from floor-level shows ground clearance of, to scale, about 25 cm, if to a 70:15 scale.

30cm ruler is flat on floor due to temporarily doubling up as cat toy.

War Of Worlds Mode

This mode is the most unstable one (not _that_ unstable!), but it allows the robot to get out of the way. It is part of the "roll-to-move" plan, and also can be used to drop 200kg from a height of 1 metre onto its victims.

In Yer Face! Scared, yet?

All legs fully extended, three in contact with ground, three poised as weapons.

Poised ready to roll to new position, going via Beetle mode and back to War of Worlds, beetle, worlds etc, Robot moves across Arena.

Again, by spinning legs in contact with ground clockwise (or counter-clockwise), robot can be rotated to face threats.

Ruler in front is 30cm. Scale is 70:15 (for 70cm bot).

According to scale diagram, as ruler shows, legs of 1.5metres in length can span up to 1.4metres in width!

... appearances can be deceptive.

Especially due to cats.

Inside

This section shows, to scale, um... bits of balsa wood as 12of controllers, 6of batteries etc, and 12of night-light candle holders representing LEM-130 motors. Gears and gear-housings have not yet been included in the model: adding these will make it quite clear just how little space there is, here.

From the top.

"Centre" leg removed, "top" and one side panel opened. LEM-130 motor at bottom just visible.

Remaining legs show "ring of 5" where legs have to be offset *duur* to avoid mangling each other.

Will need to sheath them in tubes of suitable material so if one gets bent, or snapped in the middle, it doesn't mash the others.

From the side.

"Centre" leg removed, "top" and one side panel opened. 10of LEM-130 motors can be seen to be in a ring, 2 per leg.

Piece of balsawood visible under model leg with barcode on it is the same scale-size as a 4QD NCC-70 motor controller.

Ratchett

This section has photos of a 20 year old ratchet screwdriver. Opened up, the bit in the middle is exactly what is needed for the SpiderBall leg drive. Bearings either side, big gear of 80 teeth instead of the ratchet of only 10 or so.

I can't get the thing completely disassembled yet: I need an Imperial sized allan key to undo the handle! When I do, I'll get internal photos of just the ratchet with the rifling.

Other

This section contains miscellaneous photos (so far), with associated tactics and strategies for each of the oddities...

Dying Fly.

Sounds like an incredibly useless configuration. Not So. Imagine that there are spikes on the edges of the pentagon face that's just landed on the ground.

The spikes, due to the 200kg weight, have just pierced your lovely Lexan, and SpiderBall is now embedded and stuck in your Robot's casing. All the legs were, and are, out of harm's way of your Robot. The "central" leg is poised, armed, and ready to drill...

This is also a good starting position for doing maximum damage to the Arena Floor. All legs, weighing 10kg each and with a travel range of about 1.2 to 1.4 metres, can accelerate up to speed and hit the floor at 1.5 metres per second and simultaneously at 1000 RPM...

It's also a good strategic position to tackle spinning disk bots: get the legs well clear, let the body / armour take the damage. Bring legs back into play, jam that spinning disk, etc etc.

It's also a good starting point from which to play the drum-riff of Queen's "We Will Rock You".

3 legged beetle.

Image, from above, is a little unclear to visualise.

"Front" leg (on left of image) is fully extended. Two "back" legs (on floor, to right) are extended two-thirds. Other two "side" legs are retracted to near-centre positions, off the ground.

This position can be used to tempt people to attack the front leg. Judged to be useful against flipper wedgie robots, due to the stability: if that front leg gets flipped, it's quite unlikely that the robot will be turned over: that's a 2 metre span, there!

Even if it is turned over, the central leg is in a perfect position to be extended out *underneath* the extended flipper mechanism, ready to mash...