Blueberry Hill Robotic Team and Scrambler 0.1
Brian Nave, of Team LOGICOM Built "Pushy Bots Still Stink" (PBSS) which dominated the SECR "Southern Assault" competition over Labor Day weekend. Every feature of the ANT 1.0 controller contributed to PBSS success: On board mixing, the FLIP option when upside down, High Voltage, incredibly smooth motor control and reliable interference free operation.
PBSS uses a gyro for stabilization and the FLIP input was a requirement for robot control. Without built in FLIP function, the gyro de-stabilize the robot when upside down.
Brian Nave's comment:
"PBSS was the ONLY undefeated ant at SA. It was LITERALLY running circles all around the competitors... EASILY 10 times faster than the next fastest bot! There was ONLY one match that was even close and that is because PBSS spent a large part of it wedged into the crack between the floor and the wall of the arena... you should have heard the crowd go "WOW" every time PBSS took a high speed run across the box and slammed into the wall, spiraling and flipping all over the place on impact!"
Glenn Capone, of Blueberry Hill Robotics, uses the ANT 1.0 controller with a toy "Monster Truck" chassis to make Scrambler 0.1
My new speed controller was waiting for me when I got home, a real load off my mind as the only thing I would have had in the event of a melt-down was a Sozbots control I bought a couple of weeks before you released the first Ant 1.0. It would not be a good replacement because: a) I've grown to love the mixing, and b) I would have to remove some weight as Scrambler is at the limit.
Well, Scrambler did great! there were *NO* equipment failures! I think I had the most boring pit of all the ants; match done, check batteries, go watch fights while waiting for next match. The driver on the other hand has *much* to learn. Two wins - two losses, both losses came by driving out of the box! (The NERC ant box is 4' x 4' with a 1' opening on each side.)
I was surprised at how much faster Scrambler is than all the other ants, a good driver would have driven circles around all of the competition. The biggest surprise, however, was that there seemed to be no sacrifice in pushing power. Knowing I had another speed control; I got in a pushing match with my first opponent and had no problem holding my own against a strong servo powered lifter. I could match nose to nose and just leave the drive full on, knowing that if the motors or speed control let go it was an easy fix. I couldn't believe how good a pusher it turned out to be, despite being geared extremely high for top speed.
I don't even have a good estimate of how many hours (yes, hours!) are on this speed control, including practice and some serious abuse in the box, but it's been used a *lot*. I haven't measured how much current two Rayovac 9V NiMH in series can source, but they measure almost 10V coming off the charger so it's at about 19V at the beginning of a match. The reliability of your board is going to be noticed by the ant community, your logo was pretty clear on the top panel of Scrambler. How can something that weighs less than half an ounce be so overbuilt? The days of the servo being the drive of choice are seriously numbered!
Mark Tomlinson of Team Barracuda used a prototype ANT 1.0 controller in Swordtail a Beetle weight (3#) robot and this is what he said:
Progress report! The AW page updated with pics and
such for the beetle weight bot (swordtail). Really kicks butt! It has a
ton of torque and really decent speed (probably close to 15 mph when it
doesn't break the wheels lose and spin out). The Dave Brown lite wheels
are seriously grippy which helps a lot. If it were using solid rubber
tires I suspect it would just spend all it's time burning rubber.
All that remains is to build the mountable weapons. I can also report
that the OSMC Ant controller rocks. It never even breaks a sweat working
this bot out. It will have to move over a pound more with a weapon
attached, but that should be an issue even then. I do have some 1"
12 volt DC fans that I could mount inside to move air if needed, but I
really don't think it is an issue.
P.S. we actually won best driver with that
controller at BugBattles. I give a good portion of the credit for that
to the speed and smooth response of the OSMC controller.
Last update 16-Mar-2007