Summary: <p>“I tend to not turn Tombstone on outside of the arena. It scares the crap out of me…” – Ray Billings, Hardcore Robotics team captain. We sit down with BattleBots’ resident bad boy to talk about the engineering behind the world’s meanest fighting robots. We also talk robot carnage. Because we know you’re really here for robot carnage.</p> <div class="jetpack-video-wrapper"></div> <audio class="wp-audio-shortcode" id="audio-1852-8" style="width: 100%;"><a href="https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/battlebots-2018-and-the-hardcore-robotics-team-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast-27.mp3">https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/battlebots-2018-and-the-hardcore-robotics-team-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast-27.mp3</a></audio> <h3>Agenda:</h3> <p>00:03 Ray Billings leads the Hardcore Robotics Battlebots team, and is the “resident villain” on Battlebots.</p> <p>00:40 Mike went to high school with Ray’s son</p> <p>01:15 Ray’s robot, “Tombstone” is ranked #1 on the Battlebots circuit. Highlights <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK3BfE7YKT8">here</a>.</p> <p>1:34 The winner trophy for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleBots">Battlebots </a>is a giant nut.</p> <p>2:00 Ray doesn’t turn on the robot very often outside of the arena</p> <p>2:35 Ray’s carnage story: he bent a 1” thick titanium plate</p> <p>3:20 You have to see combat robots live to get the full experience</p> <p>4:10 The first match of <a href="https://battlebots.com/">Battlebots 2018 </a>should be one of the most epic Battlebots fights of all time</p> <p>4:30 Ray has done over 1,000 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_combat">combat robot </a>matches in 17 years</p> <p>5:00 How Ray got into Battlebots</p> <p>6:25 The main robot is called an offset horizontal spinner. It spins a 70-75 lb bar at 2500 rpm.</p> <p>7:40 The body is 4130 choromoly tubing. The drive motors were intended for an electric wheelchair, and the weapons motor is from an electric golf cart.</p> <p>8:20 Normal electrical motors are not designed to work for combat robots. Ray significantly stresses the motors.</p> <p>8:50 The weapon motor was designed to be used at 48V 300A, but Ray uses it at 60V and 1100A (at spinup). This would overheat and destroy the motor, so it shouldn’t be done long-term.</p> <p>9:40 – 70-80kW at spinup, and no <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_capacitor">start capacitor</a>. He just uses a big marine relay.</p> <p>10:00 Ray’s robot has 1 second to be lethal</p> <p>10:30 If there’s a motor-stall potential mid match, Ray will turn off the motor to save batteries/electronics</p> <p>11:00 What’s the weak point of Ray’s robot? One match, the weapon bar snapped in half.</p> <p>11:40 Ray uses tool-grade steel, so it won’t bend, it’ll just snap.</p> <p>12:40 The shock loads can break the case. The weapon motor looks like it’s rigidly mounted, but because it’s on a titanium plate it has some shock absorber. There’s also a clutch system in the sprocket to help offset shock.</p> <p>13:40 Ray’s robot has to take all of the force that the opponent’s robots do (equal and opposite), but if it’s coming in a direction you want vs. one you don’t want you can design-in protection.</p> <p>14:40 What test challenges were faced during assembly and design?</p> <p>It’s been highly iterated. There are no shortcuts for designing combat robots. You have to see where something breaks, then adjust.</p> <p>15:45 When Ray started in 2004, his robot was just a “middle of the pack” robot. With years of iteration, it’s now a class-dominant robot.</p> <p>16:45 Ray spins up the robot at least once before a competition. It’ll pick up debris from the ground and throw it aro</p>
