Combat Robotics: Beetleweight

Led the design Duke's first-ever beetleweight-class combat robot. Traveled to competitions in Harrisburg, Miami, and Charlotte throughout the academic year to fight with the bot.

Consists of a 3D printed TPU-CF body, held together rigidly by exterior supports made of HDPE. Main attack is an aluminum beater-bar pulley setup, run on a 3000 kV brushless inrunner motor and 3S LiPO battery power. Later competitions tested TPU-GF at 20-30% infill density, as opposed to the carbon-fiber infused option. This was in large part an attempt to see higher impact resistance after suffering a brutal blow to a horizontal spinner at Motorama in Harrisburg that de-laminated the layers of TPU-CF and cracked the front half of the chassis.

Ultimately, this project demonstrated that the vulnerabilities of single-print bodies outweigh the ease-of-use and quick, simplified assembly. Glass fiber reinforced TPU did not offer a complete solution, as even when put up against vertical spinners it suffered critical crack propagation along de-laminated print layers, espectially around point of contact with opponent weapon and stress concentrations around the beater-bar shaft. The increase in material stiffness sacrificed some of the ductility and impact resistance that makes TPU 95A so effective for the lower weight classes. In the future, I will direct the club towards modular design that makes use of multiple materials, allowing for material specialization, weight distribution, and more durable armor.