Team Bobbing for French Fries

We have a simple philosophy - build the thing cheap. Robot combat is about destruction. Destruction means broken parts. Broken parts mean money down the toilet. Our goal is to be competitive on less than $200 per robot. For those unfamiliar with robot combat, that would be between 10 to 100 times less expensive then our competition. We have two robots, Bob, who is a light weight, and Al, who is a middle weight.

Competitiveness appears to have been achieved. Both robots captured second place in their weight class at Mech Wars 3.1.

See MW3 Pictures - click here

Bob repeated his finish at MW4 with another second. Al had more difficulty and finished 15th. (Both out of 18)

See MW4 Pictures and commentary - click here

The team consists of mainly three members:

Jon - Team captain because he lives in the Twin Cities. Also is Bob's driver

Steve - Bob Construction and Al driver aide

Tim - Al Construction, Al driver, and Bob winch operator.

So how are we doing on our pledge to build it cheap?

Mutual items

 Item Cost
Transmitter/Receiver $70
NPN transistors $2
3 Circuit boards $5
Doorbell Buttons $11
Wood Board for Controller Mount $0 - Scrap wood
Socket for Transmitter $2
2 - Atmel Processors $0 - Engineering samples
Total $90

Bob's balance sheet

 Item

 Cost
Batteries $20 - From swap meet.
Motors $0 - Received for work compensation at a salvage yard (probably 5-10 if we really paid of them)
Oak shelving boards $0 - Left by previous house owner when Jon bought his house
 Hickory  $0 - Fired up the chainsaw and cut a tree down
Wheels $0 - Made from scrap lumber and tire tread
Sprockets $0 - Made from scrap steel
Chains $0 - Scavenged from a bicycle
Gas piston on lifting arm $5
Mud flap $2
Scrap Iron $10
Scrap Aluminum $10
Lucky four leaf clover $0 - found while on a walk
Wiring $2 - scrap from around the house and from a swap meet
Diodes $2
Switches and Relays $12 - Received some from friend who owns a salvage yard.
On/Off switch $2
 Nuts and Bolts $5
Winch Motor $0 - Left over from a car repair job
Custom Welding $20 - Because it was Aluminum to Aluminum
Buzzer $0 - Left over from an 7th grade electronics project
Windshield Washer Pump  $0 - Out of crush pile at salvage yard
 Various Hoses  $5
Total $95

Al's Balance Sheet

 Item

Cost
Lumber $10
Batteries $90 - Scavenged from a portable power station
Motors $30
Mud Flap  $2
Sprockets $0 - Made from scrap iron
Chains $0 - Scavenged from a bicycle
Scrap steel $10
Armor $0 - Tim's boss let us cut up a hood off a car
Solenoids and relays $45 (Actually this was a trade of a $45 dollar part, not cash transaction)
Wiring $0 - Scrap
Wheels $0 - Made out of scrap
Nuts and bolts $5
Steel Tubing $15 - left over from chain link fence project
Lucky Four Leaf Clover $0 - Found in yard
Buzzer/Light $0 - off of a friends broken bread maker
 Windshield Washer Pump  $0 - Out of crush pile
 Various Hoses  $5
Total $212

So what do you know? $397 for the pair. I should note that we have a well stocked tool shop between the three of us so tool purchases were zero. Also, only parts currently in the robot are counted. There probably is another $50 worth of parts laying around that we have decided not to use or burned out.

So what does $397 dollars buy?

See the Bob press sheet

See the Al press sheet

These are pictures of Bob prior to MechWars II held on 6/2/01

 

Here's Bob, our robot warrior

Here he is from behind

The lifting arm makes short work of this tire

Wouldn't want to see this coming at me in a dark alley

Sleek side profile with spike up to ram

Back to Jon's main page

Forward to MW2 Pictures

Forward to MW3.1 Pictures - New on 2/18/02

Forward to MW4 Pictures - New on 7/11/02