Colossal Avian
Overview
Colossal Avian is Parts & Wreck's Senior Year 30lb Robot.
Chassis
Overview
Colossal Avian uses an iRobotics classic waterjet cut tab and slot 2024 Aluminum chassis. The exterior panels are all 1/2" thick, with 1/8" thick top and bottom plates and 3/8" thick for the interior upright panels. The first iteration of the chassis utilized 0.75" UHMWPE side armor with 3d printed TPU rear armor. After NHRL, the side armor was combined into the rear armor pieces into one large 3d printed TPU piece.
Drive
Overview
Colossal Avian features a indirect drive drivetrain where the motor is belted to two wheels on each side, helping to isolate the motor from impacts. The wheels both ride on cantilevered shoulder bolts, which act as the drive axles. The cantilever design allows the drive axles to be completely isolated from the outer armor, meaning that the wheelguards can be completely ripped apart without impairing the drive functionality. The trade off is that the shafts themselves are less durable as they are not supported on two sides.
Components
- Motor: Flashhobby 3536 EVO 1450kv
- Gearbox: Repeat Drive Magnum
- Wheels: TPU wheel hub with Vytaflex 40a tread, 2.125" diameter
- Current Drive ESCs: Rhino AM32 80A
- Old ESCs: Neutron RC 70A AM32 Note: Had many destroyed ESCs of this kind at Robobrawl, could be due to a firmware bug for this specific ESC for firmwares AM32 V2.0 to V2.09
Weapon Disk
Components
- Disk Motor: BadAss 2826 1030 Kv
- Disk ESC: Castle Mamba X
- 1/2" AR500 Weapon Disk from Send Cut Send
Arm
Calculations
Components
- Gearbox: 48:1 HD 57 Sport
- Arm Motor: BadAss 3520 970 Kv
- Arm ESC: Castle Mamba X
- #35H Chain
- Arm Pivot Shaft: 5/8" Shoulder Bolt
Wedge + Forks
Electronics
Components
- Parallel 2x 1500 mAh 6S LiHV: GNB 6S 1500 mAh
- Total 3000 mAh 6S
- FS2A Reciever
- Two Radiomaster Zorro 4-in-1 multiprotocol transmitters
- Linked together via trainer cable and OpenTX mixing to allow one driver for drivetrain, and another for weapons
Learnings
Successes
- TPU wedge mounting held up to numerous hits at NHRL
- Arm motor and gear ratio were selected properly and provide plenty of power to the arm
Failures
- The developed cush drive did not provide enough impact absorption to the arm mechanism.
- Resulted in broken chain, and damaged gearboxes
- A proper slipping clutch or a better designed impact absorption mechanism is required to withstand the dynamic forces from sudden decceleration upon impact
- Forks were quickly mangled in the kaizen spirit fight
Versions
V1.1
This iteration competed at Robobrawl.
Notable Changes
- TPU Combined Rear + Side Armor
- Replaced UHMW Armor, designed for extra durability and protection of rear wheels
- Thickened Forks
- After the Kaizen Spirit fight, forks were redesigned for greater durability after they were quickly mangled
- TPU coverings were also designed to fit around the forks
- #35H Chain
- Replaced the existing #35 chain in an attempt to prevent chain breakage failures
V1.0
This iteration was the first build which competed at NHRL.