Are you curious about the robot that Pablos and 3ric were designing in a recent video podcast? They completely redesigned it to make the “hackerbot.” Their robot ended up looking like a spinning double sided axe.
Inspired by their robot, and Rich’s advice, I made my own robot. While most robots use titanium or airplane grade alluminum, I chose a different strategy to protect my robot.
The googly eyes and a wireless transmitting video camera made it complete.
Here’s an image from the camera. This is my little robots POV and it’s looking at a robot that is on it’s way to come and tear my robot up. It was unable to get to the vulnerable parts of my robot, but it did manage to saw a slot through the foam all around my robot and shred the transmitting video camera. There were no hard feelings. When you put a robot in the cage, you have to expect that your going to home with what Pablos called, “a bag of shrapnel.”
With so much damage, I had to really work to keep my robot competitive. With red and black tape and a whole lot of lexan and some titanium donated by Rob Farrow, my robot changed from a pink eggbot into a lady bug. Make sure to watch the video all the way to the end to find out if my little robot really is the little robot that could!
I had a lot of help on this project. Big thanks go out to Jennifer Rundle and Grendel for helping with camera operation while I was competing. All the great robot enthusiasts of Western Allied Robotics were super nice, helpful and encouraging. You can see more photos of the event here and here and here. The black and white polaroid photograph at the top of the article was taken by Billy Hatcher
i LOVED watching the robot battle, especially hearing the yelps of excitement from the younger set in the crowd!
bre, you make me proud with your ingenuity, your drive, and your creativity. the transformation of the smooth, pink disc to a meaty, takin’ care of bidness ladybug was inspired. i was yelling words of encouragement at my computer screen–your films inside and out of the robot made me feel like i was there. super cool!
Hi - Just a quick note to let you know that we have listed your site as a quality blog, over on ( duh ) qualityblogs.com.
http://qualityblogs.com/quality_blogs/i-make-things.php
Thanks for publishing an always interesting read.
JTk
THAT IS GREAT! AWESOME! ET CETERA!!!! I love it! What did you use to record the cam? your dv cam - via the wireless receiver?
I seem alot of pretty cheap (almost disposable) video thingies appearing in places like Best Buy recently.
another great video podcast - I Make Things truly does go from strength to strength!
Hi Bre,
I’m so glad you came to Bot Battles. Both you and Pablos (I hope name’s right!) were great competitors and a very welcome surprise addition to the event. You guys were part of the reason I had more fun than I’ve had in ages that day!
Thanks!
-Adam
Great little story. Enjoyed that!
Super cool! I would have put money on your bots to have overwhelmed the other bots with its cuteness. Glad it triumphed and got the recognition it deserved in the end.
Bre Pettis and Jake Ludington on Domains and HD Cams…
Jake and Bre Pettis take over The Chris Pirillo Show while Chris and Ponzi vacation in Iowa and North Carolina. Jake relays some of the things he’s learned about domain parking and resale at places like Sedo, the process of……
All that time put into making a bot and then they put a saw in the cage!
THATS NOT FAIR!
The cage should have hazards but not saws!
Anyway, that event looked awsome.
Maybe a remote control robot with a hammer, marching around the ring hitting the floor.
[...] Jake and Bre Pettis take over The Chris Pirillo Show while Chris and Ponzi vacation in Iowa and North Carolina. Jake relays some of the things he’s learned about domain parking and resale at places like Sedo, the process of becoming a domain reseller and a few of the interesting war stories from the world of domain investment and speculation. Bre hacks his brand new Sony HDR-HC1 HD video camera in preparation to go shoot video at the Maker Faire as part of the Make blogging team. Bre provides an update on his first experiences as a robot maker including shooting robot perspective video. Listen Now: [...]