The fact that your open about your battle bot design and how its made and your willing to put out videos for the fans that are informational. I respect you and the bot a lot more. Usually everyone is so sneaky tell no one, say nothing. Thanks friend. I enjoyed every fight ya been in so far in the season 5.
If we share information and other bots improve, then the fights will only get better, and it becomes a more valid hobby/sport. I'm all about just making it better. Sad fights are sad.
I've been saying for decades that if you have good solid wheel mounts and beefy rubber/plastic wheels, you're probably better off vs having a guard around the wheel when you take a heavy hit. Unless the whole wheel gets ripped off, there is far less chance of it getting jammed by the guard bending and rubbing against the wheel or misaligning the axle. Nice to hear an actual roboteer confirm what I've been thinking. Excellent video and thanks for the insight!
I had been wondering where you found those awesome wheels. It never occurred to me that your team designed and built them! Copperhead looks like a very solidly built and well designed robot. I wish you well in future competitions!
it could work, you would need solid underneath that tho, Jellyfish in robot wars was solid hdpe. it took an axe hit and the armour was fine but the blunt force trauma killed a speed controller and i think a battery. and also if thoes wheels are 12lbs imagine trying to cover a robot in that
So combine the stiffness & toughness of solid armor with the impact resistance & absorption of rubber? Would a sandwich construction work, or would simply coating metal with that rubber be better?
reading this in 2024 is hilarious, considering how in lower weight classes TPU (which is basically 3D printed rubber) is the got to material for the body
Copper head and deep six are my two battle bots I’m the most excited up keep up the updates I really like seeing the behind the scenes good luck in season 5 I’m rooting for you guys
Would fiber suspended inside the poured rubber have any beneficial qualities? Particularly if there was ever a full split/separation to hold chunks together? Maybe even sets made for certain opponents weapons that are more likely to disable the bot via targeting and tearing the wheels up? Is there a possibility to review what I think was a sprocket failure or drive components disabled? IIRC that was a issue that happened more than once?
MAYBE. If there were layers of carbon fiber or fiberglass inside, it could help keep the wheel in-tact, but it's actually a nice feature when chunks get removed. If it holds together perfectly, that force will go elsewhere. They are so large that it takes several major hits to really impact the drive.
Did you test, if it could be even more robust, if certain parts were hollow? Then it might flex more and to someone who only thought about the weight of a
We carefully measure the rubber for each wheel. We'd know if there were significant voids because we'd have a lot of material leftover after the pour. It's all pretty calculated.
@@RobertCowanDIY I think I messed up the question. I meant: If certain parts were hollow, could it be more robust? I never wanted to question, if the tires are solid right now. I just wondered, if they could profit, if you introduced voids. Maybe some cylinders on a circular pattern embedded on the inside part of the wheel to introduce voids. A solid wall to the outside is obviously important to not catch the edges of any weapon. On the other hand, voids on the inside could allow the wall to flex away, instead of being cut? Considering the depth of engineering in many other parts of the robot, I am almost sure you have a very good reason to choose solid tires. But I am curious for the reason. My first thought would have been: Reduce the wheels by one pound each and use 4 pounds for a bigger motor and more batteries.
thanks for making these videos! I'm looking to jump into ant/beetleweight and seeing the thought that goes into heavier bots removes a lot of the mystery behind designing/constructing from scratch!
It's really good on rougher surfaces, but it's always tricky to get traction on the smooth steel floor. It's as good as any other, except for the vulcanized rubber wheels.
Robert, in last night's battle, it looked like Copperhead's tires lost traction, or at least that was what the announcers were implying. Knowing what you know now, would you change anything on the material used?
@@RobertCowanDIY Thank you! BTW, Copperhead’s drum was quite impressive against Gigabyte. The whole family was super excited. My 11 year old son is building his own bot. Your videos have been very informative and inspirational for him.
I wonder what will happen if you mix some Kevlar filler in the urethane? Maybe the fiber reinforced rubber can take a much bigger hit? Anyway, awesome job as always!
i think the fact they hold together so well is that their so flexible, i don't know enough to say weather that would help or not. TBH if those wheels can take a hit from SOW and keep going they probably don't need much improvement HAHA
I'm not entirely sure, it's just a dye that we bought with the resin. But yes, we could do different colors, we have some different dye we might try for alternate wheels. The problem is that it's pretty expensive stuff, so if we hate the color, we've wasted a LOT of money.
@@RobertCowanDIY If you do the video you mentioned on making wheels could you hit the supplier up for some materials/colours? If it was my business i would be in for that sort of exposure.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the wheels are very far back, and when I made an antweight drum, the prototype had the wheels in the way back, which made it hard to drive because they were too far away from the CG. Does Copperhead have a way of dealing with this? Again, I don't actually know if they are very far away from the CG, and I'm not trying to compare building an antweight and a heavyweight, but I was just curious.
They are pretty far back, but there's a lot of weight in the chassis. I think it's a 60/40 split, with 60% of the weight on the back wheels. We lose traction because of this, but it lets the front forks dig into the floor, allowing us to get under opponents. It's a trade-off. We might have a trick up our sleeves for this year though.
@@omfggala3913 though once you get the front ones, its weapon becomes much less efective If it were a vertical spinner with its own skids, now that would be a different story... Still made a good point about the middle wheels being harder to lose than outer ones though, that's basically how it won many of its fights
Aluminum is best for this application. It may be possible to use a 3d printed mold, but we would most likely need to make one for each wheel, and that would be wasteful and time-consuming.
Waiting for the moment he makes an option for low low man to have a block of rubber at the front instead of the solid metal block, that or make Crippling Depressions front and sides out of rubber XD
As an option I can see it, but the problem with too much rubber is that it is "grabbier" then metal. Against a vertical spinner for instance metal might be a better choice since it will give the spinner less purchase to transfer energy. Better to have a spinner skip off metal armor then grab rubber and launch you.
@@Skwisgar2322 I would say the opposite. At the forces involved here, metal is grabbier. The rubber will just give way for larger weapons and either bounce , deform, or be removed. With metal, there is a greater impact since it won't deform or absorb as much of the impact, so that gets transferred into the bot as shock. You can't transfer much energy into rubber, it will just break loose or move out of the way. Metal will allow higher energy transfer.
"Arguably" is the key word. A wheel guard would probably be at least as heavy as the wheel itself and could still get damaged and cause the wheel to lock up. From a 'weight budget' standpoint, leaving the wheels exposed and adding all the weight into the wheel itself gives us the best of both worlds, and they're surprisingly durable and resistant to damage because there's just not much to grab on to.
I was going to say that's tricky, but it's not really. We could just machine our name in the mold. If only I had a CNC router, wait. I hate you. Stay tuned for tutorial video...
@@Skwisgar2322 It doesnt need to be a deep pattern. Demolding shouldn't be too bad and they way it was shown clamped, its looks like its in a few pieces.
I never realized the size of a heavyweight bot until I saw a bot I thought was small having a wheel larger in diameter than a human adult hand, probably double the diameter.
Ha, right? And Copperhead is TINY, it can fit inside many of the other robots. It's not really even a good example of a heavyweight. It looks more like a middleweight.
I’ve never seen someone so happy when talking about wheels
I mean, it's 12 pounds of indestructible wheel for a 250 pound combat robot, what more could you want out of life!
@@RobertCowanDIY A big Pastrami sandwich! and mabey a beer to go with it.
The fact that your open about your battle bot design and how its made and your willing to put out videos for the fans that are informational. I respect you and the bot a lot more. Usually everyone is so sneaky tell no one, say nothing. Thanks friend. I enjoyed every fight ya been in so far in the season 5.
If we share information and other bots improve, then the fights will only get better, and it becomes a more valid hobby/sport. I'm all about just making it better. Sad fights are sad.
I've been saying for decades that if you have good solid wheel mounts and beefy rubber/plastic wheels, you're probably better off vs having a guard around the wheel when you take a heavy hit. Unless the whole wheel gets ripped off, there is far less chance of it getting jammed by the guard bending and rubbing against the wheel or misaligning the axle.
Nice to hear an actual roboteer confirm what I've been thinking. Excellent video and thanks for the insight!
With all the kinks worked out, Copperhead is a 3-1 bot minimum. I expect to see you make a fairly deep run in the tournament next month.
That's what we're hoping. All the issues are resolved and it's a mean drum spinner.
this aged extremely well lmao
I had been wondering where you found those awesome wheels. It never occurred to me that your team designed and built them!
Copperhead looks like a very solidly built and well designed robot. I wish you well in future competitions!
Need to make a set of bot armor covered in that rubber, could be interesting...
it could work, you would need solid underneath that tho, Jellyfish in robot wars was solid hdpe. it took an axe hit and the armour was fine but the blunt force trauma killed a speed controller and i think a battery. and also if thoes wheels are 12lbs imagine trying to cover a robot in that
So combine the stiffness & toughness of solid armor with the impact resistance & absorption of rubber? Would a sandwich construction work, or would simply coating metal with that rubber be better?
Maybe rubber cladding on top to protect against hammers?
reading this in 2024 is hilarious, considering how in lower weight classes TPU (which is basically 3D printed rubber) is the got to material for the body
Copper head and deep six are my two battle bots I’m the most excited up keep up the updates I really like seeing the behind the scenes good luck in season 5 I’m rooting for you guys
Would fiber suspended inside the poured rubber have any beneficial qualities? Particularly if there was ever a full split/separation to hold chunks together? Maybe even sets made for certain opponents weapons that are more likely to disable the bot via targeting and tearing the wheels up?
Is there a possibility to review what I think was a sprocket failure or drive components disabled? IIRC that was a issue that happened more than once?
MAYBE. If there were layers of carbon fiber or fiberglass inside, it could help keep the wheel in-tact, but it's actually a nice feature when chunks get removed. If it holds together perfectly, that force will go elsewhere. They are so large that it takes several major hits to really impact the drive.
Did you test, if it could be even more robust, if certain parts were hollow? Then it might flex more and to someone who only thought about the weight of a
We carefully measure the rubber for each wheel. We'd know if there were significant voids because we'd have a lot of material leftover after the pour. It's all pretty calculated.
@@RobertCowanDIY I think I messed up the question. I meant: If certain parts were hollow, could it be more robust? I never wanted to question, if the tires are solid right now. I just wondered, if they could profit, if you introduced voids. Maybe some cylinders on a circular pattern embedded on the inside part of the wheel to introduce voids. A solid wall to the outside is obviously important to not catch the edges of any weapon. On the other hand, voids on the inside could allow the wall to flex away, instead of being cut?
Considering the depth of engineering in many other parts of the robot, I am almost sure you have a very good reason to choose solid tires. But I am curious for the reason.
My first thought would have been: Reduce the wheels by one pound each and use 4 pounds for a bigger motor and more batteries.
"Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down." - Adam Savage
one of my favorite quotes
thanks for making these videos! I'm looking to jump into ant/beetleweight and seeing the thought that goes into heavier bots removes a lot of the mystery behind designing/constructing from scratch!
It's not 'hard', you just have to think things through. And the bigger you go, the more this is the case.
I didn't realize these were custom made, that's really cool! How is the traction?
It's really good on rougher surfaces, but it's always tricky to get traction on the smooth steel floor. It's as good as any other, except for the vulcanized rubber wheels.
Make more videos about the heavy weights 💪
Really appreciate your work 😁.
Btw Does copperhead do wheelees when accelerated instantly?
The drum is too heavy for it to do wheelies. BUT without the drum, bearings and shaft up front, it can lift the forks during acceleration, yes.
Always wondered where you got those tires from, no wonder I couldn't find them. Those roller bearings should hold plenty of load as well.
I would love a tutorial on making PU wheels, I'm a tether car builder and it is how many people make tires for tether cars.
Robert, in last night's battle, it looked like Copperhead's tires lost traction, or at least that was what the announcers were implying. Knowing what you know now, would you change anything on the material used?
Check out the recap video coming this sunday.
@@RobertCowanDIY Thank you! BTW, Copperhead’s drum was quite impressive against Gigabyte. The whole family was super excited. My 11 year old son is building his own bot. Your videos have been very informative and inspirational for him.
I wonder what will happen if you mix some Kevlar filler in the urethane? Maybe the fiber reinforced rubber can take a much bigger hit? Anyway, awesome job as always!
i think the fact they hold together so well is that their so flexible, i don't know enough to say weather that would help or not. TBH if those wheels can take a hit from SOW and keep going they probably don't need much improvement HAHA
Hey Robert, I was wondering if there was a colorant you were putting in? Could you do different color wheels? Enjoyed as always!
I'm not entirely sure, it's just a dye that we bought with the resin. But yes, we could do different colors, we have some different dye we might try for alternate wheels. The problem is that it's pretty expensive stuff, so if we hate the color, we've wasted a LOT of money.
Robert Cowan ah makes sense.
@@RobertCowanDIY If you do the video you mentioned on making wheels could you hit the supplier up for some materials/colours? If it was my business i would be in for that sort of exposure.
Is it possible to have rubber armor
Best of luck for battle bots. May victory be yours brother.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the wheels are very far back, and when I made an antweight drum, the prototype had the wheels in the way back, which made it hard to drive because they were too far away from the CG. Does Copperhead have a way of dealing with this? Again, I don't actually know if they are very far away from the CG, and I'm not trying to compare building an antweight and a heavyweight, but I was just curious.
They are pretty far back, but there's a lot of weight in the chassis. I think it's a 60/40 split, with 60% of the weight on the back wheels. We lose traction because of this, but it lets the front forks dig into the floor, allowing us to get under opponents. It's a trade-off. We might have a trick up our sleeves for this year though.
My favorite example of wheels being used as armor is sewer snake. They were $7 wheels from harbor freight filled with pool noodles.
that was less armour and more the fact that you basically had to get at least 4 to stop him.
@@omfggala3913 though once you get the front ones, its weapon becomes much less efective
If it were a vertical spinner with its own skids, now that would be a different story...
Still made a good point about the middle wheels being harder to lose than outer ones though, that's basically how it won many of its fights
I too have never been on this so-called "Internet".
Is copperhead going to four wheel drive for battlebots season 5 will have to see what happens next
Nope, this would be a complete re-design from the ground up. Since it rests on the forks in the front, that would all need to change.
Why you didn't 3d printed the mould?
Aluminum is best for this application. It may be possible to use a 3d printed mold, but we would most likely need to make one for each wheel, and that would be wasteful and time-consuming.
he had to recalibrate every single tool in his shop after the bounce test
Get an old loader tire and use that as armor . Seen them used as snow plows
Waiting for the moment he makes an option for low low man to have a block of rubber at the front instead of the solid metal block, that or make Crippling Depressions front and sides out of rubber XD
I've been toying with the idea of a fully flexible bot.
Flop Flop Man?
As an option I can see it, but the problem with too much rubber is that it is "grabbier" then metal. Against a vertical spinner for instance metal might be a better choice since it will give the spinner less purchase to transfer energy. Better to have a spinner skip off metal armor then grab rubber and launch you.
@@Skwisgar2322 I would say the opposite. At the forces involved here, metal is grabbier. The rubber will just give way for larger weapons and either bounce , deform, or be removed. With metal, there is a greater impact since it won't deform or absorb as much of the impact, so that gets transferred into the bot as shock. You can't transfer much energy into rubber, it will just break loose or move out of the way. Metal will allow higher energy transfer.
@@RobertCowanDIY you make a good point. I suppose the only way to know would be to test it.
I mean you could arguably use that weight for wheel guards
"Arguably" is the key word. A wheel guard would probably be at least as heavy as the wheel itself and could still get damaged and cause the wheel to lock up. From a 'weight budget' standpoint, leaving the wheels exposed and adding all the weight into the wheel itself gives us the best of both worlds, and they're surprisingly durable and resistant to damage because there's just not much to grab on to.
You could shoot some nice 3 pointers with that wheel!
I measured, it weighs as much as 8 basketballs.
Oh man , if DUCK! Ever got those wheels... It'd quite be a sight to see .
Scott was never completely convinced that having exposed wheels is okay.
It can be, if they're really tough.
Nice beard
I hate it when people say that to me...
@@EleanorPeterson Nice not beard.
Since you make your own tires you are missing a chance to put the name of the boy on the tires themselves!
I was going to say that's tricky, but it's not really. We could just machine our name in the mold. If only I had a CNC router, wait. I hate you. Stay tuned for tutorial video...
@@RobertCowanDIY Its Copperhead... Its a snake... do a snake skin tread... Missed Oppurtunity.
@@RSteel517 That could make de-molding tricky, but if the mold was broken into enough pieces it could be done.
@@Skwisgar2322 It doesnt need to be a deep pattern. Demolding shouldn't be too bad and they way it was shown clamped, its looks like its in a few pieces.
@@RSteel517 it just adds complexity, and possible points of failure for little to no gain.
Is reactive armor allowed? I was thinking you could use Tannerite to make a shaped charge. It would be a hit that hits back if you know what I mean.
Simple answer: no
I don't have the complicated answer
Don't think that any explosive is allowed inside the arena
No explosives. The simple way to explain Battlebots: generate, store and transfer kinetic energy. Done.
If it is explosive no
I never realized the size of a heavyweight bot until I saw a bot I thought was small having a wheel larger in diameter than a human adult hand, probably double the diameter.
Ha, right? And Copperhead is TINY, it can fit inside many of the other robots. It's not really even a good example of a heavyweight. It looks more like a middleweight.
Yeah, well, I suppose they're fairly large and reasonably heavy and sorta kinda bouncy, but my bra faces much bigger challenges.
Ugh, we get it.
All fun n games till he drops on his toe
1st