Drobo BattleBot

BattleBots are remote-controlled combat robots used to compete against other BattleBots in a controlled, caged arena. The National Havoc Robot League (NHRL) is an organization that hosts these competitions, dividing BattleBots into their respective weight classes to battle fairly and to place higher in the bracket-style tournament. Through these competitions, NHRL serves as an outlet for various levels of robotics; however, testing BattleBots before competition is arduous, and most teams lack accurate 1-to-1 battle setups. Therefore, we aim to compete in 30lb division of these tournaments, building upon the previous year’s BattleBot, to retrieve valuable battle-centric metric data for future BattleBot development. Last year’s BattleBot consisted of a partially completed shuffle drive system, weapon system, and lower chassis. This year, we aim to develop the shuffle drive system, upper chassis, power distribution system, Arduino-based architecture, data-collection system, and self-righting system. Furthermore, utilizing a unique form of locomotion such as our shuffle drive system, gains the BattleBot a 15lb increase in the weight limit as per the NHRL rules, along with an opportunity to record overlooked metrics pertaining to the nonstandard shuffle locomotion. The additional weight will allow for the added power bus bar, self-righting mechanism, heavy armory, heavy vertical drisk spinner, and a frontal ramp. Finally, through competing in the NHRL competition, we have the opportunity to ease the barrier to entry in robotics for Drexel.