Bone Dead Robotics

It’s all about Family

Pre-Teams Prep

Post-Emulsifier Cleanup

After Vorion’s dance with Emulsifier back in March, the robot was largely left untouched as work shifted to Mind Flayer. More in-depth descriptions of the restoration for this will be shared in the Vorion page in the coming 2024 section, but these photos will give you a good idea of the spread of damage to the machine. The critical components are all still functional so the damage was purely mechanical which not the worst.

The main observation coming out of that event is figuring out how to maximize ground game to control the opponent while not defaulting to absurdly long forks which keep the robot from directly hitting the opponent; since my blade is small I need machines to come close but their approach must be favorable for me to hit them. This led to the develop of new mounting.

Wide Forks & Flexlets

By utilizing the same mounting holes as the side armor and drilling out the access hole that is normally used for removing the pivot point on the fork mounts to 1/2″ a new wide mount is formed that utilizes the outermost reach of the machine to coral them. In fights against both MegatRon and Emulsifier the narrow forks have difficulty getting them in because their wider framers touched the not-as-low wheel guards or bracers which lift up the front and leave it vulnerable to attacks. This, in conjunction with the lifting arm, provides numerous points of contact to force ties or corralling.

The Flexlets are designed to compliment these wide forks by creating the entry to the weapon. For the forks or contact points near the center its critical to have a way to directly lead them into the blade. Since those positions can vary, a wider mount is more suitable to cover all bases. The flexlet idea from Fireball and Bloodsport is a simple solution that can be rapidly made with TPU and proved to be fairly effective in initial testing. The idea is simple: grind down the wedge to be flush then let the flexible TPU material allow it to ride against the ground with some tension. It’s a simple solution that could do just the thing I need it to do. More on this concept will be expanded in the Vorion pages.

Lifting Arm

As mentioned earlier, the lifting arm also plays into the strategy too. This new idea is a double-jointed arm which allows it to play better ground game. The fixed arm is good for reliability, but frequently it digs into the floor if pressed too low. This arm’s joints allows it to conform to the floor much better and compliment ground game. In theory, even if the flexlets don’t work and the wide forks are too wide to touch the other machine, this arm is the last line of defense to guarantee a favorable interaction.

Hoops

The next little change was hoops! These hoops are slightly longer with the goal of increasing the chance of the robot rolling back onto its wheels during inversion. The weight for these is similar to the shorter ones, but the longer shape means there is more flexing at the tips which could block the arm if bent back too much but only time will tell how concerning that is. The shape’s development will be reviewed more in the Vorion pages.

Power Switch

The last tiny detail that was changed was the use of a Kake switch and covering up the internals. Normally I use a direct plug to the battery to power on the robot for simplicity and reliability. The downside is that the opening to access it is a clear shot to vitals and has (multiple times) been a risk of incapacitation. Since I will be fighting CRACK? it was a good idea to make the jump now and I did just that alongside adding a bit more bracing around it to properly house the lifter ESC.

Graphics

The last thing to do was get the robot ready! Thats a new S7 blade made by LT century and hardened to 56 Hrc specifically to dig into Pepe. New red graphics were developed and bot was painted since Vorion & Bone Dead Robotics will be part of The Leatherbacks team for this event! The full details of this event will be revealed in time, but the best way to really know it is to watch it here!

Teams Event

Unfortunately, I did not take too many photos of things in this event as there was much buzzing around and many media activities. Hopefully the rest of this will be revealed in time (and it will be incredible I promise!) but for now the story lies squarely on Vorion’s fight with Pepe which was immortalized here.

Though totally destroyed, Vorion did not die! After the fight I found that the top plate was crushed in and the battery was damaged. Though taken outside, it never burned so all of the internals were spared. The electronics and motors were all totally functional (which saves the wallet) though it was mechanically destroyed. This was the original Vorion chassis that won way back in August 2023 and fought Emulsifier in the November 2023 Finals. It’s a shame to see it go down, but it went out in a blaze of glory and there’s no shame in that. Remarkably, many of those rub marks on the body of Pepe are the weapon getting into the chassis (as evident by the red streaks) but the squishy nature of the TPU was too much even for a new, sharpened disc. The good news is I have now learned how not to fight Pepe and with it I am one step closer to defeating it. It was a high price to pay for it, but every step is closer to success. There are a few ideas on how to handle Pepe such as adding more ground game to the wide wedge configuration that fought at Motorama and another idea which will be tested at the June 22 event.

Vorion later fought CRACK? and Smack-O-Lantern. These fights are fairly straightforward so I will summarize them here. In the CRACK? fight the 2nd Vorion had issues with shorting on the weapon motor ( I think) so, though the weapon ESC was swapped out during testing, the issue returned near the beginning of the CRACK? match leading to all but one drive being killed. The robot was otherwise undamaged as the top plates were switched to 1/8″ AR500 but it was incredibly disappointing to not properly test the configuration nor give a very entertaining fight. Failures like that are the most frustrating.

In the fight against Smack-O-Lantern there weren’t many surprises. After switching over to a new set of electronics, everything worked fairly well and since we were both 0-2 there was no reason to go super hard. The nice learning was that in the proper orientation the lifting can outright flip another 30lber so I was pleased with that! A nice consolation for us both, but the view looks toward the future.

Check back to see how the robot development continues!