Lambo - 2WD : A Sumo Robot

Hello guys,

Lots of little projects left on my to-do list. Finally got the bi-ped to walk ( Still wobbly ). Need to complete MBB to follow lines (and solve mazes). But they are on hold for a while. Until this one is done.

Meet Lambo. Sorry for the weird name, but this sumo robot plans on emulating the looks of the originial Lamborghini models. Now what has the "Lamborghini Looks" got to do with sumo robots?

Well, the rectangular body forms a nice and strong structure for  housing the electronic components. It also forms an important part of the robot body ( most of the weight will reside in this region as the better the tires are pressed, the greater the traction ). Finally, a slanted metal at the front will hopefully slide underneath the opponents and knock 'em off! Enough physics and talk! Here is a summary of the build of Lambo.

I certainly will look forward to try and upgrade it from time to time. For now, the body is made up of tin, picked off from some recycling store. Grabbed two sheets of nice and strong tin, and spent a whole day cutting, cutting, cutting and cutting with my cousin.

Next up was drilling the holes for mounting the motors. Unfortunately, there was a power outage in a nearby metal workshop. And thus, we spent the next hour hammering our way through the tin. ( Boy, it was a tough thick sheet of tin! )

Screwed the alumunium brackets onto the tin sheet. Some of you might be familiar with these. They are the big-size pololu motor brackets.

Screwed them nice and tight.

Mounted the motors onto the bracket. Used these motors. Lambo should be fast but should also have the heat to knock out it's opponents!

Those wheels are definitely temporary. They are really thin, and I don't think that they will be able to generate enough traction or make meaningful impact of the huge torque and speed generated by the motors. That's it for now.

Lambo is intended to compete in the 3 kg section. Since the competitions out here are manual, not autonomous, it won't make use of line sensors and obstacle detectors. Thus, I will use some wireless modules for establishing wireless control. I will most likely use a 6 Channel TX-RX pair to get things working right away. Or, maybe try out some NRF24L01 modules.

For the brains, Lambo uses an Arduino alongside the Pololu Dual VNH5019 Motor Driver Shield. These motors draw quite some amount of current when nearing the stall-zones. A 3S Li-Po Battery powers it up.

That's it right now guys. Updates to follow soon. In fact, this bot has already been built but not in "Lamborghini style". We hurriedly made temporary changes to compete in a local sumo-robot competition. The robot was no where near the looks of the Lamborghini. It was more close to a three-wheeled tractor. Seriously.

But the tractor took us to the semis!

So it's time to tear it apart and start once again from the stage depicted right above. I don't know if I am in the right position though. Let's see how it turns out. It's basically screwing all parts together and separting compartments inside the robot''s body for the power supply, microcontroller, and motor driver. And maybe even add some heavy stuff into it.

Till now it looks like a 2WD sumo. Let's see if it looks like the Lamborghini at the end. But more than that, I will consider it a success if it's a power-packed sumo-robot ramming machine. Looks aren't that important right now really.

Thanks for dropping by guys. Let me know your opinions, suggestions, tips, etc. below! And maybe a better name for it! :D

-Ashim