Tag Archives: robot

Smackdown in Sactown 2009

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When I was going to CSUS I helped found a club, and one of my first few semesters there we started an event called the Engineering Expo.  At the exposition, a show-and-tell for the schools engineering departments, there is a one-pound battlebot competition called Smackdown in Sactown.  This year was the 5th such compeititon.

I drove Kevin’s robot, which I built for him, Emsee Frypants.  I lost the first fight, but went undefeated after that all the way to the finals to win. I’m still getting familiar with my dSLR, so many of the pictures didn’t come out well, but others look fantastic.   Can’t wait to take some more.

Big Bloom

After a few years of making little robots, Kevin and I are finally getting into the big bots. We’ve started work on a 30#er we’re calling “Big Bloom”…the name comes from the original 1# robot I made with a similar design name “Ground Bloom.” Yesterday I got the gears for the bot: A 5:1 stainless steel set of spur gears. With this gear ratio, the bot should be pretty scary 😀