Have you been watching BattleBots this season?! I'm co-captain of Team Witch Doctor, and we use Solidworks to design each new version of Witch Doctor. We have a new weapon system this year that we have put to the test in our first 2 battles. Our new weapon setup worked well in its debut fight and got us the knock out in our first battle versus Ribbot, but we saw a new issue: We lost a weapon belt! From the way that it broke, it doesn’t seem have been hit directly.
Fusion marked a second battle under our belt (pun intended) with the new weapon system and some more lessons learned! We lost another weapon belt in a similar way, so it’s time to dive deeper into this issue. We only have one weapon belt on each motor, so a lost belt has major implications! There are a few possible causes:
- The extra weapon power is just too much for this size belt OR
- The pulley geometry or belt tension isn’t allowing the belts to slip enough. When we were still back home we realized the belt tension was too tight and we sent the pulleys out to get remachined. Maybe they’re STILL too tight?
Both of these are difficult to prove AND difficult to remedy in the pits between matches. If this continues to be a recurring issue, it could cost us our whole season. But Mike takes another look at the pulleys and notices something interesting. When they were re-machined, it looks like they were milled instead of turned. This resulted in a different finish than we’re used to, with distinct tiny steps. What if that surface texture is destroying the belts at such a high speed? Before taking more drastic action, we sanded down the pulleys to make sure the surface is nice and smooth. We’ll try out our theory in our next battle versus Gruff. What better test than one of the most rugged bots in the sport? Watch BattleBots tomorrow night (Thursday 3/2) to see if we lose any belts!
