PyRAMidon
Pyramidon Mpeg (1.1MB)
PyRAMidon as Pyramidroid at Battlebots 3.0
PyRAMidon is full 30 degree pyramid heavyweight which was designed during the time that PyRAMidroid was being fabricated.
In the above picture the skirts are blocked into a horizontal position which allows the team to pick up
the robot using the cavities on the corners of the chassis. It also keeps them out of the way during driving practice.
I was able to collect the needed pnuematic parts during the last week before the competitition.
It has two HPA driven 12" actuators that exert a force of 750 lbs. The small radius in the tip would then
exert a pressure of 125,000 PSI onto anything it hit. I entered this configuration at Battlebots first, but
encountered major opposition from the safety crew, as they thought it was too dangerous, Hello? This is combat!
They didn't like the idea that when I turned OFF the Master switch, the actuators came shooting out both sides
into their rest state. This was originally deemed to be the safest place to store them when everything was off,
so that there would be no surprises. Unfortunately they didn't see it that
way, so my wife Becky and I, ripped the pyramid assembly off and replaced it with the PyRAMidroid parts. I later
got approval for the pnuematics as they were but I didn't want to switch it around again.
It was probably for the better as the actuator shaft was 5/8 inch diameter and it was the opinion of
most experienced bot builders that it would have bent in the heavy weight class (should have been 1" dia).
I just want to mention that everyone at Battlebots did a superb job of getting the over 500 contestants through
technical inspection and had the patience of Job when dealing with all of those (us?) prima-donna, know-it-all geeks.
Their gears are well oiled to say the least.
Pyramidon freely gave up its chassis so that Agitator could be built, but he is hoping that his pyramid top with all
the pnuematics, will become a light weight BB.
Building PyRAMidon
Note: Refer to PyRAMidroids build pictures on the guts of the chassis, since they are the same.
The following pictures are from the Battlebots site and belong to them.
