I follow only one thing in my life which is
"Do What You Love and Whatever You Do, Do With Your Best".
Well, since my childhood I don't like doing study. I always run away from study. It is one of the boring things to do for me. I only do study at the time of exams. Instead of study, I like to do practical work or working on a project. Whenever I get the chance, I participate and make the projects.
This post is explaining my experience and the whole construction of the robot, which I have build during my fourth semester to participate in a college fest. With the help of this information, one can easily build a robot for Robo War competition.
How the idea of making a robot came to our mind??
It was the time of our annual tech fest, Ebullience 14. We were very excited because we did not attend the previous year fest. So we decided to take part in this tech fest. Actually, we already did participate in freshers party by performing expressionless dance. So, this time it was mandatory for us to take part in a technical competition, after all we are engineers.
Then the question came that in which competition we should participate?
After a lot of discussion and argument, my group decided to make a robot for Robo War competition. In the starting I was not agreeing, but Ashish convinced me and then finally we decided to make a robot.
After all this, Ashish gave us a short lecture on Robotics. He explained us about connections of toggle switches and motors. Then I made a list of components. Because this is used to be my work. I am the list maker in my group.
Team Members: Manu Khandelwal(me), Ashish Ahuja, Ashwini Verma, Sahitya Suman and Saurabh Rathour.
Here is the list and a brief explaination about these components required for making a basic robot (wired).
1. Motors
A motor is used to rotate the wheel of a robot, so that it can move in a certain direction. This is one of the most important component of robot. Basically we use DC motors in the robot.
Specifications of Motor
- If you are building the robot for Robo Rally competition then you need to buy motors of medium RPM(rotations per minute) and medium torque. Because in this competition your robot has to climb on the slope, running on rough road and crossing the obstacles. So the motors should be of good torque. And in this competition there is a time limit, so the speed is necessary.
- If you are building the robot for Robo Race/Nascar then the motors should be of high RPM and low torque. Because in this competition the robot has to cover a distance in a minimum time. So you don't need the motors of high torque. But make sure that the speed is not too much high other wise you may have a problem in controlling the robot.
- If you are building the robot for Robo War competition then the motors should be of high torque and medium RPM. Because in this competition your robot has to clash with opponent robot and to make it immobile or throw it outside the arena, you need motors of good torque. If your motors are not good in torque then you will be defeated by opponent. And to make a good collision between robots you need medium RPM motors, so make sure that the speed is medium, not too low. Make sure about the supply rating of the motors, because in some competitons there is a restriction of supply voltage 24 V or 36 V.
We have used high torque DC motors of Johnsson company. The RPM was 100, voltage supply was 12-24 V and current rating was 1 A. The cost of one motor was ₹130/-
2. Chassis
After motors, here comes the second most important part required for making a robot.
- Again if you are building a robot for Robo Rally or Robo Nascar then you can buy your chassis from the market. Make sure that the chassis is not too heavy. In this competition you don't have to worry about the design of robot.
- If you are building for Robo War then don't make a mistake by buying chassis from the market. Because in this competition you need a heavy weight robot, so that no one can push your robot. You can build your chassis by welding iron sheets. This is the best option for making a chassis of a tough robot.
3. Remote Control
For making a remote control, you can use either PCB (Printed Circuit Boards) of size 6"x4" or Breadboard. I would recommend you to use PCB, because connections are tight in PCB and you can have your soldering experience too.
4. Control Switches
For controlling the robot, you can use either toggle switches or normal switches. But toggle switches are far better than normal switches in terms of controlling. You need to use two toggle switches, one for left motors and one for right motors. Make sure that the switches are of good quality.
Connection of Toggle Switches
5. Wheels
Another important part for making a lethal robot. You can make a 4 wheel robot or 6 wheel or 8 wheel tank, it depends on you and design of your robot. Well, we have made a 6 wheel robot cum Tank. More tyres require more motors and hence increases the power. Make sure that the wheel base is quite enough, because the wheels are carrying the whole weight.
6. Connecting wires
Don't forget to buy some wires. The wires which are used for connecting remote control with the robot and giving the supply.
7. Supply
Without supply your robot is dead. You need a DC supply with the output of 12-24V, to power your motors. You can buy a portable adapter from the market which costs around ₹200/-. You can also use laptop charger to power your robot. We have used this too.
8. Other components
Soldering rod, Soldering wire, tape, glue gun, etc.
Designing and Making of "The Thallaiva"
Design
It is the most important thing in making a robot because you need to consider all the things simultaneously like length, breadth, height, weight, toughness, mobility, etc. The first four parameters which are length, breadth, height, weight, respectively, should be according to the competition rules. Also the weight of the robot should not too much high and not too much low. The weight must be according to the power of the motors, so the motors can withstand with the weight.
Well, we have used the square design of dimensions 35x35x20 cm and the weight was 10 kg. Our design was really good and many people including teachers appreciated our design.
Weapons
After the design of the robot, here comes the most interesting part of this war machine, which is weapon. People use various types of weapon in their robot such as hammer, grinder, hydraulic lift, fire with spirit, etc.
Our tank did not have any turret to fire bombs or missiles. Instead of attacking weapons such as hammer, grinder, etc, we have used iron spikes with a pointed head, which was working as an attacking weapon as well as defencing weapon. This was the most unique part of our robot and everyone got surprised by this idea.
We have used this because we knew the reality. There is no use of hammer, grinder and such weapons because the opponent robot won't be made of plastic. These weapons only used for gaining points, not for destroying the opponent robot. And we always thought about destroying the opponent robot, because this was the rule of game.
As we all know "Everything is fair is love and war" and after all this is the war game.
Making of "The Thallaiva"
The making of Thallaiva started with the buying of components. First I made a list and then we all went to Old Lajpat Rai Market, situated near Chandi Chowk, Delhi. We visited the shop no. 594 named Legend Electronics in the market and bought all the stuff.
After this, we explored other shops also, had some food and returned to our hostel. After this, to build the basic structure of the robot, we visited the back area of our college where mainly repairing works are happened. We took the iron sheet from the junkyard and started cutting the sheet. We were not experienced thats why the cutting was not proper. Then one of the carpenter named Eva, helped us. And together we cut all the sheets. The servant was not taking so much interest in our project, so to wake up his interest, we bought him beer and some cigarettes. And then we again resumed our work. After all the welding and cutting process, our structure got ready. We faced some problems too, but we made it. One of the major problem was that the motor shaft was not fitting in the tyre. But Eva solved this problem with the help of condoms and fevikwik.
The remote control work was done by Ashwini and Sahitya, because they already knew how to solder. After all this, we connected the remote to the supply with the help of laptop charger and got ready to see the working of our first robot. But the robot did not work, because of some wrong connections. After correcting the connections, we again tried, and this time it worked. We started dancing and shouting "Thallaiva". The sound of the robot was like real war machine. That was the time, we were ready for real war.
Old Lajpat Rai market is one of the biggest electronics market in India. You can get everything related to electronics. There are several shops where you can buy your stuff for making any project or robot. Such shop numbers are 385, 594, 644 (for motors and other materials), 462, 290 (for batteries) and 197 (for glue gun).
Name of the Robot
You all must be thinking why we used this name Thallaiva for our robot, while others named their robots such as Jarvis, Optimus Prime, Destroyer, etc. Actually, the name Thallaiva was given by Vibhor Saxena. He used to live with us in the Hostel. He was an MBA student, so he knew that how the name of any product could be sell. He knew all the tactics to popularize any product thats why this name was decided. And he was correct, the name got very popular in the whole college.
In The Battlefield
Now the day came and we started practising by driving the robot. The robot was driven by Ashwini and I was the advisor and giving the directions. Then the announcement occured and our first match/war was with our friends team. After looking at their robot, we were in little tension, because their robot was bigger and heavier than ours robot. But after starting of the match, it hardly took 2 minutes to finish the match. And the result was "Thallaiva won". Because we finished the match in a very short time, so we got an advantage by getting direct entry in finals. In the finals, there were total three teams in the arena, one from first year, one from second year and one was us, also second year. So, we started with a simple plan to win that match, but after sometime one opponent robot got immobile. Now, only two teams left and we were continuously making strategy to win that competition. But the opponent robot's motors were much powerful than ours. But still we fought with our best and finished the match by getting second position. And we were happy with our performance because this was the first time when we made any robot and won any prize. Finally, we got our certificates and prizes.
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| from left to right: Sahitya, Saurabh, Ashwini, Ashish and Manu(me). |
So this was the story of our robot "The Thallaiva".
The main aim behind this post is to give the basic knowledge for making a good robot.
