I designed this robot in an attempt to give credence to another bot whose concept fascinated me, but whose most notable performance underwhelmed its audience. Innovating on this creative concept, 'the boy' moves by use of a small button on the bottom of the weapon hub. Despite the horizontal saw spinning at 16 thousand RPM, the small diameter of the button reduces the surface speed to that equivalent of the other side's drive motor. Thus, by modulating both the weapon motor and the drive motor, the robot can turn in both directions, and go straight (after some muscle memory is formed).

The weapon is a custom-designed 16-toothed sawblade is made of 3 millimeter thick abrasion resistant steel, perfect for cutting into and through other robots' wheels and armor - and with half the energy of a 9mm handgun going off, it definitely packs a punch!

The chassis has 5 millimeter thick walls made of TPU, a 3D-printed flexible material designed to absorb energy instead of cracking or shattering. Because this flexible material would not be rigid enough to support the rest of the body, two carbon fiber plates constrain the top and bottom of the robot with metal standoffs acting as supports through the corners of the chassis.

All internal components, including the electronic speed controllers, transmitter and receiver, and battery were optimized for weight, size, and max amperage load, as the larger the chips are, the larger the chassis would have to be, and the easier for someone to damage a critical component. All components were catalogued in a google sheet to keep track of both the weight of the bot, and the total price of construction: about $240 USD.

All CAD was done in Onshape using my student license, and non-printed physical materials were sourced through laser-cutting and CNC services.

It performed quite well at it's first event, placing 7th out of 16 robots!