Bushy Armor For Fight Robotic? It’s Not Horrible!

[Angus] of Maker’s Muse enjoys fight robotics, by which contenders zip about in an enviornment, trying to disable each other with weapons that raise, spin, and smash. He obtained a humorous concept a short time in the past and questioned whether or not a stiff mane of bristles could serve as lightweight, ablative, impact resistant armor?

Just to set the stage, [Angus]’s new robotic competes within the plastic antweight (or “plant”) division, by which robots are restricted to 150 grams with each chassis and weapons fabricated from plastic. In such circumstances, one can see how a mane of thick, inflexible “hairs” would possibly really punch above its weight, so to talk.

Nothing settles a query like an excellent experiment, so [Angus] sat down and redesigned his newest robotic to exchange its outer shell with a thick wad of bristles, within the type of a 3D printed lion’s mane. Filament is bridged between the mannequin and an outer help construction, which is minimize away afterwards to show the “hairs”.

How properly did it carry out? Well sufficient to benefit additional research! Where previous robots obtained their outer shells damaged up, the furry robotic appears to have come by means of fairly intact. It appears the thought may not be as foolish because it first appeared, at the very least within the plastic antweight division.

3D printers have been unbelievable within the discipline of fight robotics. First they had been nice as a result of they made customized elements simpler and extra accessible to hobbyists, however issues have advanced extra since then. Now people compete by placing motors and electronics inside virtually completely 3D printed robots. There’s by no means been a greater time to get into fight robotics, and experiment with unorthodox designs.

If you need to attempt a furry robotic for your self, remember to watch the followup by which [Angus] improves the hair-generating process considerably.