NHRL first! Weaponised melty brain fights! (exclusive NHRL fight report)

[@jimkazmer951]

Ben is definitely pursuing a very challenging design. As it is, I find it challenging enough to keep Project LiftOff under three pounds... adding two vertical weapons and still be under three pounds is a huge testament of Ben's fortitude and design. My brother (Dave) has been wanting us to do such a design, yet the challenge of a dual vertical melty has kept me from following Ben's footsteps. It was great to meet and talk with Ben! I hope to see Ben's melty at BattleBots.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Thanks Jim! Project LiftOff is a brilliant melty and a huge inspiration, was great to meet and talk to you too! I'm hoping to take my melty code to the next level now!

[@teamgetwreckedcombatrobots776]

I love how instead of just removing the googly eye so you could have clearance while upside down, you went through the effort of making an entire brand new top panel just so you could keep it. Now that’s commitment!

[@notdanroth]

so much this

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

You gotta commit! and when theres a whole workshop of tools for builders to use, it would be rude not too!

[@williamhoover1515]

It was fun seeing you there. Jim is great. He shares his experience. I'm on the ER Stingray Team...See Ya in 2024

[@razer259]

Good to see RUD finally showing its potential, and apart from that damage from Stag Beetle Bot, the overall durability is very impressive. 👍 Also, really cool to see Project Liftoff appear on this video! I had a feeling you and the Kazmers would talk melty with each other. The ultimate melty brain trust! We're all really excited to see more from your NHRL journey! [×~×]

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

I was super happy with how it did this time! I do just need to get it working a little better, or at least not taking as much damage Theres more NHRL to come! it was a blast [×~×]

[@chase55565]

This version of the melty seemed promising. You should definitely hold your head high on this one. Love the dedication to the googly eye!

[@giddybots]

When it starts spinning all wild like I just hear Donny noises from The Wild Thornberrys

[@bami2]

Next version should have a recessed slot in the top plate for the googly eye to sit in.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

It absolutely will! The other bot I took, Squeakamus has google eye recesses in the front armour and I really like how that came out

[@billybrant6818]

Melty brains are just remote control beyblades…

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

haha basically yeah!

[@paydaygh9388]

I’m wondering if you need the weapons to be angled at 5 degrees so that the teeth engage, instead of the sides or face of the spinners. Also, hard steels love to fail with absolute shattering, shearing, or cracking. Soft steels love to bend. Just because S7 is incredibly strong doesn’t mean it’s invincible. The bots at NHRL are a major step above everything else on Earth.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

maybe, angling to be more tangential to the spin? not sure, I'm keen to get the chassis stronger before messing with tweaks like that

[@NHRL]

❤❤❤

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Thanks for having me, it was so much fun!!

[@yifun6187]

It's been so awesome to see the progress on this build. It gets better and better each iteration. Can't wait to see where it goes

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Definitely more to come from this melty. its soo close now and I've got some hints on improving the code

[@Omnimetatron]

Now I want to see some super slow motion replays of robot combat, see how much things bend and flex in the moment of impact.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

That would be so cool! might be a little hard to frame up, but if you could pull it off the footage would be exceptional

[@bami2]

Witch Doctor did some tests for I think preparing for S6 where they filmed at pretty high framerate, they hit a tantrum-shaped steel brick, a tooth broke off and the entire bot flexed back and forth from the vibration of the now unbalanced weapon, just incredible to see something you think is rigid just flex like a piece of rubber. The video is called "Inside Our Battle With Brushless // Witch Doctor Pit Pass Ep 2" at around the 1 minute mark in.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Very cool! It would be much easier to capture on camera hitting a stationary block

[@adicsbtw]

I decided to frame-by-frame the video to see if I could spot where Melty breaks, and it looks like it happens at 20:18. You hit the other robot on one end, deliver a massive hit that sends both of you flying, and when that hit lands, the weapon on the *other* side of the robot comes flying apart. I'd try to do the math on how much force that was, but melty was such a blur before the hit happened that I can't hope to do that math

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Wait... off the other end?!?!? WOAH! thats some serious energy!!

[@adicsbtw]

@@TeamPanicRobotics yeah. I guess that's what happens when your robot spins so fast it looks like a circle

[@DigitalJedi]

I feel like the verticals just don't mix with the melty design as well as the horizontals. With the verticals, losing either weapon means you can't do the main thing the robot is meant to do. With the horizontals, you can keep going with one or the other broken, and like you mentioned, the weapons can be spun up before the melty is at speed. I do think the dual-vert idea should stick around though, perhaps something like Orbitron from Battlebots would be a good design to emulate in either an ant or beetle design.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

yeah maybe, but its still a fun problem to try and solve, I'm not sure I'll ever see an advantage to the verts over a traditional melty but I'm still keen to try

[@kasuraga]

oh my god this thing is terrifying. It's clearly extremely durable to be able to ping pong off the arena walls with so much velocity. Even after having one of the motors getting completely torn off and thrown off balance.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Thanks! Still needs to be a little more durable, but its getting there

[@kasuraga]

@@TeamPanicRobotics seeing that thing rocket against the arena walls like a pinball, i was half expecting it to blow apart into pieces from all the ricochet. The sheer speed that thing kicks off the walls is pretty ballistic haha Cant wait to see what you have in plan for melty brain

[@Term-0]

That is a pretty unique robot. I have never seen a spinning robot with a vertical spinner, and it is pretty cool how the spinners' axes of rotation are tangent to the robot's axis of rotation. I'm sure that could probably give you some good 'bite'

[@Garethaxz]

In fairness, I've sheared thicker tool steel by hand on multiple occasions, it tends to be brittle and have a "point of failure" where it'll eventually just "fall off" itself cleanly IME.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Huh, good to know Definitely will change my weapon mount for the next one

[@Gunstick]

What you have there is a variable angle spinner. Depending what speed the spinners and the melty brain go, the hit angle varies. That's a cool feature.

[@k1ll3rvc]

Tool steels tend to be more brittle than other steels, something like 4130 might be better for the weapon shaft as it's higher toughness (based on charpy impact, s7~17J, 4130~62J).

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Thanks for the info, I'm not a mechanical engineer so most of this stuff is learnt by doing. I think I'm going to go back to a shoulder bolt for the next version

[@bami2]

@@TeamPanicRobotics If you've ever heard an interview with Donald Hutson, you'll probably recognise the name "chromoly steel", since he basically builds all his bots out of the stuff. 4130 is a form of chromoly steel where along the iron and carbon there is a bit of manganese, chromium, silicon and molybdenum to form a stronger alloy. Basically the higher you go up in hardness, the more brittle it becomes. Tool steels are incredibly hard (so they don't wear as much) but once you cross the "limit" (yield strength) it just cracks and breaks instead bending (and in most cases flexing back to mostly original form after the impact). For weapon impactors you generally want the highest hardness you can afford since you're probably hitting hardened steel as well (at the risk of the weapon shattering/exploding), but for axles I think chromoly or stainless steel would be a better option, as that is still harder than regular medium carbon steel used in shoulder bolts but still has a bit to give instead of super hardened tool steels.

[@k1ll3rvc]

@@TeamPanicRobotics I'd bit a little worried about the shoulderbolt shearing in the threads if it got a similar whack to whatever caused the S7 to crack unless it's a decent thread size (M10 should be solid at a guess, M8 maybe slightly on the edge), although it'll probably also be more ductile so could equally be fine. Look forward to seeing how it goes in the next iteration!

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

I'd aim to mount it so the threads are not in shear, basically have a tool steel mount (like the current one) but thicker with an 8mm hole in it, so the shaft is through the mount (hopefully taking the shear loads) and the nut is just there to retain it at the back

[@GrumpleBots]

I didn't get a chance to see the first fight, so I'm glad I finally get to. Michael from Stag Beetle Bot is a great driver and the front of that bot is a tank.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

It was a good one! it was a little sad you where busy and couldnt be cage side with me Stag is such a tank! Going to need to hit a whole lot harder before I come back

[@markg890]

You got some great translation in both fights. That's great that you got to drive Project Liftoff, too! I'm not sure what more a melty builder could ask for than to connect with Team Liftoff. Too bad Flip n Cut didn't show that well.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

They are one of the best in the melty game right now

[@BLKBRDSR71]

Getting to Norwalk from Ohio requires a plane, then a train, and maybe a cab or Uber driver. Yep... Easy.

[@treestrashandtinkering]

such entertaining fights!!!

[@Scarlet_Soul]

Spin to win

[@Troglobitten]

I get the vert melty from an engineering challenge. But i think it's best to go more barebones and work out a stable melty platform before you add additional complexity like two verts. That said, when this thing spins up, it looks so scary.

[@mackemforever]

"Maybe just figure out meltybrains" you say to a guy who has had multiple different meltybrains competing with a good degree of success in numerous competitions over the last few years, including both conventional designs and a dual horizontal spinner meltybrain. Dude, there's not many people in this sport who have more experience with meltybrains than him! When you're working with an idea as unusual as this one, something that's completely new and has never been done before, you're often going to be in a position where the best thing to do is just throw it in the arena and see what happens. You can theorize as much as you want, but you won't know how it handles the stresses of a proper fight unless you give it one. You build it, you test it as best you can, you fight it, and then you use what you've learnt from those fights to improve the design.

[@yifun6187]

there aren't many people more experienced with meltybrains than team panic. if anyone is qualified enough to try and pull this off, you're watching them.

[@BeanManer]

Hey, Ive created my own Flea weight bot but were do i go find flea weight competitions

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Flea's are a very rare class unfortunately. I only built one because one of the other guys I fight ants with promised to build one. You might need to find someone to build one to fight against you

[@BeanManer]

Thanks alot man. I love watching youre videos btw

[@Lumakid100]

Welcome back to the states.

[@jong036jong5]

Awesome job.

[@fromfin90]

looks like a good time!

[@simplegamerz9485]

Yeah battle bots has weird physics

[@sxty8goats]

Darn it. If I knew you were fighting NHRL I would have driven down to watch. Oh well.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

maybe next time, I'll definitely be going back

[@sxty8goats]

good to hear. @@TeamPanicRobotics