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Robot Vacume Cleaners
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Rotwang
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Joined: 15 Jun 2004
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Location: Vic


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Robot Vacume Cleaners

One of the back ground projects that I have been thinking about for a while is a really good arena vacume cleaner.
Lots of paint dust rubber dust small debris c16 racing fuel etc tends to reduce grip and un fairly and randomly effect the possible outcomes of matches disadvantage some robots more than others.
Yes I know someone could just sweep the arena but that puts more dust into the air where it can stick to the pollycarb or just settle back on the floor.

I probably think it would be more entertaining having a robot vacuuming and I enjoy the irony that a vacume cleaner bot helped start our sport in the first place. Smile

So what has happened to get me motivated enough to actually make one of my rare posts ,you may well ask? Well one technic that works for me is to have a few pops going at any one time and quite often in my travels I will come across something that will fit right into one of them.
Well after forgetting to pick up some parts for work until I was on the opposite side of town I doubled back and found myself passing one of my favourite junk shops, decided that I was going to be late anyhow so I stoped in for the first time in ages and scored an old invalid scooter for the princely sum of $40!!! Yay happy happy joy joy. Very Happy

It’s an old one with 2 motors. One on each rear wheel wired in series so it will tank steer fine with a suitable controller. My thoughts at the moment are to build it and run it with a regular ibc and radio but if anyone is interested in cooking up some sort of auto pilot it could bump around the arena with David’s little dust rearranger bots, it will need a nice low bumper or they might be in trouble.
Brett suggested making it look like R2D2 I am still thinking about that one, the idea didn’t grab me at first but it is growing on me.

Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:18 am 
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timmeh
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Joined: 20 Jul 2004
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LoL we should all have a go at building a vacume cleaner and the best one can be allowed to live and the other can be sacraficed in the arena to the feather weights then after the slaughtering the winning vacume can suck up all the bits Laughing


Sounds like a great idea and itle keep the public amused between fights while people are getting there bots ready.
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Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:42 am 
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Glen
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i reckon that would be a really cool idea actually, no idea how youd make it automatic but im sure you could probably have some cheapy PIC chip and a few bump switches setup

and it has to have a few of those rotating orange lights on top too, those things just look sweet for some reason Very Happy

good luck with it
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Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 2:42 pm 
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Philip
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Joined: 18 Jun 2004
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I have a design, but it would suck.
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Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:48 pm 
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dyrodium
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Joined: 24 Aug 2004
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lol, that cracks me up Razz
You'd have to probably make your own sucking mech as most comercial vacume cleaners can't pick up the "bigger" bits, and those that can run off 240v AC... Confused The autonomous feature would be way simple to make up, i've made a fair few using lego mindstorms programing and bumpsensors, so i'd imagine a humble picaxe should be fine. Smile
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Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:57 pm 
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andrew



Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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Location: Castle Hill, Sydney. N.S.W


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@Phil- for shame Smile

That sounds like alot of fun and would b interesting to make. Maybe have a sucking mech and a rotating drum with brushes on it like on the underside of the thing that goes over carpet so it sweeps it up into the sucker
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Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:01 pm 
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Glen
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id be going with a turbo charger impellor and big fan motor to power it for suction, you'd need to suck up all the bolts that drop out of some robots (yes im talking to you "the aggressor" Razz )
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Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:08 pm 
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Totaly_Recycled
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mmm not sure about sucking up c 16 raceing fuel with a vacume lol ..who's been running fueled bots in the arena ? i thought they wernt allowed ... Very Happy

Or was that just thrown in to stirr up some worms . Smile ..sounds like a good idea Garry. You would need a reasonably high powered motor though so you might have to use a mains powered motor runing from a hanging retractable powered cord or a small petrol driven one unless you are looking at a high powered low voltage set up with huge batteries. For the suction needed to lift bolts and other smaller bits i wouldnt go under a 1200-1500 watt motor. Ajax might be the one to ask about the actual vacumeing bit i think that is a bit down his portfolio Very Happy ive fixed a few of them in my time as well but not the big industrial ones he plays with .

Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:44 pm 
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dyrodium
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I think a rotating drum with brushes to pick up bolts and big bot chunks plus a vacume to pick up the smaller bits and dust would work quite well.
Small petrol motor, wouldn't that be alittle counter-productive?

Mmmmm worms..... they seem to be on hot topic tonight... Smile
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Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:47 pm 
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Totaly_Recycled
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Garry you could posibly get one of those cybot controls kickingabout the place and Bret could posibly adapt it to drive an ibc ...or if you have a few $ and get lazy check a few of these out http://www.dustbots.com/reviews.html or have look at some of the things on here for ideas
http://apps.soe.ucsc.edu/elkaim/archives/2004_03.html

Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:20 pm 
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prong
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I reckon use a blower vac, they have plenty of suction and can handle the debris no worries


also you can use an electric or petrol one

plus I think it would be more fun if the vac bot has controls, then it can make sure it gets every spot and I am sure it could help entertain an audience.

Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:45 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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Joined: 31 May 2004
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quote:
Originally posted by Totaly_Recycled:
mmm not sure about sucking up c 16 raceing fuel with a vacume lol ..who's been running fueled bots in the arena ?


actually, that came from the arena barrels.. Wink

Since the pretty blue with hazard stripes barrels were coming to the last event from Rye and danny couldnt make it until after the event started, I picked up some spare 20 litre drums from my friends down at C.O.M.E. Racing.



One of them had a splash of C16 fuel left in the bottom and in the rush I didnt wash them out.. Of course, one of the bot punctured the barrels, and it ended up on the floor. Marc the cameraman was very dissapointed it didnt spark off.. Wink. It wasnt much, just a couple of small puddles, but a bit of fire would have looked good..
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Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:29 am 
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dyrodium
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quote:
Originally posted by Spockie-Tech:
It wasnt much, just a couple of small puddles, but a bit of fire would have looked good..

lol, untill the polycarb clouds up!XD
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Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:23 am 
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Rotwang
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Thanks for the impute everyone, I decided to go for an off the shelf floor sweeper that spines a pair of brushes through a gear arrangement from the front casters, So nicely made it already looks like a robot.Smile

I am planing to have some sort of fan to pull all the dust in and filter it but as the brushes are doing most of the work I don’t think it will need a lot of power to produce adequate air flow.
After all it is not sucking through restrictive pipes and lifting to any hight.
It is also working on a smooth hard surface not like trying to lift dust out of deep carpet.
I will try to post a few pictures soon but it looks like I will have something for the builders meeting.
One thing that occurred to me is if it works as good as I think it will then Reboot might be allowed to do his trick with the old VCR. Very Happy

Post Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:00 pm 
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Glen
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oh yeah another thought,

a plate with a hard drive magnet or two behind it to pick up the big metal bits and swarf the vacuum might miss, nothing wrong with extra insurance Smile

cant wait to see that thing chug around the arena Smile
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Post Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:38 pm 
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