Vicious-1

Middleweight Champion Robot Wars 97' (tm)

I've decided to go in and condense the pages for building Vicious-1. It has been almost 6 years since I built Vicious-1 and in the interest of saving band width, I will give the general break-down on building my first robot, ever! I'm no longer hurting for web content, just space! So, I apologize if anyone doesn't like the new Vicious-1 build page, but here it is in a slightly condensed form...

First of all, what on earth possessed me to build a robotic fighting machine? It was actually one person... Mark Setrakian. Mark has been around since Robot Wars started and I managed to get a hold of a tape of his robot from the 95' event. I was blown away and had to find out how to make a robot and take part in this event! Well, Mark returned from the 96' event and I proceeded to bother him with every 'newbie' question under the sun... I know I probably drove him crazy with all my questions, but I can't thank him enough for all the advice and help he so freely gave me. If it weren't for him, my foray into the world of robotic combat would have been a much tougher road.

The Design

Now that I had Robot Wars fever, all the information to get started, and a full year ahead of me to build; I was faced with the challenge of what to build... In order to get an idea for the robot, I sat down and watched the darn tape till my eyes bled (just a little!) and looked for things that appealed to me, seemed effective, and were within my modest means of experience and materials.

Next, I sat down and started drawing designs for what I would like the robot to look like. Not blue prints or scale drawings, just how I would like the robot to look, using parts I was pretty sure I could get. The idea was pretty much a wedge with an active weapon (horizontal spinning hammers).

Now I had to track down parts and figure how big they were and how I'd fit them into the design. I was surprised how close to the initial drawing, Vicious-1 looked, considering all the problem solving I went through!

The Build

First, I went out and bought some gear head motors from Grainger Industrial Supply. They were not the fastest, but they had a lot of torque and the speed reduction was built in. The motors also had a 3/4" keyed shaft that I could directly mount a 10" wheel onto. I found some solid foam tires and modified the hubs by replacing bearings with a keyed aluminum piece I made. The whole wheel was then pinned with a 1/4" screw through the wheel mount and motor shaft.

Next I bought some 3/4" square tubing from the local hardware store and a Lincoln wire welder. I taught myself to weld by building this robot! I cut all the metal down with an angle grinder and a bunch of cut-off wheels... Not the best way, but it was what I had to do, at the time! I then welded up the frame and attached a 1/4" thick plate of aluminum to the base, so I could mount all the internal parts to it. I would always test fit parts into the frame to make sure everything would fit, when I was done!

The motors were bolted to the frame, opposite each other and a castor wheel was mounted at the back end, to keep it from dragging on the ground

The Weapons

The weapons on Vicious-1 were made from modified Makita tools. I replaced the on/off switch in a right angle drill with a single direction, high amp r/c car speed controller. I was running the drill off the 9.6 volt battery, it came with, so I knew it shouldn't stress the speed controller too much. I then had a steel column machined, with a bicycle flywheel between the drill and the hammers. I figured I could power the hammers up to speed and then let them 'coast' as I hit an opponent. This would save stressing the drill motor with severe stops and starts!

The drill motors was mounted inside the frame and the column was held in place with a bearing block that would help absorb some of the side impacts I knew the weapon arm would take.The column was topped with some gas pipe fittings that I assembled into the hammer bar and the ends were fitted with some wicked spikes.

The saws were battery powered angle grinders that I fitted milling saws onto. Once again, I replaced the on/off switches with a servo switch assembly and bolted it to the base plate.

The Event

VICIOUS-1

WEIGHT: 98.4 LBS
POWER: 2- 12volt Gel Cells, 1- 9.6volt and 2- 7.2volt Nicad Packs
DRIVE: 2- 12volt Gear Head Motors (60rpm/75in-lbs torque)
WEAPONS: 750rpm Spiked Hammer Arm/ 2 Milling Saws
FRAME: Welded 3/4" Steel Tube w/ Stainless Steel Armor
WHEELS: Solid Micro-Cellular Urethane Foam (10"diameter)

Here's Vicious-1 as it appeared at the last ever San Francisco Robot Wars event, held in 97' at Fort Mason. It was the first event I ever entered. I actually managed to win the Middleweight Face-off event and will never forget that weekend...

Vicious-1 vs. Pokey: This was my first match, ever! I was very excited and feeling good about this match, because I knew Pokey's only weapon was it's vertical lifter. I knew the lifter would not be able to turn my robot over and thus figured I could probably win the match... Well, I went in and probably under estimated the skill of Pokey's driver. I managed to get in one good hit in with the hammer, then disaster struck... Pokey's driver managed to get their robot between me and my view of Vicious-1, causing me to drive up onto the panel surrounding the arena!

This would not have been such a big deal, except that Pokey managed to ram my robot a few times; which broke one of the saw blades and wedged it into the arena floor! My robot was now balanced on this broken blade and unable to get any traction. The only thing I could do was power up the arm each time Pokey rammed me, hoping it would damage itself on my weapon. Vicious-1 had been defeated!

* I count this match as a learning experience... I had never actually been in a Robot Wars battle or even fought another robot, for that matter! I learned many things from this first match! Luckily, this was a double elimination event and Vicious-1 would get a chance the next day, to fight it's way back to the finals!

Vicious-1 vs. Satan's Revenge: My first match on the second day of the event was a robot basically made of a steel box with a chain saw sticking out of it. I went into this match knowing that this robot could do no real damage to Vicious-1. All I was thinking was if I could get one good strong hit on the chain saw arm, I would probably stall out the weapon and then move in to try and damage the box! Well, this match went better than I could have imagined. I went straight for Satan's Revenge, hit the saw and stalled it right off the bat! From there it only took one more hit to knock out his drive control and Vicious-1 was declared the winner! I was one step closer to being back in the game...

Vicious-1 vs. Peaches: This one surely was a strange match to fight... I knew going in that Peaches had a solidly built frame and shell. So, it would be difficult; if not impossible for me to cause any exterior damage. I changed Vicious-1's hammer arm out for one that was two chunks of steel on a piece of stiff cable. I figured I should save the points on the arm for an opponent with weaker armor! During the match, Peaches rushed me a number of times. It would go up the ramp and get stuck on the top of my robot until the spinning steel cables would knock it back down. Needless to say, Peaches did no damage to me and it was only a matter of time before I hit peaches hard enough to knock it out. Thus, I was once again declared the winner!

Vicious-1 vs. The Bishop: The Bishop was originally built as a lightweight entry, but weighed in too heavy... Thus, they had to fight as a middle weight robot.
As the match started, the Bishop and I squared off and exchanged blows. I realized that all the sparks given off by Bishops cut off saw on the stainless steel armor, might make the judges believe I was taking damage! I knew the only way to win the match was to disable the his weapon. We circled a few times and I managed to land a hit on the saw. This knocked out the gas engine and allowed me to move about as I pleased, landing a few more hits and winning the match.

* This was one of my favorite matches, and my hat is off to the builders of the Bishop. You guys built one tough robot, good job!

Vicious-1 vs. Satoru Special IV: I went into this match thinking that I had it in the bag. This was a big wooden robot that was having weapon and steering control trouble. I figured I'd go in, knock some chunks off it and that would be it. Well, it was tougher than I thought to get my hammers within range, due to this robots slopped sides. It took quite a bit of shoving and maneuvering to bring myself within range. But, when I did... I managed to score a direct hit on their weapon actuating motor. (Which they showed me later, I'd smashed it! I then managed to knock a few chunks of wood off, until the unthinkable happened...

One of the welds on the hammer arm split! The arm was thrown off balance and rendered ineffective for the rest of the match. I was forced to move in and try using my saws, which I knew were not going to do much... Luckily, the match was almost over. The judges ruled Vicious-1 the winner, due to the amount of damage it had inflicted and that it was the more aggressive of the two robots throughout the match... Whew! I made it! I was on my way to the finals!!!!

Well, as you can imagine the safety guys weren't happy about the arm weld breaking and told me I would have to reinforce my back up one before they would allow it in the ring. So, after running into a number of pitfalls getting other teams to help weld some reinforcement on the arm; I went to my friend Dan Danknick of Team Delta. Dan was all set to go in and fight Pokey, his next face-off match; and said he'd be glad to help. I told him that I was scheduled to fight either his robot The Alexander or Pokey as my next match, to which his reply was something like... "Cool! I knew it would come down to just us." After welding the part for my robot, Dan went in and fought Pokey... Dan went in and beat Pokey!!! It was just his robot against mine! This would be the final match to determine the middleweight champion! Now was the moment of truth... Unfortunately, a moment that would never happen...

Vicious-1 vs. The Alexander:The Alexander had blown a drive motor at the end of it's fight against Pokey and Dan felt his robot was in no shape to fight Vicious-1. The only way he wanted to fight me was if he could replace that motor. On my way to the arena, Dan told me he couldn't fight my robot unless he was given the time to replace the motor. I was more than willing to give Dan the time he needed, but; the judges were not as forgiving. They said if his robot was unable to fight, the match would be forfeited to Vicious-1. Dan and I asked them if the match could be moved till after the dinner break and they still refused! So, because twenty minutes could not be spared, Vicious-1 was declared the winner by default. Not exactly the way I wanted to win and I'm sure not the way Dan wanted to be beat. Unfortunately, we will never know who would have won the fight between Vicious-1 and The Alexander...

* Vicious-1 battle photos courtesy of Andrew Lindsey at Team Spike
** Alexander photos courtesy of Dan Danknick at Team Delta

Vicious-1 once again proved it's toughness in the Melee rounds at Robot Wars 97'. I spent a good portion of the melee dominating Pokey and carrying it to all the hazards in the arena. I even had a brief run in with The Alexander! Vicious-1 was one of the robots left running at the end and proved itself worthy! However, the win of the melee rounds is left up to an audience decision, that went to a 10 year old kid and his uncle, who spent the last half of the match stuck under a hazard! Just goes to show you that the 'kid factor' will win out over a good robot any day!

*For further details, go visit Team Spike for Andrew Lindsey's run down of the days events.

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