Making a start on a relaunched 30lb'er

NERC's Franklin Cup is about three months away, and we're intending going, so that means we need to start putting some 'bots together. As we had the table saw out today for miscellaneous odds and ends about the house, we decided to chop up some aluminium for Intrusive Interloper 2.0 too. This 'bot is a (hopefully) simple brick, so the build should be fairly straightforward. Hit Back after viewing an image.

Here are the raw materials: a bunch of 6061 bar, of various widths and thicknesses, some 1/4" polycarboncate, and misc stuff to stick inside the 'bot. We also have some 40A urethane mix, for the wheels.

The trusty tablesaw - equally happy cutting MDF for shelving as it is cutting aluminium for 'botting.

Once the parts were cut we laid them out: 3/4"-thick 6061 rear and outer walls, 1/2"-thick 6061 inner and front walls, and a 3/8"-thick 6061 angle to bolt to the front wall, plus 12"x12"x1/4" polycarbonate top and bottom plates.

Here's a test fit of the insides, with four DeWalt motors, two 3S Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, two 85A brushless speed controllers that will be hacked to run brushed motors, a gyro and mixer, and power switch.

Without axles, wheels, tires, or fasteners, the whole kit comes in at 28 pounds and one ounce, so there's going to have to be a small amount of pocketing of the frame, but that's not going to be a problem!