Riptide.
A 250 lb combat robot with innovative hollow drum spinner weapon competing in Battlebots (largest televised robotic combat competition)
Date: 2020 - Present
Role: Cofounder, Mechanical Engineer, Sponsorship Coordinator
Type: Product Design
World Championships 2021: World Top 8, Rookie of the Year | (Defeated MIT’s team “Uppercut”)
World Championships 2022: World Top 8 | (Defeated UC Berkeley’s team “Glitch”)
Noteworthy Designs:
The most unique design on the robot is the weapon. My design combines a disk blade for slicing and a drum spinner for blunt impacts.
Its hollowed center positioning the majority of mass away from its rotational axis optimizes inertia, ensuring the drum retains its momentum, while the expansive surface guarantees maximum contact and damage.
Spinning at a 188 mph, the 60 lb steel bar is made of 4140 steel, hardened for extra toughness.
When approaching an opponent, weapon-to-weapon, a faster spin rate gives us a better chance to strike the underside of their weapon.
However, as our weapon spins rapidly, it generates significant gyroscopic forces, which make maneuvering Riptide more difficult.
One major hurdle was ensuring the spinner could rapidly reach its top speed without damaging the motors, especially during high-impact collisions. Our solution? A V Belt without teeth. This design choice was crucial. In combat, when the weapon abruptly stops upon hitting an opponent, the toothless V Belt helps prevent motor jamming and subsequent damage.
During our very first fight against this huge robot called Huge, we encountered an issue. Our weapon stopped after the first major hit because the bearings got stuck. Although Riptide was equipped with 2 SPH core bearings rated for a staggering 15,000 Newtons each, one of them completely ruptured
We quickly switched gears, replacing the SPH core bearings with cylindrical roller bearings that eliminated unnecessary movements and increasing reliability. However, wanting to make our weapon more failproof I designed a “cap”, allowing us to use four of these bearings
2024 World Championship
