Winks
Credit: JCRB Photo
Placed 5th at NHRL January 2024 (out of 96)
8-4 win/loss overall
All the gimmicks!
Winks is designed to have as many tricky-to-implement features as possible. This includes a machined beater bar, a hub motor, tangential drive, a counter-gyro assembly, and drive belts that are inset into the frame. We are also planning on implementing a suction impeller to provide downforce on wood floors!
Hub Motor
Winks is equipped with a hub motor within the weapon bar to improve durability and to save space. The idea behind the hub motor system revolves around diverting forces through larger bearings rather than the small bearings that motors typically come with. Without a belt drive or a separate motor mount, failures cannot come from an unlucky hit from the opponent; it is entirely decided by the design of the mechanism.
The stator is adhered to a core with a slot for the wires to pass under the bearing. The hub assembly is designed to absorb out-of-plane hits by transferring the force through the assembly and into the frame where the energy is dissipated efficiently by the UHMWPE.
4340 Weapon
The weapon bar is milled from 4340 alloy steel and hardened myself. I learned heat treating practices through textbooks and research papers accessible online and adjusted my process to avoid the temper embrittlement caused by impure precipitates at a range of tempering temperatures. We tested the surface hardness to validate our process.