Evil Robotics

Worm Burner Design

Click on any of these pictures to see a larger photograph.

Worm Burner started with a collection of parts acquired from Ebay and some wheelchair motors and wheels from my friend John Bordwell. To brainstorm the design I moved the parts around until I had an idea for the shape. Then I began modeling the design to see if the weight was feasible. Next the prototype chassis and armor was cut out of Polycarbonate.

The Polycarbonate was glued and mechanically fastened using t-nuts and 6-32 screws. This was difficult to glue but proved to be pretty durable. The toughest design challenge was to get a really slim motor to power the weapon. I settled on a surplus Pancake type motor from PMI. That weapon motor weighted 9 lbs and was designed for 48 volts. I ran that motor at 24 volts. That motor later proved to be a little too heavy and too wimpy. Having a prototype robot allowed me to get used to the squirrelly driving characteristics early, however it did use up precious developmental time.

The metal chassis was water jet cut by Structural Specialties and welded together by Brown's Welding. The rest of the components were swapped into the metal frame just prior to Battlebots 5.0. See the battle history page for more photos.