It was originally supposed to be a sphere but I got tired of cutting foam, so I just made the center part and put a hefty chunk of steel in the middle as ballast. An aluminum tube ran through the center to keep it rigid.
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You can see it in the middle. It weighed almost two pounds. |
The robot used two fasteners total (set screw for each wheel). Carpet tape and fiber back strapping tape was the primary fastener. Most of the frame was scrap half-inch foamboard (stiff paper backed foam). It used a couple of gold sparks, the 33.3:1 variant.
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A tail told you which direction was front. |
Due to a complete lack of pushing power or other method of attacking, HAMster Ball only competed in two matches at Moto. The first one was against a Weta kitbot which didn't have much weapon range, so it did nothing.
The second match was against a robot with a proper weapon, so it showed off its self-righting ability before getting popped in half.
While I hoped it could have gone against a vertical bar robot, the fact it was able to show off the buoying action was good enough.