Robot Weight

[nighterfighter]

Well guys, it's that time of the build season...

What is everyone's weight approaching?

We weighed ours Sunday night, with everything in, except our minibot deployment system,some electronics, and a cover for the robot, and came in at 115 pounds!

We had an intervention with the robot and put her on a strict Jenny Craig diet.

[bladetech932]

145.5 our robot is going on weight watchers

[Jeffy]

105, but missing: mini-bot deployer & secret weapon.

[theprgramerdude]

Without battery and bumpers, or with? Without, around 65-70, as we weighed in at 53 without a few other components.

[KleinKid]

I have a bad feeling our robot will be close to 150 lbs when were done with it. Lots and lots of holes are in our aluminum tubing's future.

[Grim Tuesday]

142 was our weighed amount.


We have come to the time when we begin cutting functionality: The first thing to go was the breaking system, and the third rung of our ladder. No longer are we able to score on the top row

[Creator Mat]

theoretically we where 140-150 lbs but we went on a serous weight cutting binge and got ourselves down to 115-120 (theoretically).

[MrForbes]

weighed it last week at 75 (no bumpers/battery and no minibot deployment). My wild guess is it'll be around 80 plus another 10 or so for "art" and whatnot.

We didn't spend much money on materials, so we don't have a lot of weight

[Grim Tuesday]

Yeah, this year, our CAD weight was almost 25 lbs off. Thats the worst it's been in ages...

[Hawiian Cadder]

we were close to 160 lbs projected, then we cut a stage in our lift, constant force springs, and a few other things, still scores on the top peg, though probably not during autonomous. steel vs aluminum sprockets make all the difference.

[techedguy]

Due to a few errors in a spreadsheet (ounces, pounds...same-same, right?) We weighed every part on the 'bot as it was built and came back at 137. After a whole Saturday of aluminum and polycarbonite dieting we'd only reduced 8 lbs! Then the same guys who came up with that total caught their error (8 hours later during a re-weigh of every stinkin' part. We were 118 BEFORE the diet....*sigh*

[ttakashima]

We weighed our robot today - 95% of the Pneumatics system, 95% of our Electronics and everything mechanical but our mini-bot deployment system, claws motor, Battery, bumpers and polycarb sheet for our cover and our robot only weighs 90lbs. +-2lbs because our scale is a fishing scale and not a digital scale.

Our projected weight after mini-bot deployment system, polycarb sheet and motor - 119lbs

[IKE]

You have 1 week left. Don't cut functionality. Instead "Add lightness":
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2220
I put this paper together as a compilation of techniques we have used in the past to shed weight and add functionality. If you are severely overweight, there are usually some pretty clear places to loose a lot of weight.

With a full week left, put down your drills and Sawzalls, and instead pick up some paper and pencils. Aluminum is 0.1 lbs per in^3. Steel is 0.28 lbs per in^3. Look at your steel first, then address your thick aluminum stuff. "What is thick aluminum?" you ask. For most teams it is anything thicker than 0.065". This is often an excellent opportunity to swap out parts while other members tune in the machine.

Good luck. If you want specific tips, shoot me a PM and I will give you my email and we can discuss further.