TransparANT

[AJ]

TransparANT

Introduction

It was about time for me to get back into roboteering. I had been looking for an event to attend ever since my last one, the Robot Wars filming in 2003. For various reasons, I had never attended a live event since Robot Wars finished. I was looking for a way back into the “sport”. It was around that time that Joey had got into antweights and somehow convinced me that I should give it a go myself. After a bit of searching, an event finally fell into place – Antweight World Series 32 in Wednesbury. After Joey sent me a fantastic parcel of parts to get me going, I was finally on my way...

TransparANT

As with all my designs, I wanted my antweight to be simple to build and maintain, but effective in combat. I decided to go for a wedge shaped pusher. I played around with a design in Google SketchUp and came up with a design I was happy with. I had a lot of unused 5mm thick polycarbonate that I bought in 2006 when I was building my featherweight OverDrive. My idea was to use this 5mm polycarbonate as the sides of my chassis and then screw 1.5mm polycarbonate panels into it to form the rest of the chassis and armour. With further help from Joey, I made a shopping list of parts I needed to buy and then bought them. The 1.5mm polycarbonate didn’t arrive as quickly as I had hoped, so I started looking for alternatives. I eventually found some 2mm thick plastic that was part of an old shredding machine and decided to use that for a two-in-one base and rear panel.

With even more advice from Joey and some experimenting, it became apparent that the idea of screwing the chassis together was going to be difficult. Instead I invested in some plastic superglue and glued the 5mm polycarb sides to the base/rear. The 1.5mm polycarbonate finally arrived and it was cut and fixed in place using more glue for the front wedge, and black electrical tape for the lid. The lid needed to be easily removable for maintenance purposes. Because of a design error, TransparANT was built taller than planned and had no invertibility. But it was done.

Stats

Name: TransparANT
Weight: ~150g
Shape: Simple box-wedge
Length: 100mm
Width: 100mm
Height: 35mm
Drive: 2x 50:1 HP motors powered by 1x 7.4v 120mAh LiPo battery.
Armour: 2mm unknown plastic (base & rear), 5mm polycarbonate (sides) and 1.5mm polycarbonate (front & top).
Weapon: Front wedge shape and pushing power.
Electronics: Sabertooth 2x5A for R/C speed controller & Corona RS610II receiver.

[AJ]

Antweight World Series 32
Saturday 3rd July 2010 | Wednesbury

Introduction

I arrived at Wood Green High School in sunny Wednesbury and set up ready for the non-spinner competition to begin. TransparANT had its first ever tech check, and although it comfortably fit inside the famous four-inch cube, the scales revealed that it was overweight. Joey McConnell kindly helped out by cutting a piece of armour out of the base plate to reduce the weight and make it legal to fight. I used some black electrical tape to seal the lid down, and borrowed some acetate for the front wedge to help TransparANT get under the other robots easier. It was ready for combat, and once everyone had arrived, the non-spinner competition began!

TransparANT vs. Four Inch Nails (F.I.N.)

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmRTQwpEvPg @ 2:24

For my first ever robot combat battle, I was drawn against Team Hell’s F.I.N. But it was a terrible start for TransparANT. Activate was called, but TransparANT was completely unresponsive. I agreed to forfeit the match and went to find out what was wrong. With help from Peter Waller, I changed the crystals over in my radio gear and TransparANT was suddenly working again. The double-elimination system meant that I had another opportunity in the non-spinner contest.

TransparANT vs. Jigsaw V

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-si_VKiyQw @ 2:07

Next I was drawn against my good friend Joey McConnell and his robot Jigsaw. After the problems earlier, this was my first real battle. Luckily, Jigsaw was having problems of its own and the flipper was out of action. I started off badly by getting the acetate stuck under the wall, and once I was free the driving and/or the radio reception was poor. Jigsaw got under me a few times, but when I finally got under it, I made a dash for the drop-off and pushed both Jigsaw and myself out. I had won!

TransparANT vs. Four Inch Nails (F.I.N.)

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-si_VKiyQw @ 4:40

It just so happened that I was re-drawn against F.I.N. This time TransparANT was working and I had a chance to see what might have happened. It was working much better in this battle, and I got off to a good start by slamming F.I.N. into the wall. F.I.N. got away and started to spin up, but I turned TransparANT around, got the wedge under and nudged F.I.N. off the edge. That made up for the earlier disappointment.

TransparANT vs. Private Iron

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-si_VKiyQw @ 5:41

Next up was a very good opponent – Private Iron. I managed to get stuck in the wall again and it was all over very quickly as I was flipped off the edge. But 2-2 wasn’t a bad record and I was confident that I could improve in the spinner contest.

---

TransparANT vs. Scooperman

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCGCAazqyAQ @ 2:42

My first battle in the spinner competition was against another newcomer in Scooperman. I nearly drove straight off the edge, but then recovered to turn, scoop Sccoperman up and push it off the edge.

TransparANT vs. CombatANT

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmPpcI1X9vQ @ 0:16

It was inevitable that I was going to fight a spinner eventually. I was lucky enough to be drawn against the Robot Wars Extreme and two-time Antweight World Series winner CombatANT! But for some reason this didn’t phase me and I just decided to go for it. I went straight for CombatANT and nearly pushed it straight off the edge, but it turned and went into a bit of a gyro dance. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time as it flicked itself off the top of my wedge and out of the arena! I was incredibly lucky, but a win is a win!

TransparANT vs. Truant

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmPpcI1X9vQ @ 4:04

I was drawn against another spinner – Truant. But my win against CombatANT gave me the confidence that I could do it again. I had a few problems with the radio reception again and nearly drove off the edge. I turned around and pushed Truant against the wall but TransparANT wasn’t moving smoothly. I finally got it going again and launched both myself and Truant off the edge. Another win!

TransparANT vs. Private Iron

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy4O7dX0J5g @ 2:24

Next up was Private Iron again. I had mixed feelings going into this battle, because although I was on a winning streak, Private Iron was really the only robot that had beaten TransparANT so far. I performed better this time round, my driving was better and Private Iron was possibly on the back-foot, but I got a bit carried away and drove straight under it and off the drop-off.

TransparANT vs. Fast Dalek

Video 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy4O7dX0J5g @ 3:07
Video 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk6OKbmi4C0

This battle was simply a case of bad driving. I think I was stuck in the wall, and by the time I had got out and re-adjusted, the battle was already underway. I just turned, backed into Fast Dalek and was promptly put out of the competition.

---

TransparANT & Jigsaw V vs. Defiant & Private Iron

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VvNrQrl9Tw @ 0:20

After the non-spinner and spinner competitions had finished, some of the antweights took part in a tag team contest. Joey of Team Picus kindly offered to team up with TransparANT using Jigsaw. First we were up against Defiant and Private Iron. Private Iron got the better of TransparANT for the third time that day by flipping it over and out of the arena, and Jigsaw soon followed.

TransparANT & Jigsaw V vs. Scooperman & Flippertron

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VvNrQrl9Tw @ 1:36

Next we were against the newcomer duo of Scooperman and Flippertron. Sadly neither of them moved much and it was just a question of how quickly we could finish them off. Jigsaw did the hard work of pushing them both off the edge while I annoyingly rammed it.

TransparANT & Jigsaw V vs. Stewie & Terrorizer

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VvNrQrl9Tw @ 1:56

This was by far my favourite battle of the day. I was really starting to get used to the controls and felt I drove well. Joey also drove well and managed to force Terrorizer into driving off the edge. But we couldn’t take advantage of the two-on-one scenario and Stewie managed to flip Jigsaw over. Jigsaw was still having its flipper issues and couldn’t self-right, which left me and Stewie. I held on for a few moments but eventually ended up off the drop-off. It was a great battle though in my opinion.

Annihilator

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlF_LmOcykE

As with all annihilators, this battle was both fun and completely mad. Stewie was out first, followed by Void. Once Flippant was out in round three I thought I might have a chance. I believe Scoopertron was immobilised and was being counted out, but somehow part of my wiring had got caught on Private Iron and we were tangled. I couldn’t get away and Private Iron managed to flip me right out of the arena just before the count finished. I was out in round four.

Epic Mêlée

Part 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlF_LmOcykE @ 5:20
Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5tfuoP1mMU @ 2:07

To end the event we just threw a load of robots in the arena with absolutely no rules and let the carnage begin. Within about three seconds I was pushed off the edge by EBOG and decided that it might be best to just sit back and watch what I love – robot combat! Highlights included Joey shouting “UNHAND ME!” at Mantis, The Data Fields driving round with only one track, Scott literally throwing Void into the middle of the action, Flippertron losing its secret weapon (David Cameron’s head) and the distant “Has anyone seen my other track? It has gone somewhere” from the pits. ;D After a few minutes of observation, I couldn’t resist the temptation and sent TransparANT in... Flippant soon flipped it over but it was quickly and kindly flipped back. After that it was just a case of driving around and seeing what I could do before the red light of doom came on inside to signal I was out of battery, and The Data Fields pushed me out.

Conclusion

Even though I had lost some of my passion for robot combat, I am really glad that I decided to give this a go. I am proud of what myself and TransparANT did and I won the Best Newcomer award, which I am very grateful for. Like others recommended it to me, I recommend antweight events to anyone who is thinking of giving it a go. I have proved that you don’t need a lot of money, tools or time to build a good antweight. The field is so open, and that’s what sets antweights apart from featherweights and heavyweights. A basic wedge like TransparANT can go into a competition and compete with the best.

After the early disappointment of not working, I went on to pick up good wins over Jigsaw and F.I.N. in the non-spinner competition. I then went on a three-battle winning streak in the spinner competition, taking out two highly rated spinners in the process. My only true losses in the main competitions were to Private Iron and Fast Dalek, who finished second and third respectively in the spinner competition, so there was no disgrace in that. I even won my group in the spinner competition, which meant I finished in the top eight overall. My first event was therefore very successful, and it has driven me on to improve the robot and get to another event. I already know areas that I can improve on, most notably making the robot invertible. In the next few weeks I will hopefully come up with an improved design.

A huge thankyou to everyone that helped me before, during and after the event. Credit for the photographs goes to Oliver Steeples and Joey McConnell. Credit for the video goes to the Holmes-Stanley and Windisch families.

[AJ]

TransparANT 2.0

Robot combat events are a bit like busses – you wait seven years for one and then two come along at once. I found out that Robots Live were running an event just a few miles away in Kidderminster, and it sounded like the perfect opportunity to get to another event and build the second version of TransparANT. A few lessons had been learnt from Antweight World Series 32, firstly that the TransparANT design and concept was effective, secondly that it needed to be invertible as the original design intended, and also that I wanted to make sure it was within the weight limit.

The first thing I had to do was lengthen the robot so that the Corona micro receiver could fit in flat, rather than above the speed controller like it did at AWS 32. This would be a big step forwards in making TransparANT invertible. To do this, it was easier to start again from scratch rather than reuse any of the armour/chassis from the original. The robot could now have a lower profile and the wheels would be able to stick out at the top and bottom in order to drive both ways up in the same way robots such as Tornado and Storm II can.

First things first, the new longer base was cut. We decided to continue with the “shredder plastic” because it had worked well on the original design. It was evident that a lot of weight saving needed to take place, and so sections were cut out towards the front of the robot, between the wheels slots, and on the rear panel.

Next, the side panels were cut out. Again, we decided that the 5mm thick polycarbonate would be used. However, upon weighing the new base and sides with the internal components, it was clear that even more weight saving would need to take place. It was starting to become clear that the 5mm polycarbonate was on the heavy side for antweights, but further weight saving was achieved by cutting small sections out of the middle of the sides. Another piece of the 5mm polycarb was used to fit under the motors and raise them off the ground to achieve balanced invertibility. I fitted all the components to see how the robot would look, and despite the slightly over-the-top attempts at weight saving, I was very happy with how it was looking.

Later, new front and top panels were made in 1.5mm thick polycarbonate, and everything was glued together using plastic superglue. I used exactly the same internal components that were in the original version in the new one, and wired everything up ready for a test run. I didn’t have much charge left in the batteries, so the test was brief but successful, with TransparANT 2.0 working quite nicely both ways up. It felt like an evolution and a step forwards in the right direction, and I finished it off with two strips of blue electrical tape, ready for the event a few weeks later.

[AJ]

Robots Live! Kidderminster
Saturday 16th October 2010 & Sunday 17th October 2010

Saturday

I arrived at the Wyre Forest Glades Leisure Centre in Kidderminster a few hours before the first show began. Tornado was on static display at the entrance, which was nice to see. I went inside and had a quick look at the merchandise before the one and only Joey McConnell came to greet me. The arena and the seating areas had been set up, and a few robots and roboteers had already gathered in the pit area. I dropped my things off on the table next to Joey’s stuff and said hello to another familiar face in David Weston, who was putting together his brilliant new antweight arena. I briefly helped to screw in some of the arena walls, before me, Joey and Dave went to work on a much bigger arena! The corner joints for the polycarbonate screens in the main arena needed fixing, and I went along to get in the way, which was quite an experience. Being inside the polycarb screens and right next to the arena is not something I ever thought I would be able to do, so that was strangely cool.

The Robots Live! Arena and the Antweight Arena [Taken by Joey McConnell].

Myself and Joey then ate some polystyrene cups, followed by a brief tour of the pits where I got to see some of the robots close-up and meet some of the roboteers, who were all very nice. Sadly a combination of my weirdness and polystyrene made Joey ill and he fell asleep under our pit bench, but all the robots had arrived, everything was set up and the first of the spectators came through the doors ready for the show to start at 6:00pm. Unlike my previous event, Antweight World Series 32, the antweights were more of a sideshow here, as the main attraction was the heavyweights and the featherweights in the Robots Live arena. However, the crowd were able to come down to the pits between battles and watch the ants play, and most seemed very interested, with a couple of people asking how they could get involved. Speaking of the crowd, there was an impressive number of people there.

The crowd on Saturday evening [Taken by Joey McConnell].

As a result, the antweight battles were very informal, and it was very different to the AWS. It was more of a continuous mêlée, where ants joined and left as the show went on. Due to this, it was difficult to know how good or bad TransparANT II was. The rubber wheels that had served me so well at AWS32 couldn’t get much traction on Dave’s arena floor, and in the end one of them started slipping so that it drove in circles. Joey kindly offered to put a layer of Dycem on the wheels to improve the traction. This was noticeably better, but the Dycem started to pick bits up off the arena floor until they offered no traction either, and then started slipping again. I decided that a change of wheel was in order, and eventually I managed to attach the metal-hubbed wheels Joey had given me before AWS32. After more wheel changes than an entire Grand Prix, I realised that I had spent most of the evening fighting a lost cause and went to watch the featherweights. The battle was very entertaining, with the arena floor flipper tossing a few featherweights right out of the arena! I spent the latter part of the event watching the ants, feathers and heavies.

Heavyweights Toon Raider and Kronic.

That was the end of day one, so I packed my things up with the intention of returning the next day with a working TransparANT II...

Sunday

...but that wasn’t to be. I went to turn TransparANT II on, but the LED on the Sabertooth speed controller was flickering dimly, and something was obviously wrong. With help from Joey and Dave, we went through a few different configurations, but nothing was working and we had no idea what the problem was. After dismantling the internal components, I decided to just give up, as I didn’t want to spend another day trying to fix something when it clearly wasn’t going to work. I had high hopes for this version of TransparANT, but it had a difficult couple of days.

Team Picus' Arcus, Jigsaw V and Spall.

Dave very kindly offered to let me use his spare antweight Bulletproof, which was very similar to the first TransparANT. Bulletproof was running on a simple 9v alkaline battery at the time, so we swapped that for the 7.4v LiPo batteries from TransparANT in order to make it run for longer. Bulletproof was great fun to drive and it was nice to use something that actually worked properly for the first time that weekend. I spent the rest of that day alternating between playing with Bulletproof and watching the heavyweight and featherweight battles.

Heavyweights Toxic 2, The Saint and UFO.

In the interval between the two shows, Joey was kind enough to let me drive his fantastic horizontal crusher Arcus against his equally fantastic (for different reasons) converted miniature remote-controlled car Spall. It was the first time I had ever driven a robot with a weapon, and it was great fun chasing Spall around and clamping it with the pincers. At this point it became apparent that I would need to give the TransparANT concept a bit of an overhaul and try to work a weapon into the design. In the second show, I watched and filmed the tag-team final, the featherweight final and the heavyweight final. I took some photos, watched the heavyweight mêlée, and then that was it! The weekend was over!

Arcus grapples with Spall [Taken by Joey McConnell].

Although TransparANT II did not have a great couple of days, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend. My first real taste of a live event post-Robot Wars was a fantastic one, and I think the shows were really good. It was nice to see the heavyweights for the first time in years, it was great to see the featherweights for the first time ever, and it was a pleasure to be in the pits with some great robots and some great people. A few lessons were learnt from the event, firstly that I must attend more events like that in the future. Secondly, I thought the featherweight battles were great, and I honestly think that OverDrive could hold its own against the other featherweights that were there. So, after finally seeing the featherweights in the flesh for the first time, it has given me the motivation to get OverDrive working. Finally, I need to make some changes to TransparANT. The invertibility did not work too well, and in general the robot did not have a good event and is possibly broken. I am going to invest in some new components, notably a 2.4Ghz radio set, a smaller and lighter speed controller, some better wheels, and if all goes to plan, a weapon of some sort.

Tag-Team Champions Iron Awe 5 and Iron Awe 6.

However, I am fairly confident that if I can get TransparANT II working again and ran it on an arena floor that it likes, it would do okay in a full-on competition. So I have some thinking to do before I build a new robot...

TransparANT in Action
[Taken by Joey McConnell]

[AJ]

My next event is lined up – Antweight World Series 35 in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. I am looking forward to going back to an antweight-specific event and seeing how I get on one year on from my first event in Wednesbury.

I needed to get a robot running, and I had no idea what sort of state TransparANT II was in, as I hadn't touched it since October the previous year. One thing I did know was that at the end of the Robots Live event in Kidderminster, it wasn't working and had been taken apart.

I wasn't too optimistic, but I thought I would buy a new JST connector to plug my battery back into the Sabertooth speed controller and see if I could get TransparANT II working again. Much to my surprise, when I wired it up, the robot worked absolutely fine again, meaning that I had very little to do to be ready in time for AWS35.

The only minor change that I have made is to cut the top panel into a 'T' shape to avoid problems with the wheel slots not lining up properly. I have also invested in a Planet 5 2.4 GHz radio system so that I can upgrade to that at some point. So TransparANT II lives again and is ready for the event this weekend...

[AJ]

Antweight World Series 35
Sunday 17th July 2011 | Pontefract

Introduction

I was running slightly late, but I eventually arrived at NEW College Pontefract in the pouring rain. As is tradition, I was greeted by Joey McConnell, who was hosting the event, and went to set up next to him in the pits. The turnout was fantastic, and due to the size of the main competition, the warm-up event had already started, so I missed that. Instead I went to get TransparAnt tech checked, only to find out that it was both too long and weighed in at a grand total of 158g. To fix this, I shortened the acetate strip at the front of the robot and replaced the existing 1.5mm Polycarbonate lid with a 0.75mm Polycarbonate lid. This meant that TransparAnt could fit the cube and weighed in at 150.8g and was ready to battle.

The Antweight World Series Trophy

First up was the Fleaweight World Series, and since I don't own a fleaweight, it meant that I could just sit back and watch the action, and it was good fun. I have trouble getting antweights into the weight limit, so the fleaweights always impress me. The category is doing well at the moment, so I might have to try and build one myself at some point. I have uploaded some footage of the Fleaweight World Series here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsNTiJNOIys

Spall, Jigsaw V, Catatonia and Arcus

Once the warm-up event and the Fleaweight World Series had finished, it was time for lunch, so I took the opportunity to have a practice with TransparAnt in the vacant arena. I managed to fix the steering for this event, having driven it with reversed steering at Antweight World Series 32. It seemed to be in good condition, but the modifications to the acetate meant that I wasn't able to get under the other robots as easy as I liked, and when I did, for some reason it seemed to lack that bit of power to push the others across the arena. With the events of Robots Live Kidderminster firmly in my head, I decided to gamble and switch the standard wheels to the ones with the sticky Dycem tread. This time it worked, and after a bit more practice, the difference in performance was very noticeable, and I had a lot more grip and traction and was able to push the other antweights around much easier.

Kwijebo

With around 60 other robots competing in the main competition, it was going to be tough, but I was ready for Antweight World Series 35...

TransparAnt vs. The Sublime and The Ridiculous

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WmQhvkBEb8

First up was The Sublime and The Ridiculous, a two-part clusterbot made up of Joey McConnell's Spall and Josh Valman's UFT. I was actually incredibly nervous about this battle as I had never fought a clusterbot and didn't know how TransparAnt was going to perform. I was helped out by UFT driving out of the arena within the first 5 seconds, and then after a game of chase with Spall, I managed to flip it onto its side using my wedge and got the victory.

Pop and Complexity

TransparAnt vs. Kiwi XL

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_mMTyiU5hI

Next up was Jonathan Atkinson's crusher Kiwi XL. My nerves had calmed down a lot and I knew that I had a chance of winning this battle. Kiwi XL was extremely low at the front, and so I repeatedly ended up driving up its wedge, but luckily it couldn't get a good grip on me. I finally managed to get under it after approaching it at the side and that was all I needed to do to push it out of the arena.

TransparAnt and Kiwi XL [Taken by Joey McConnell]

TransparAnt vs. MutANT

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=woERvMReiDM

Things seemed to be going well, but then I was drawn against Peter Waller's walking vertical spinner MutANT. Following on from my victories against CombatANT and TruANT at Antweight World Series 32, I decided to go for the direct approach of getting in the face of the spinner and slowing it down. However, I had underestimated MutANT, and the first attack ripped the front wedge clean off and flipped TransparAnt onto its back. I went in for another attack, but this time the battery flew out. Having conceded defeat, I cowardly drove into the pit to prevent any further damage occurring.

FlippANT, VariANT, MilitANT and MutANT

TransparAnt vs. Kiwi XL

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHWEbMVNDaQ

No serious damage was caused by MutANT, and after re-attaching the front wedge using superglue and tape, TransparAnt was ready to fight Kiwi XL again. Having already fought Kiwi XL earlier on, I knew that I was going to have to get round the back this time, and eventually I managed to do just that, pushing Kiwi XL out for the second time. At that moment I believed that I had won three of my first four battles and had progressed to the last 16...

TransparAnt and Kiwi XL [Taken by Joey McConnell]

TransparAnt vs. WarHorses

Video: -

...but that wasn't to be. An error with the draw meant that Kiwi XL had already been eliminated, and I had been told to battle the wrong robot. So that round had to replayed, this time against the flipper clusterbot WarHorses. I obviously wasn't pleased at all, but accepted the difficulty of organising a tournament of this type and agreed to battle WarHorses in the interest of fairness. I held my own briefly, and one segment eliminated itself from the arena, but I did the same shortly after, and my run in the main competition was over. It ended on a bit of a sour note, as I should have and could have gone further, but better luck next time...

Cosmos and one part of WarHorses

Instead I went to play in the non-spinner arena and had a good tussle with Saint Jimmy, an antweight replica of the heavyweight robot The Saint. The rest of the time was spent watching the rest of the main competition, where some frighteningly effective robots, great driving, and engineering masterpieces were on display.

Robot of the Opera

Robot Roulette

To end the day, eight teams competed in an event called Robot Roulette, developed by Dave Weston. The eight teams each put a robot forwards, and the eight drivers have to randomly select one of the robots to drive by picking its name out of a hat. I pulled out the robot that had eliminated me from the main competition, Rhys’ clusterbot WarHorses. The other cluster was driven by Andy Hibberd, and we lost fairly quickly in round one to Quake (as far as I can remember). Newcomer Danny was unlucky enough to get TransparAnt, and guided it to the second round, where he said how difficult it was to drive, before diving into the pit. ;D It was good fun though, and a nice way to end the event.

Jigsaw V and TransparAnt [Taken by Joey McConnell]

Conclusion

Overall it was a good event. TransparAnt performed well and I have learnt from the mistakes of my two losses. The robot is working perfectly and might well enter the next competition in its current state. At some point I will look into building a fleaweight and a different sort of antweight, but for now TransparAnt is doing exactly what I want it to do – enter the event, have some fun, win some battles, and end the day in one piece.

Time to look at building something a bit bigger next, I think...