Yesterday, a camera crew for Discovery Canada stopped by Trossen Robotics to interview Andrew Alter and get some footage of his mech, Insanity Wolf. This footage, along with footage taken at RoboGames/ Mech Warfare 2012 will be part of a segment for Discovery’s Daily Planet show. The segment will be focusing on everything Mech Warfare.

Andrew gave the crew a tour of Trossen Robotics, showing off our Laser CNC, our robot army and the rest of our facilities. The crew was eager to get some great shots of Insanity Wolf, even putting themselves in the line of fire to land the perfect shot.

The segment will air later this month and it will be available online on Discovery Canada’s Website. We’ll keep you posted with a direct link as soon as its available.

It’s friday and it’s time to take a look at what’s going on in the Trossen Robotics Community!

• Gertlex has posted some photos of ‘Numa’ from Mech Warfare, including a photo of the 2012 Mech Warfare champions.

• Hivemind uploaded a picture of the awesome ‘KaiNaut’

• Kamondelious has some shots of an imposing looking walker

• The Mech Warfare 2012 Video Thread has some great footage of this year’s matches and a even a Video Montage from Botjunkie.

• Darkback2 has some Great Videos of an updated Hi No Hikari including a motion test and a firing test.

• User Gort has been working with his Kinect to control a basic robot arm. This arm might be made out of popsicle sticks but this projects, combined with Gort’s other work, has alot of potential.

Until next week, keep the posts, pictures and projects coming by registering for the TRC and sharing on the forum and image galleries.

This year Mech Warfare had quite a few new upgrades. Between a new scoring system/server, a new arena and even more new competitors, there was a lot on the line. Well, we’re proud to report that Mech Warfare 2012 was a huge success. 15 qualifying teams battled it out to see whose mech would reign supreme.

In this video you’ll see the final Mech Warfare 2012 match. Squaring off were Mech Warfare 2011 Champion “Immortal” and our own Andrew Alter’s “Insanity Wolf”. This match was incredibly exciting not only because of the amazing technical ability of these two mechs but also because of the excellent piloting of their creators. Be sure to watch all the way through to see the conclusion to this down-to-the-wire match.

Stay tuned for more videos, pictures, and inside scoops on Mech Warfare 2012.

WARNING: This post might make you think twice before you spin a globe violently or kick that unassuming ball down the street.

Our own TRC Member Zenta has posted an amazing video of his MorpHex Robot. The dream for this project was to ceate a spherical hexapod that can…

• Roll freely as a ball
• Move in any direction
• Vary its inner-body dimensions
• Transform between hexapod and sphere mode
• Walk/work as a normal hexapod

By looking at the video, we’d say that the dream is a reality.

In hexapod mode, the MorpHex elegantly traverses terrain – then, very subtly, it begins to constrict its size until it’s ready to transform. In sphere mode the MorpHex can roll, stop and even dance around. And while there are a million things to love about the MorpHex, the fact that the body was constructed out of a earth globe is the cherry on top.

Zenta has entered the MorpHex into the Boca Bearing 2012 Innovation Competition and could win a $10,000 grant to further develop the MorpHex. We know who we’re voting for! Maybe one day we’ll see a whole army of MorpHexes rolling down the street!

For more history, pictures and general information about the MorpHex, check out the MorpHex section on Zenta’s Website

Last week Mech Warfare Veteran Upgrayd came to Trossen Robotics to solder a batch of the new Mech Warfare transponder boards (You can see a video of him soldering the first batch of boards here.) In no time flat he had the boards built and ready to get sent out.

This year Mech Warfare is using a new custom built score keeping system – the MWScore System. Designed by Upgrayd, the MWScore System is completely open source (the MWScore Server, the transponder PCB files, and the transponder firmware are available for download here.)

The transponder interfaces with several force sensing resistors to register hits against the mech. These hit are reported to the MWScore Server via an Xbee connection, and displayed on the central server. The hit also triggers the new LED sub-board, that will flash 4-ultarbirght LEDs whenever a hit is registered. More details about the system are available at the MWScore site and this TRC forum post

Here’s a video of the scoring system in action.

4 years ago our own Andrew Alter founded the Mech Warfare Competition. Since then, the event has grown massively with more and more competitors from around the globe. As the competitor pool and the event itself grow, so must the arena in which these robots battle. The PVC pipe and canvas tent just isn’t cutting it anymore. This year the Mech Warfare organizers want to build a lexan & aluminum armored arena to house the robot competitors.

That’s where you come in. $6000 is needed to make this new arena a reality and the organizers of Mech Warfare have set up a Kickstarter Project to fund it. The project is on its way, but it still has a ways to go. Your donation will help build an arena that will house Mech Warfare competitions for years to come, inspiring competitors and spectators alike.

Now we know that just the knowledge that you’re promoting the robotics cause is enough to get you to donate, but there are also some great thank you gifts for backers. These gifts include listing on the sponsors page, Mech Warfare and MORAV posters, and even having your name/company/website integrated into the arena itself. Just imagine your face looking down from a billboard onto the Mech Warfare Arena!

So checkout the Kickstarter Page and sign up to donate. Every little bit helps towards getting an awesome new arena for these awesome robots.