By S.C. Stuart | Excerpt – full article at pcmag.com
A UCLA team recently reached the third round of the annual RoboGames with a combat robot named Wedgie. They explain how it works and what’s planned for 2019’s competition.
Inside UCLA’s Boelter Hall, the university’s Battlebots team works on several categories of robots, including 60-pound and 3-pound drum spinners, “thwackbots,” and horizontal spinners—all combat robots, with both drive and weapon systems—for arena-style battlescapes.
This is the primary project of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) student section at UCLA. The team comprises mostly mechanical engineering undergraduates, although all disciplines are welcome to join. Everyone learns how to conceptualize, draft, and project plan, gets hands-on experience with industrial machining tools (mill and lathe), and becomes proficient with Finite Element Analysis and CAD (Computer-Aided Design).
Please read the full article at pcmag.com.