As a total beginner to the world of robot combat, its difficult to know where to begin, so having been there and done that, I thought I'd write some suggestions for things to keep in mind and offer some tips and advice starting out, it should be pointed out that these are suggestions and not things you have to do, but you may find it helpful.
1) Work Out Your Total Budget - This may seem like an obvious starting point, but its all too easy to jump right in with ideas, and before you know it you've burst the budget you didn't know you needed to have, before you knew you needed it.
Building a heavyweight robot can be an expensive business, you need to consider whether you have access to all the tools you'll need before you begin, if you don't have access to the basic tools required, drills, spanners, screwdrivers etc then you'll have to acquire them which can bump the cost of your robot up considerably and eat in to your budget. If you can't use a welder, don't have electronic skills etc you can pay others to do those things for you, but again this bumps up the cost.
It's possible to build a very basic heavyweight robot for around £500 - 1,000, that said depending on the motors you use, the type of armour you chose to use etc will all influence the cost. If you make a junk bot from spare parts and recycled items and are happy to use materials like wood for the shell then a robot can be put together cheaply. Building a cheaper robot though will not necessarily mean that it will be successful, but it doesn't mean it won't be either, experience has taught me that in the arena anything can happen, the robot equivalent of David can slay Goliath! Equally a robot built out of MDF and wheel chair motors is highly likely to become the robot version of a sacrificial lamb.
2) Consider Size - You may want to fly in to the arena with the biggest, badest heavy weight robot you can build, but as a beginner, you may be biting off much more than you can initially chew. So think about starting with a smaller scale project like an Ant Weight robot to begin with, there are competitions around the country for this weight of robot and they can be made for around £150 (including the RC Transmitter).
Making it more affordable, ant weight is more relaxed and not as competitive, so it makes a good entry level robot, it won't take as much time, its easier to put together, you don't need as many tools and from ant weight, you can progress to feather weight, honing your robot building skills as you go and work towards a heavyweight as you gain experience, again events occur all over the UK for featherweights as well as ant weights so you'd be able to get along to one.
3) Find A Roboteer Buddy - Join a forum like the one at the Fighting Robot Association (FRA), there you can pick up a wealth of information and pick the brains of the roboteers that are active on the forum. Forums like the FRA are also a great way to find parts for sale, sometimes even full robots, there may even be an opportunity to join a team looking for more members.
I'm sure many experienced roboteers would love to be mentor figures, they are a friendly bunch who love to help each other and also people who are as enthusiastic as they are about the sport.
Having a roboteer friend, could not only get you valuable help, it could also get you a chance to get a behind the scenes look at a live event as well as expert help.
If you're a women trying to connect with other potential female roboteers, then getting involved with the Ladies that Crunch group would also be worthwhile, the group is relatively new, but it consists of enthusiastic women who all want to encourage other women to pursue a life in robotics, be that Robot wars or a career involving robots. The expertise level ranges from complete novice to someone who works in a robotics lab, Dr Lucy Rogers, one of the Robot Wars judges is also a member.
4) Discover Your Strengths And Weaknesses - To build a robot its helpful if you or someone on your team has some engineering knowledge, some electronics and electrical knowledge, an ability to use design software like AutoCAD (CAD is the acronym for Computer Aided Design) is useful, as is the ability to weld and know how to use tools like angle grinders, drills and lathes.
If you can't do all those things, do you have access to someone who can and would be willing to help out? The more people you have on your team, the more you can get done and the more people you'll have around you that can make your dream a reality. Keep in mind though that when appearing on shows like Robot Wars, and most live shows, they have a cap on the number of people that can be on a team. In the recent series of Robot Wars, the maximum number of team members was 4, so if you're a team of 8, only 4 of you will get to take part in the event.
I've seen some people say they can code, whilst a useful skill, using code is only just starting to be used in combat robots, Chompalot for example has a sequence on the eye LED's that utilises an arduino to generate different patterns, so whilst coding is useful it isn't always essential. That said lots of roboteers are looking for ways to use code to make the robot do additional things.
Something your team will most definitely need is someone who has people skills, from dealing with material suppliers and potential sponsors to liaising with event organisers and these days interacting with 'fans' and other roboteers on social media, someone has to make sure these aspects of being a roboteer are carried out. It also helps if you're a little tech savvy, enough to organise a website or blog (or both), back in the old days social media wasn't a thing, today its become an important bridge between the viewers an fans and the roboteers.
5) Do Some Research Before You Begin - Compile a list of resources, go to places when you get stuck, need to check your Megahurtz from your Motor Torque, then Google can be your friend, most of the time, there are plenty of guides out there like this one on the Robotic Design Process and this one on Instructables website on How to Design and Build a Combat Robot. What you have to keep in mind is some of the American sites give instructs for American build rules, which can mean different weights allowed, different weapons, limits of weapons or materials. So make sure you know what weights, sizes, allowable weapons etc are pertinent to the country you plan on competing with your robot in.
As well as using internet resources, there are some books out there that will give you lots of really useful information, check ebay or similar for books like Kickin' Bot: An Illustrated Guide to Building Combat Robots which new is a little pricey at around £50 or RioBotz Combat Robot Tutorial, the later comes recommended by lots of roboteers and costs less than £10.
6) Have A Substantial Safety Link - If I had £1 for every time a roboteers dreams and plans were scuppered because the safety link became dislodged, got knocked out or somehow failed to connect I'd be a very rich women! Safety link problems have never been a problem for us, that's down to the size and type of link that we use. I'll do a post on this in the future, when constructing your robot make sure that you don't use a tiny safety link, you'll thank yourself in the arena, size does matter lol!
The purpose of the safety link is to give you the ability to remove all power from your robot by physically removing part of the main power supply circuit if something goes wrong. When the link is in, a robot has power to the drive, weapons etc, once removed, all electrical power to the robots drive and weapons stops, so if something goes wrong, the safety link can be removed to make the robot safe to handle.
There are so many other things to consider, the above are good starting points, I'm sure over time there will be questions which will get answered, but for now that's a wrap, I hope you've found this somewhat useful and if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, if I can't answer, I'll do my best to find someone that can.
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