The second season of BattleBots premiers TONIGHT, Thursday, June 23rd at 8/7c on ABC, and Arrow Electronics has jumped right in the middle of all the mayhem this year.
Arrow Electronics has sponsored its own BattleBot; Poison Arrow: 250 pounds of steel-rending destruction set to hit the Battle Box in round two, premiering in the second episode of ABC's BattleBots.
We have a lot of faith in our bot, which was designed by Caustic Creations, and which wields a 70 pound hunk of steel as its primary weapon that spins at nearly 9,000RPM—nearly 150 times a second. Powering a weapon this huge requires an equally massive motor. The weapon motor is a 25kW brushless motor. This is a custom wound motor typically used in large scale RC trucks.
In BattleBots, if your bot isn't moving it's going to get counted out, so the drive train is critical. The drive train is also responsible for delivering knockout punches to an opponent. Much like the weapon system, Poison Arrow’s drive motors are brushless motors that give impressive handling. Most off-the-shelf wheels are too weak for this level of punishment, so custom wheels were designed to deal with the forces of battle and provide excellent traction in the Battle Box.
Poison Arrow is a power hungry machine. With peak currents over 1000amps, a massive battery system is required to keep the bot fighting for the entire 3 minute match. The total system is 44.4V and has a 13.5 Amp hour capacity. Thankfully this lasts just a little longer than 4 minutes. Special considerations have to go into the power system. A short circuit with 10 pounds of lithium batteries has an explosive potential that demands respect, so we made sure to keep the electronics out of harm’s way. Poison Arrow is built like a tank. Many plate sections are 1 inch thick hardened aluminum alloy, skinned with 5mm of titanium plate. Once bolted together, Poison Arrow is basically a solid block of metal, but it has one of the smallest footprints of any bot close to its size.
At Arrow we’re proud to sponsor electronic innovation at every level. BattleBots is a great showcase for the Maker movement and a forum for bright engineering minds, and we can’t wait to see what Poison Arrow does in the ring. We’ll be following this season of BattleBots closely, and you may want to as well—we hope to be celebrating some wins with special deals and promotions across Arrow.com.
When we win, you win. So stay tuned!