How To Make A Winning Knex Battle Bot

I have been in a number of knex battle bot competitions. Each time I learn a few new things about making a winning battle bot. I'll summarize the basics and show you how to make a piece efficient battle bot.

The main thing to remember when you are planning is that you will be supplied with a limited amount of parts. So think basic! The person who tries to be fancy always looses. Many times I've seen cars that don't even have steering come in the top three. The people that win almost always have these five things:

Requirements:
Low center of gravity
Low to the ground
Weight over the wheels
Steering
Flat front

I'll show you how I achieved these things in a battle bot I made that won first place, and I'll give you some tips along the way.
I hope this guide will help future battle bot builders!
Killer~SafeCracker

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Step 1: Creative Planning

Your planning time can be some of the most valuable time you have, and depending on the contest you might have very little. You do not want to waste it!

Think simple! You will be given a variety of parts and you probably wont want most of them. I know that a lot of times they give you a bad selection of parts to make you think and be creative, but never forget the fundamentals!  Don't waste time and parts on fancy spinning things and lifts to flip the opposing car. I made this mistake my first time to compete and I had to spend half of the time I got to battle rebuilding my car. Just don't do it!

Comments

[bnsfwarbonnet]

how do you control them other than the RC motors

[Killer~SafeCracker]

The motors each control one wheel. This allows you to move in any direction.

[Aron313]

How does it hurt its opponents?

[Killer~SafeCracker]

All of the competitions I've been in the challenge isn't to hurt the other bot. The main goal was to force it out of bounds.

[coniosis11]

haha.... gOOd enouGh.... :).... cOol BOt..!

[squiddy412]

It rams them at really high speeds.

[Mepain]

Just make it spin.

[CobraKaisensei1122]

Hahahahahahaha Scrap Daddy got DESTROYED! XD

[Football viking boy]

lol that is awesome

[apples!!!!!]

Someone needs to pick that up with one hand, throw it, and shout "DESTRUCTOOOOO DISK!", then watch something rip into pieces.

[knex_builder_freak]

:D DBZ ftwwww

[apples!!!!!]

Best childhood show ever.

[Oblivitus]

NICE!

[Killer~SafeCracker]

Hahahaha!

[Kinetic]

FEATURED??? Nice congrats.

[ygeny]

PEUT ON UTILISER D AUTRE MOTOR

[DJ Radio]

I have a tip: Maybe include the rules of knex battle bots in here. I don't even know anything about battle bots.

[Killer~SafeCracker]

Ohh it really depends on who is hosting it. There are no set rules that I know of.

[alarson3]

Basically, there is a ring or square, and two robots need to push each other out of the ring. I've only ever seen one knex bot, and it was awesome (the Mindstorms bots ones epic fail, don't ever make one). I used a bot once that just went forward really really fast, and I won several rounds.

[Shadowman39]

Cool battle bot! I wish there where Knex battle bot competitions where I lived, or at least something having to do with Knex. :-P

[bnsfwarbonnet]

i use legos at my school we played tug of war and stuff

[bnsfwarbonnet]

if it was a ball machine competition u would win.

[GATEBOYNXT]

I make Lego battlebots. But the tips are nice to use in them!

Checkem out here: youtube.com/GATEBOYNXT

[Killer~SafeCracker]

Those a really cool! Do they use lego mindstorm? I have mindstorm but I never have gotten used to using legos.

[GATEBOYNXT]

Yes i used Mindstorms to make all of the robots. Some have power-functions to power it up! The one below is called paradox. It has a whole playlist on my channel.

[instruct39]

cool, good work!

[lphillips094]

i once made an awesome knex battle bot. wasn't a member of ibles at the time so i couldn't post it. i unfortunately scrapped it for parts:(

[Football viking boy]

Nice! This is the first time I found out about battle bots. Just a quick question I don't get how you steer does the robot do it automaticly or does a person have to manualy switch on and off the motors. Great ible otherwise!

[Seleziona]

How do you win these battle bot competitions? Do you just have to flip the other bots or what?

[~KGB~]

nice one! 5*

[Killer~SafeCracker]

Thanks!

[~KGB~]

no prob!

[H1T4TCH1]

kool!

[beanieostrich]

Cool project =D 4.5*

[Killer~SafeCracker]

Thanks!