ARES + MIT CRC (the story):
ARES is a 30lb robot I led the development of as captain of the MIT Combat Robotics Club. At the time of writing, it is ranked #12 of all time at NHRL (the foremost combat robot league in the country).
During my junior year at MIT (2023-2024) I restarted the MIT Combat Robotics Club (CRC). MIT has a long history with the sport, including many teams on the Battlebots TV show such as Uppercut, Sawblaze, Overhaul, and more. However, the club fizzled out as most of the members graduated during COVID. Two years later, I became president of MITERS (an entirely student-run hackerspace at MIT), and decided to restart CRC as well, since the clubs are closely related. MITERS provided the workspace and tools, and CRC provided a goal and framework in the form of competitions to gather students and teach them how to build things.
I spent the fall semester of that year recruiting members for CRC and building up their CAD and robot-building skills by having them form small groups and create 3lb robots. This culminated in an in-house event where the team fought these robots against each other in an arena we had also built.
A photo of one of our in-house matches
ARES V1 (March NHRL):
In January, based on the experience and skills developed in the previous semester, we decided to compete in NHRL, a combat robotics competition held every two months in Norwalk, Connecticut. The event is split into multiple weight classes of competition and we decided to develop a 30lb robot as a team, alongside some members who chose to bring their own 3lb designs they already had.
So, in two months we designed and fabricated every component of this robot, ready for competition on March 3rd. It was a very intense two months, but we managed to finish it on time. At the competition, we won 3 matches and lost only one (against the previous world champion), advancing to the semifinal and qualifying for the world championship in November. This went better than any of us expected, especially for starting from scratch only a few weeks prior, and the first time the team had ever competed.
Here’s a video one of the team members made about that first event:
ARES V2 (APRIL NHRL):
After our March competition, we identified a number of improvements we wanted to make to the design. Our main issue was that it took a long time to repair the robot between matches, which was a problem because the events have rigid time slots and if the robot is not ready you must forfeit. We also wanted to make the main power connection on our robot more robust (we lost because it fell out), and use two motors instead of one to run the weapon for more power and redundancy. Over the course of two months we made these design improvements and built 3 copies so we would have a new robot ready instantly for the next match, giving us more time to repair a damaged one. Here is the video from our second time brining ARES to NHRL:
THe DESIGN OF ARES:
ARES is designed around its weapon, a extremely powerful hardened tool-steel beater bar that accounts for almost one-fourth of the entire weight of the robot. It spins at 7000 RPM and at full power can deliver 3600 joules of energy. We noticed that beater bars are extremely effective in competition because they can achieve an immense amount of “bite” meaning more of the weapon makes contact with the opponent, usually launching them into the air very forcefully. They also are very robust, so in weapon-on-weapon engagements they often come out on top.
The weapon is driven by two motors and supported by needle roller bearings. The rest of the chassis has 4 wheels driven by two brushless motors with planetary gearboxes and chains connecting everything. It is primarily made from aluminum to be lightweight and strong. For critical and large parts such as the shaft the weapon runs on, bottom armor and wheel brackets we used titanium. On the outside as armor we used UHMW polyethylene, a strong slippery plastic that allows opponents’ weapons to tear off chunks instead of causing major structural damage.
Here is the CAD model of the second version of ARES, which we competed with in April:
