“So I decided to shape it to look even more like a bill. “One night when I was sketching ideas for the lifter, I noticed the fork on the front lifter looked a little like a duck bill,” said Rucker. The lifter design is also where the theme for DUCK! was born. Without sufficient time to test and rebuild, Rucker went with a simple lifter rather than a destructive device for the bot’s active weapon. To keep things simple while ensuring that the bot would still be strong and durable, DUCK! features a unibody construction with its entire base milled from one solid aluminum block. For example, the drive shafts for the wheels are similar to the drive shafts for the lifter, and all the shafts ride inside the same tapered roller bearing assemblies. Rucker’s goal was to create his waterfowl-themed bot with a small Bill of Materials (no pun intended) and parts that were duplicated and used in different subassemblies. In the sport of robots, this is referred to as the “break your fist on my face” strategy. The tight timeline he had given himself due to other commitments leading up to the tournament drove the majority of his design and theme decisions.ĭUCK!, Rucker’s latest BattleBot, is a simple and durable machine designed to survive big hits by powerful kinetic opponents.
![battlebots duck battlebots duck](https://d2z1w4aiblvrwu.cloudfront.net/ad/n_rC/hexbug-battlebots-rivals-large-8.jpg)
![battlebots duck battlebots duck](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/n9MAAOSwZpJgO0uL/s-l300.jpg)
![battlebots duck battlebots duck](https://www.protolabs.com/media/1017588/new_protolabs_robot_infographic-june19-1.jpg)
With just 28 days to design, build, and test his robot for the 2018 season of “BattleBots” on the Discovery Channel, Hal Rucker had no time to waste.