Predator - Paintball gun R/C car

[Matt]

We were at iHobby last year and across the aisle from us was a family company that is making the coolest R/C car on the planet.

From their website: Technosportsinc.com (http://www.technosportsinc.com/1.html)
"The Predator is a radio controlled car based on a Traxxas T-Maxx model onto which a platform is mounted with a CO2 powered paintball gun. When the Predator is in "gun mode" the paintball gun turret moves left and right 60 degrees and has up to 10 degrees of inclination. The car and gun both operate off the same receiver. The gun will not fire if the car is in "drive mode" or if the gun is inclined more than 10 degrees. This is considered a paintball gun and should only be operated under supervision of adults 18 years of age and older. Anyone within 100 feet of the vehicle should be in protective safety gear.There is also an electric version available that is based on the Traxxas E-Maxx."

Some Pics:

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/blogposts/2008/predator1.jpg

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/blogposts/2008/predator2.jpg

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/blogposts/2008/predator3.jpg

The videos are on their site or here are direct links:
http://www.technosportsinc.com/2006-10-13-PaintBallRobotG2Movie-web.wmv
http://www.technosportsinc.com/2006-05-02-PredatorG1Movie-web.wmv

Here are TR we have been talking about robot paintball competitions for years. We think that would be a great high level competition to have. It could be run in an open field or inside a Plexiglas box like battlebots already do. We are getting close to a point where bots could battle it out using advanced autonomous AI. It could be a great college level competition. The Predator could be the platform used to build these bots :)

Pricing:
Predator G3 E-Maxx (Electric) $1650
Predator G3 T-Maxx (Nitro) $1850

[Matt]

Wow, no love for the paintball bot or the contest idea? I'm surprised...

[Tyberius]

WHoa, I missed this one somehow. Very cool setup... sort of spendy though. Dunno how much the components would be though, but I think I'd prefer to build my own. Hell you could probably pick up two (four?) of them, create a course, and setup shop. I'm sure you could make a decent penny charging on a per-match or hour basis.

[darkback2]

I think I sent this around, but maybe I didn't. I would be extremely interested in setting up a "friendly game" of capture the flag. Skynet vs Flesh sacks. Skynet would be comprised of almost fully automated systems (1 operator per 5 robots) which would have to protect a flag, or central area using paintball guns. Flesh sacks would have to infiltrate the area, capture a flag, and leave the area without getting marked with a paintball. You get hit, your out. (same rules go for the robots...they would all have to have a sensor that could be hit to disable them.)

I guess the rules would have to be fleshed out somehow because I could see this becoming crazy...hundreds of people simply overwhelming the robots with bodies...or hundreds of robots firing thousands of paintballs.

Over time the complexity for what is expected of the robots would increase. (the robots have to infiltrate a human base and capture their flag.

In any case, I have 10 or so acres of woods in washington I'll donate to the cause if it will help make this happen. At worst I bet we could get military sponsership...

DB

[mr-sk]

Heh, that is super cool.

I think every guy (and gal?) has wanted to build something like this..come on, robots and guns...hehe.

- sk

[LinuxGuy]

Wow, no love for the paintball bot or the contest idea? I'm surprised...
I was thinking how great a perimeter patrol bot something like this would make. It would just need the right controller and software. :veryhappy: it could mark intruders! Non lethal, but there still might be legal ramifications to doing something like this.

8-Dale

[LinuxGuy]

WHoa, I missed this one somehow. Very cool setup... sort of spendy though. Dunno how much the components would be though, but I think I'd prefer to build my own. Hell you could probably pick up two (four?) of them, create a course, and setup shop. I'm sure you could make a decent penny charging on a per-match or hour basis.
The E-Maxx goes for around $349.00 retail, but can sometimes be found on E-Bay for less. I'm not sure the $1600.00 price tag fits what you are getting if these folks do the mod. I don't know how much paintball guns cost or how difficult it would be to interface one to a microcontroller.

8-Dale

[Wingzero01w]

Well seeing how i play the sport, theres two different paintball guns- electric and manual. If your going to use paintball with a robot, electric is easiest since you can simply send a pulse to the gun to shoot. For manual, you would have to make a servo trigger finger. You can buy an electric paintball gun for around 200-300, for good quality from http://www.actionvillage.com (http://www.actionvillage.com/)

The way to control a paintball gun from a microcontroller is simply sending a very quick pulse, ive tried it and its pretty fun.

[sthmck]

Cool idea. A combination of two of my favorite things. I dont know how many robots you would want to have a team. My guess is that you guys would want to run these type of robots on a speed ball course. That would probably be ideal. I cant think of the different team sizes of the top of my head. I think they might be 7, 5, and 3 man teams, but I'm not 100 percent sure. If you were to go this route then it would be pretty easy to make some standard rules. Plus speed ball courses are pretty common. I'm more of a woodsball person myself, but im pretty sure it would be easier to make autonomous speed ball robots. If you were to make a 5 bot team, you would need between 200 and 500 dollars each per gun (if you want to get something decent), and then what ever cost to make the robots. The human pros that play are all sponsored which makes it easy for them to afford all the equipment. Just think having a sponsored robot team going up against a human pro team. (for example you could get sponsors for the robotics part and then sponsors for the paintball stuff) I think that there is a better chance of success for these robots then the soccer team in 2050 or what ever date they have picked out for that thing. Sounds like a great idea. sign me up.