Melty Brain - Revision history

RobotRobot: Replace unsupported Tesla's Tornado example with Blade Runner (per cited article)

2026-10-17T23:26:45Z

Replace unsupported Tesla's Tornado example with Blade Runner (per cited article)

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:26, 17 October 2026
Line 34:		Line 34:
	==Notable meltybrains==		==Notable meltybrains==
	* '''Blade Runner''' – an early meltybrain attempt in the original BattleBots era; the technology never worked as intended.		* '''Blade Runner''' – an early meltybrain attempt in the original BattleBots era; the technology never worked as intended.
	* '''~~Tesla's Tornado~~''' – a middleweight ~~that used~~ meltybrain in BattleBots ~~Season 4.0~~.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_drift]		* '''Blade Runner''' – a middleweight built by Ilya Polyakov, the first robot to attempt meltybrain, in the original Comedy Central BattleBots; the technology never worked as planned.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_drift]
	* '''Melty B''' – Rich Olson's antweight meltybrains, featured by Pololu in 2009.[https://pololu.com/blog/187/rich-s-melty-b-antweight-combat-robots]		* '''Melty B''' – Rich Olson's antweight meltybrains, featured by Pololu in 2009.[https://pololu.com/blog/187/rich-s-melty-b-antweight-combat-robots]
	* '''Nuts 2''' – the first meltybrain on Robot Wars (Series 10, 2017), which beat defending champion Carbide on the way to a joint 3rd place in the Grand Final.		* '''Nuts 2''' – the first meltybrain on Robot Wars (Series 10, 2017), which beat defending champion Carbide on the way to a joint 3rd place in the Grand Final.

RobotRobot: Expand: how it works, hardware (Open Melt 2), challenges, notable meltybrains, rules

2026-10-17T06:28:30Z

Expand: how it works, hardware (Open Melt 2), challenges, notable meltybrains, rules

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:MeltyB.jpg|thumb|Melty Brain Beetleweight]]
-The '''Melty Brain''' robot is a modified Thwack Bot that allows 100% of the bots mass to spin, but unlike a traditional Thwack bot that spins in place, the Melty Brain robot adjusts the wheel speed on each rotation allowing it to effectively drive around the arena.
+The '''Melty Brain''' robot is a modified Thwack Bot that allows 100% of the bots mass to spin, but unlike a traditional Thwack bot that spins in place, the Melty Brain robot adjusts the wheel speed on each rotation allowing it to effectively drive around the arena. This is also called '''translational drift''' or "tornado drive." Because the whole robot is the weapon, no weight goes into a separate weapon system &ndash; but a melty is complex to build and tune, and if the drive fails, the robot loses both its movement and its weapon.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_drift]
 -wheeled robots: Although the design may seem counter-intuitive, there are advantages to using a single large motor to spin the robot. In addition to the increased power and durability of a single motor, tuning a single wheel to control the robots movement is generally easier.
@@ Line 15: / Line 22: @@
 Rich Olson over at Nothing Labs has an open source melty brain project and has successfully used his approach with a variety of weight-classes.
 http://www.nothinglabs.com/openmelt/
 <br>
-See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_drift
+==See also==

User at 03:07, 27 November 2021

2021-11-27T03:07:58Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:07, 27 November 2021
Line 1:		Line 1:
	~~Article Needs to be Written~~		[[File:MeltyB.jpg\|thumb\|Melty Brain Beetleweight]]

	The '''Melty Brain''' robot is a modified Thwack Bot that allows 100% of the bots mass to spin, but unlike a traditional Thwack bot that spins in place, the Melty Brain robot adjusts the wheel speed on each rotation allowing it to effectively drive around the arena.		The '''Melty Brain''' robot is a modified Thwack Bot that allows 100% of the bots mass to spin, but unlike a traditional Thwack bot that spins in place, the Melty Brain robot adjusts the wheel speed on each rotation allowing it to effectively drive around the arena.
Line 7:		Line 7:

	2 wheeled robots: These melty brain robots have a more typical design with two wheels to balance the weight of the robot as it goes through it's rotation. Although these can be just as effective as 1-wheeled robots, the additional friction from the second wheel as well as weight-differences between the two wheels can make tuning the melty-brain more difficult. One advantage of a two-wheeled Meltybrain robot is that it can revert to (more usual) tank-drive steering, e.g. to escape from corners.		2 wheeled robots: These melty brain robots have a more typical design with two wheels to balance the weight of the robot as it goes through it's rotation. Although these can be just as effective as 1-wheeled robots, the additional friction from the second wheel as well as weight-differences between the two wheels can make tuning the melty-brain more difficult. One advantage of a two-wheeled Meltybrain robot is that it can revert to (more usual) tank-drive steering, e.g. to escape from corners.
	<br>		<br><br>

	Mechanical Melty Brain: Although not a true Melty Brain, there have been examples where a small amount of weight is dedicated to a central 'directional' bot that maintains contact with the ground and uses a cam to adjust the wheel angle during the robots rotation. (Y-Pout)		Mechanical Melty Brain: Although not a true Melty Brain, there have been examples where a small amount of weight is dedicated to a central 'directional' bot that maintains contact with the ground and uses a cam to adjust the wheel angle during the robots rotation. (Y-Pout)
	<br>		<br><br>

	{{#ev:youtube\|https://youtu.be/WMLEQafT7-Y}}		{{#ev:youtube\|https://youtu.be/WMLEQafT7-Y}}

RCEvents: Added context + a video

2021-07-09T20:42:48Z

Added context + a video

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:42, 9 July 2021
Line 12:		Line 12:
	<br>		<br>

			{{#ev:youtube\|https://youtu.be/WMLEQafT7-Y}}
			Rich Olson over at Nothing Labs has an open source melty brain project and has successfully used his approach with a variety of weight-classes.
	http://www.nothinglabs.com/openmelt/		http://www.nothinglabs.com/openmelt/
			<br>

	See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_drift		See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_drift

MarkR at 21:12, 2 July 2021

2021-07-02T21:12:14Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:12, 2 July 2021
Line 6:		Line 6:
	<br>		<br>

	2 wheeled robots: These melty brain robots have a more typical design with two wheels to balance the weight of the robot as it goes through it's rotation. Although these can be just as effective as 1-wheeled robots, the additional friction from the second wheel as well as weight-differences between the two wheels can make tuning the melty-brain more difficult.		2 wheeled robots: These melty brain robots have a more typical design with two wheels to balance the weight of the robot as it goes through it's rotation. Although these can be just as effective as 1-wheeled robots, the additional friction from the second wheel as well as weight-differences between the two wheels can make tuning the melty-brain more difficult. One advantage of a two-wheeled Meltybrain robot is that it can revert to (more usual) tank-drive steering, e.g. to escape from corners.
	<br>		<br>

Line 13:		Line 13:

	http://www.nothinglabs.com/openmelt/		http://www.nothinglabs.com/openmelt/

			See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_drift

User: Some added detail, still needs a lot of work

2021-07-02T03:40:09Z

Some added detail, still needs a lot of work

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:40, 2 July 2021
Line 3:		Line 3:
	The '''Melty Brain''' robot is a modified Thwack Bot that allows 100% of the bots mass to spin, but unlike a traditional Thwack bot that spins in place, the Melty Brain robot adjusts the wheel speed on each rotation allowing it to effectively drive around the arena.		The '''Melty Brain''' robot is a modified Thwack Bot that allows 100% of the bots mass to spin, but unlike a traditional Thwack bot that spins in place, the Melty Brain robot adjusts the wheel speed on each rotation allowing it to effectively drive around the arena.

			1-wheeled robots: Although the design may seem counter-intuitive, there are advantages to using a single large motor to spin the robot. In addition to the increased power and durability of a single motor, tuning a single wheel to control the robots movement is generally easier.
			<br>

			2 wheeled robots: These melty brain robots have a more typical design with two wheels to balance the weight of the robot as it goes through it's rotation. Although these can be just as effective as 1-wheeled robots, the additional friction from the second wheel as well as weight-differences between the two wheels can make tuning the melty-brain more difficult.
			<br>

			Mechanical Melty Brain: Although not a true Melty Brain, there have been examples where a small amount of weight is dedicated to a central 'directional' bot that maintains contact with the ground and uses a cam to adjust the wheel angle during the robots rotation. (Y-Pout)
			<br>

	http://www.nothinglabs.com/openmelt/		http://www.nothinglabs.com/openmelt/

User: Just the page - start - needs content

2021-06-30T05:48:02Z

Just the page - start - needs content

New page

Article Needs to be Written

The '''Melty Brain''' robot is a modified Thwack Bot that allows 100% of the bots mass to spin, but unlike a traditional Thwack bot that spins in place, the Melty Brain robot adjusts the wheel speed on each rotation allowing it to effectively drive around the arena.

http://www.nothinglabs.com/openmelt/