Welcome to the home of Team Fury Robotics, where you can find information about our
recent entry into TLC's hit show Robotica. In mid-October, three of our team members travelled out to Hollywood with our robot -
Northern Fury. The experience for us all was something that we'll never forget. You can all share in the experience
by watching
the competiton on The Learning Channel at 8:00pm on Wednesday,
January 16th. Our episode will repeat on the same day at 11:pm, and that Saturday (January 19th) at 2:00pm.This page is intended to be a quick reference page for those interested in our team or our robot, nothing more. If something's not covered on this page, however, don't be afraid to send any questions or comments to: teamfury@tangmonkey.com, We'll do our best to get back to you.
The robot was made almost entirely with 3 tools - an old arc welder, an angle-grinder and a
hand drill. We took great pride in creating such a complex machine with those simple tools.
For the few parts that absolutely required precision, we had our manufacturing sponsor
Cross &
Associates machine them for us.The design philosophy of our robot was the product of countless hours of discussion and prototyping. We decided early on to pursue the criteria of power and maneuverability over such traits as speed or durability. Our strategy for the fight was based heavily on the inherent challenges of Robotica. Specifically, we decided to plan for the fight being a shoving match as opposed to a war of destruction. To this end we made our robot very lightly armored, going for the lightness of aluminum over the strength of steel. We decided to drag the entire front end of the robot, putting our wedge flush on the ground to slide in underneath our opponents. To augment its attack, Northern Fury had two low-speed chainsaw blades for lifting the opposing robot off the ground, allowing us to carry him to the edge of the platform and throw him off by reversing the direction of the blades. For locomotion, we went with 2 National Power Chair electric wheelchair motors - ideal motors for robotic competiton. We had decided early on forgo speed en lieu of power and controllability, and these motors were exactly what we needed. We installed them on a very strong yet very simple slot arrangement which allowed us to adjust the wheels to any height desired, allowing us to put the clearance down low in a fight to protect our tires, or up high to clear obstacles in the labyrinth. We also had different weight configurations using lead weights for different sections of the competition. The final touches we put on Northern Fury were the aesthetics. We had decided early on to create a robot that was both solidly built and interesting to look at. Northern Fury's paint job was kindly done for us by Montreal artist Rosemary Mosco, based on rough concepts developed by the team itself. We chose as our mascot the mighty polar bear as a representation of power, beauty, and of course the great white north.
 Charles Halliburton: One of the senior members of the team, Chuck is a mechanical engineering student at Ottawa's own Carleton University. His claim to fame is his interest in the ballistic arts, specifically of the medieval type. Charles builds trebuchets, a sort of medieval siege weapon which is capable of launching various small objects hundreds of feet - albeit usually not in the desired direction. When not creating rickety weapons of destruction, chuck also rides bikes down the sides of mountains at high speed, and also works on his website - Blindstare.com. Ken Hutchison: The youngest member of team fury at the tender age of 15, Ken served the essential role of "team scapegoat". When not getting drinks and snacks for the team, Ken worked hard on nearly every aspect of the robot, putting in countless hours of work to get Northern Fury completed for the competition. Ken's hobbies include building pneumatic air-cannons and breakin' shit. Mackenzie Larwill: A grizzled veteran of the high-school robotics scene in Canada, Mac was Team Fury's resident math whiz. As well as his nimble abilities in numerical manipulation, Mac's middle name is 'Onisimus', which we all find rather amusing. Mac is also a student of Mechanical Engineering at Carleton University, now in his second year of study. When he's not building robots, Mac is probably consuming large amounts of alcohol. Scott Moreland: One of the team's most experienced members, Scott has been involved with the construction of more robots than anyone else on Team Fury. He was the co-head of construction for Team Glebe's winning entry into the 2001 CanadaFIRST Robotics Games, a post he shared with Neale. When not building robots Scott can often be found constructing intricate models of military vehicles, especially tanks, and has won numerous national competitions. Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet: The so-called captain of the team, Neale sharpened his robotics teeth as the driver of the winning robot in the 2001 CanadaFIRST Robotics Games. He has trained many years in the mysterious arts of television production, producing his own short films and working on television shows such as "The Tom Green Show" and countless programs from our home town of Ottawa. He also quite enjoys the graphic and design work he does for Tangmonkey.com, and will never back down when challenged to a yo-yo showdown.
|
