Won most destructive bot in AIME Robotronica.

Demonstration

HellTongue is a two wheeled, box-shaped vertical spinner. It uses a monocoque 95A TPU chassis with a tegris top plate and carbon fiber bar for structure. The new urethane wheels are very large and grippy, which makes this robot very fast for only having two wheels, although the handling leaves room for improvement. It has AR500 steel forks and a 93mm diameter AR600 weapon mounted on a direct drive hub motor, attached to a separate TPU mounting assembly that slides into the bottom of the robot and bolted in, allowing for large side wedges to protect the weapon.

Designed to be as simple as possible to reduce breaking points, HellTongue only uses 20 screws! (Not including screws that came with components)

Change log:

V3.5:

• The heat sinks once used to keep the top plate screws in have been replaced with embedded nuts that are inserted into the 3D print halfway through, and then printed on top of. Making the screws much less likely to be pulled out. There is also eight of them instead of six.
• Small bolts have been added at the top of both weapon uprights to prevent them from shifting and potentially hitting itself during a fight.
• The carbon fiber bar has been replaced with a much larger plate to decrease flexing of the entire chassis.
• Magnets have been made stronger
• Power switch has been moved to protect it from the weapon
• Both the side wedge armor and the wheel urethane have been made thinner to stay in the weight limit.
• Experimental configurations have been scrapped due to inadequate construction. New, better ones will be coming in the future.

V3:

• Armor has been significantly modified and redistributed to better protect vulnerable areas. The new wheel armor is to the side rather than the back to improve self-righting ability. It is also compliant and has strategically placed holes, so the chassis can still be printed all at once.
• The neoprene foam wheels have been replaced with cast treaded urethane wheels with TPU hubs for improved grip, They also have a compliant mechanism that grips the axle tightly; in tandem with a traditional shaft collar.
• The polycarbonate top plate has been replaced with impact resistant tegris. Only one plate is needed, but multiple can be used if necessary.
• Magnets have been added to the underside of the chassis, held in place with a screw going through a carbon fiber stiffening bar that also helps with the structure of the robot.
• 95A TPU is now used for the chassis instead of 98A TPU, all other TPU components are still 98A
• Switched to the Repeat Vortex ESC for the weapon
• Switched to two individual drive ESCs for improved margin of error while soldering
• New configurations

V2: 

• Introducing Ring Armor! A way to increase the thickness of a TPU wall without increasing the amount of perimeter walls in your slicing software. Doubles the thickness of all armor from 6 layers to 12 with minimal weight gain.
• Switched to brushless drive to increase power and save weight.
• Dropped the S7 components in favor of AR steel parts.
• (With the exception of the weapon ESC.) Switched to Repeat Robotics for all electronics and motors.
• Added side forks to the sides of the main forks to improve flanking ability
• Added small ears to improve inverted driving control. (any bigger and the wheels would be off the ground.)

 

I got into CAD and combat robotics about nine months ago, (As of my fourth competitive tournament 10/11/25) and other than an antweight wedge kit, This is the first robot that I have ever built. It did decently well in its first three tournaments, getting 2nd out of 10, 5th out of 17, and 9th out of 27. Now, HellTongue is ready to keep on fighting. I have been spending a lot of time refining this robot and my engineering, building, and driving skills. Take heed to not underestimate this robot, for it has also beaten a former Nor Cal Champion. And if you let up for just one second, it will beat you too.

 

 

Special thanks to:

 

Kinship Academy And Alterna, for sponsoring this project. 

 

Sierra College, Advanced Manufacturing, for water jetting metal parts.

 

Sierra College Robotics Club, for teaching me everything I know. 

 

My girlfriend, Spider Comstock, for drawing the artwork.