Team Storm

Things have been picking up pace in the world of Team Storm over the past week or so, at the weekend Tim and Ed went through the workshop like a pair of crazed men getting it back to a state where we can use it again over the winter to work on Storm II and a couple of other projects we've got going.

The work we're doing with the Team Storm Academy is going well, we're working with a number of groups providing input and consultancy into NVQ and Diploma qualifications and providing something very unique in the process.

Over the winter period we're going to be getting Storm II back to it's fully fighting fit status ready for a full year in 2009 which promises to have some great events. We're also looking at the situation regarding Battlebots and RoboGames - we had a great time last year at RoboGames and hopefully we will be taking Storm II out there again this year. There seems quite a bit of interest from UK teams in going over, and whilst we can't comment for any of the other teams - we're certainly making a big effort to get ourselves to them both !

Hopefully we'll have some news over the winter for you regarding changes (and upgrades) to Storm II, as well as some fun stuff - and you never know, possibly even another robot !

Team Storm are back presenting at Robots Live, after a short break due to work commitments Ed (team captain) will be back presenting the Robots Live shows around the UK starting with the fantastic Rivermead Center right in the heart of Chester in the North West.

It promises to be a fantastic show to packed audiences, for more details visit http://www.robotslive.co.uk/chester_08.htm where you can find out more about the show and buy tickets !

Hello there, well we've lots to report from Team Storm Towers, including some of the work that we've been doing regarding our new 'green' efforts. Whilst Robots might not be the greenest things on the plant, we're pretty sure that we can a) make Storm II greener and b) take that message out to the people we meet doing the shows that we do. You'll have seen in previous blog entries what we want to do, so thought we'd give you a little update here. Firstly Team Storm HQ is just about as green as it can be now - we've even gone beyond just replacing lights with energy saving compact flourecent's, we're in the process of replacing bulbs with high-energy LED's meaning that we can take the power consumption down for some lights from 50w to just 3w, that's a 94% reduction in energy usage ! With well over 20 replaced throughout, that's a huge energy saving.

We're not just interested in saving energy at Team Storm HQ, what can we do about the robot - well firstly we're wanting to get rid of the Nicad batteries that currently sit in Storm II, they're terrible for the environment and something that doesn't sound out a very green message. They can be replaced with Lithium Ion batteries which have a far greener footprint - but for us the big challenge is can we get the robot to run via Solar energy....... watch this space !

Hi there, it's been a while since we've last been in touch but following the frenetic run up to getting out to RoboGames in San Francisco we've felt like we've needed a bit of a break, however with winter approaching (traditionally our downtime period for maintinence) we're starting to get going again with bits and pieces.

Firstly from the side of the Team Storm Academy we're pleased to announce another tie-up with another university and collece establishment where Team Storm will be using the funding provided by VMWare and Computacenter to help bring science engineering and technology into the learning environment and show students what can be achieved with a little determination.

Also you may have heard some good news from the US - Battlebots is finally looking like it's getting back in it's feet. After a failed attempt to get the event run in November 2008 it looks like April 2009 is going to be the time for the next try. The rules have just been published and their website has just been totally updates - http://www.battlebots.com/. As for whether Team Storm will be there, at the moment fingers crossed yes we'll be there, and as ever we've taken all the learning from our time in San Francisco competing in RoboGames and we'll be ploughing that back into Storm II to ensure we can get over and compete to the best of our ability !

So what else is going on - we're going GREEN part of the remit of Team Storm has been to push the boundaries of what can be done, remember when Storm II was built it virtually redefined the power that you could deliver from a robot. We're launching a twofold approach, green at Team Storm HQ, and making the robot greener - how are we going to do it, you'll have to wait and see !!

We're also picking up our educational work again, we did a very successful summer session at the University of East Anglia and we're now working with further educational establishments bringing the magic of what we do into the classroom and the lecture theater.

We'll keep in touch !

Hey there, well for those of you that caught it we've just had our piece on The Gadget Show on Channel 5. They got some great footage of Storm II running in the arena, as well as a couple of lovely self-rights during the Sewer Snake Fight. We'd totally forgotten that the crew were filming everything that took place with the batteries catching fire (and slight error by Dallas, they were NiCad not Lithium batteries) but with all the Lithium battery fires that there had been that day I think they had that stuck in their heads !

Thanks to Dallas, Tom and Karen for putting up with us for the two days they were with us from the show, we certainly had a great time... will we be appearing again - you'll have to watch this space !

Hey there, we've had a load of emails come in over the last week or so asking us which events we're going to be at in the coming months. So, the list as it stands at the moment looks like :

- 23rd - 25th August - Rebel Robots, Burntwood, Staffs
- 20th/21st September - Robots Live, Huddersfield Sports Center (Provisional)
- 4th/5th October - Roaming Robots, Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth (Provisional)
- 11th/12th October - Robots Live, Rivermead Centre, Reading
- 25th October - Roaming Robots, Harvey Hadden Complex, Nottingham (Provisional)
- 15th/16th November - Robots Live, Northgate Arena, Chester
- 22nd November - Roaming Robots, Maidstone

The Roaming Robots events are provisional at this point as they have not opened sign-ups for teams to register for those events however the other events Team Storm is confirmed as attending.

Well for those of you who have been emailing us asking when we're going to be on Channel 5's 'The Gadget Show', those of you who want a look can catch us on Monday 14th of July at 8pm. Found out when we joined forces with the awesome roboteering experience of Dallas Campbell joins forces with Team Storm at Rob0Games 2008.

We had great fun with the guys over 2 days getting the footage, we've not seen it and won't see it until it air's on Channel 5, so if you fancy a laugh make sure you're there, 8pm Monday 14th of July !

Well it's been a while since you've heard from us - we've taken a few weeks off after RoboGames and to be honest not touched the robot at all over the past weeks or so.

Storm II has spent the day today with one of our sponsors at their Services Conference in London at the Hilton Metropole. We've had loads of interest from people and have been running a competition to give someone a chance to come to an event with us as VIPs which will be drawn later tonight.

In the meantime we've sad to announce that we won't be taking part in the FRA's UK championships this year as we've not been able to replace the gear that failed in the US

Team Storm landed at London's Heathrow airport at about 1:30pm this afternoon and headed home, Storm II is now safely back stored away in Team Storm HQ and we're already thinking about what we're change to Storm II or do differently in the future.

Thanks to all who emailed us with their good luck messages etc, they were all appreciated. Now we have to go back to the task of attending events in the UK and getting the Team Storm Academy up and running in the second half of the year !

Well the event is over and having witnessed some of the most amazing live robotic combat I've ever seen the whole team are more fired up about robots than we ever have been before. Storm II is packed away in our cases ready for the flight home and we're just about to head out for a final evening meal in San Francisco.

It really has been an amazing time for us here and there are so many people who have been so generous and helpful to the team both while we've been out here and before we came making this whole trip possible. We've also met some great roboteers and made some friends for life out here, David Calkins has been fantastic, the Sewer Snake duo of Matt and Wendy, Greg, the Ziggy crew, the amazing teams behind Professor Chaos (Middleweight Champions), the scary mind's behind Eugene and Last Rights and the slightly insane minds behind Bliss the self destructing yet very scary disk. Not forgetting Bunny Bot's cheery smile and crooked ear to greet us into the pits every morning.

We've also had the chance to meet the US team from VMWare that have helped sponsor us so far this year and made so much possible with Team Storm going forward. We've had camera crews waiting in line to cover us and multiple UK and US channels giving us coverage. The whole experience has been totally beyond words.

We'll all feel a bit sad as we get on the plane tomorrow evening back to Heathrow, but we'll be back....... trust us, we'll be back !

Well what a night we had last night here in San Francisco, after all the excitement of Storm II's arm failing to work, then the batteries going up in smoke we weren't quite sure what to expect in the arena against Sewer Snake.

Storm II started out really well, the drive was working great - got straight under the front of Sewer Snake and started to push them around... Sewer Snake got under Storm II and turned us over but (unknown to them) we had fitted our self-righting arm and the look on their faces as Storm II glided through 180 degrees and back onto it's wheels was hilarious and the audience went mad (remember, not many flippers here so a graceful self right isn't something they're used to seeing). After that though things took a turn for the worse, we lost drive on one side of Storm II, and despite keeping going to the end of the fight it was obvious by the end that the good ground we had made at the start wasn't going to be enough to carry us through and Sewer Snake won the match.

That wouldn't have been a problem as we would then simply enter the losers bracket and we assumed that we'd just dropped a chain or a keyway on a gear had worked loose but when we went to inspect the drivetrain the main drive gear on the motor was simply missing ! The only way it can have come off is if it cracked off and physically fell out of the robot in two pieces. We did comb the arena to try to find it but with no luck which means Storm II had to retire from the competition. The main drive gear on Storm II is a 25mm long MOD2 gear, made from case hardened EN36 steel and probably one of the strongest bits of the robot !

Anyway, we decided to take some time out today, Tim and Meral have been cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge and Ed headed out to get in some serious shopping. We'll be heading back to Fort Mason later this afternoon to strip down and pack up the robot.

So was it all worth it - YES, will we be back next year YES. Seriously RoboGames is an amazing competition to take part in, and the passion and enthusiasm in the US for the sport and for the bots (probably due to fewer events than we have in the UK) puts the UK to shame. Team Storm will be coming back from the US not as the winners of RoboGames but with a re-fired desire to get out there and show what these machines can do.

..... it might even be time to unveil a Storm III !

While everyone back in the UK sleeps it's all happenning here. We went to do a quick check of the drive and arm system before we put the robot in the arena and the arm wasn't working - so a quick bit of work and fault finding and the arm was working ok - loose connection we think.

Anyway, Storm II was waiting in line for it's fight with Sewer Snake by the edge of the arena when smoke started billowing from the sides of the robot - one of the NiCad packs had gone down and was on fire in the robot when we were the next fight in.

Luckily thanks to some quick handywork we got the burning pack out of the robot and out of the building and we've just replaced it with one of the spare packs... so Storm II is once again sitting ready by the arena to run.

It never rains by it pours ;o)

It's been all go here in San Francisco, we've just found out that we've got the fight that everyone wants to see, Storm II take on Sewer Snake at about 8:30pm here - Sewer Snake took some damage in the last fight it has and has swapped out one of it's drive motors. Storm II is good to go and sitting on it's pit bench patiently waiting.

We've had a really hectic day with 3 film crews covering Team Storm, one of them from the UK TV series 'The Gadget Show' on Channel 5, they've been following us and watch out for us coming to UK screens in the coming weeks. As well as The Gadget Show we've been joined by a film crew from VMWare to cover our activities as well as UK show on one of the Sky HD channels - so it's been a busy day. To add to the fun the pits just erupted in applause as a LiPo powered featherweight robot went up in smoke at the pit bench launching flames and smoke high into the air !

We've finished testing with the Spektrum system on Storm II and that appears to have cured the problem that we were having, for the 5 years that we've run our 459Mhz system we've never had any interference in it at all, and suddenly it was giving us a problem.

We've just flattened a set of batteries driving Storm II in the arena and it's now driving like a dream, very very controllable with everything set up and balanced. The other advantage that we have when running with the Spectrum controller is that the receiver is much smaller than our standard one meaning that we can run 4 battery packs in Storm II rather than the 3 packs that we run with the Spectrum which should deliver more power to the speed controller making Storm II even more powerful that it has been of late.

Footnote - Storm II always used to run 4 battery packs throughout Robot Wars Extreme and Robot Wars Series VII/World Championships, the change to 3 packs came when we moved to the 459Mhz system.

No sooner than you put on post on than you have some more news - we've just taken Storm II to the arena to do some testing and it would appear that (for the first time ever) we're getting interference. The robot drives fine most of the time but appears very skittish now and again. We're going to swap out our 459Mhz radio system for a Spektrum 2.4Ghz system and see if that deals with the problem - it doesn't make much difference to the way Storm II works running the different system so if it deals with our control problem we'll be up and running again. Swapping the radio should only take about 10mins and as yet we don't have a time for our next fight.

Good morning from a cloudy San Francisco - we've arrived this morning and we're getting the robot ready for the day. We think we're fighting either Sewer Snake or Vlad this morning but it all depends on the outcome of another fight that we're waiting on.

The atmosphere here yesterday was absolutley electric as some of the fights were truley spectacular to watch, the pits just emptied as a big heavyweight fight got underway. Storm II was proving hard to control yesterday on the slippery metal surface so we're making a few changes to the steering mixing to try to make her a little easier to control - if in doubt, fix it in software !

Anyway, must go, lots to do - we'll let you know when we have more news !

Well we've just come out of the arena after what was a pretty easy win for Storm II against Eugene. They managed to get a few scratching hits in early on in the fight however after a while their spinning bar weapon failed leaving them defenseless and Storm II was able to slam them all over the arena. The fight was definitely a fight that was fought on Storm II's terms with Eugene under constant pressure from Storm II spending most of it's time trying to run away from Storm II to try to 'regroup' as it were.

Towards the end of the fight we threw a chain but the redundancy in Storm II meant that it wasn't a serious problem for us and we were still mobile around the arena. Eventually Eugene stopped moving under the constant onslaught from Storm II and they 'tapped out' of the fight in the end leaving Storm II to go through with hardly a scratch on it

Oh... and the Amercians seemed rather impressed with the "little black rocket powered tank"as it got described that had arrived on their shores. We're off to get some lunch now... and a chain from the spares in the hotel !

Wow it's all starting here, robots are being loaded into the arena and their safety checks are being done. We've had a pretty quiet morning as Storm II's been sitting ready on our pit bench for some time - perhaps we shouldn't have come quite so prepared, we feel like we should be making use of the time to do something, but other than dusting the robot and enjoying the amazing views over San Francisco bay and the bridge from Fort Mason we've not had much to do.

The draw has just been done for the first round fights and we're going to be fighting Eugene, it's a spinning bar robot which looks beautifully built out of Titanium. It's got 2 x S28-400's for drive and 2 x S28-400's running the spinning bar weapon as well so it's a formidable piece of kit. Looks like they might have a weakness, looks like they can't self right and they've got pretty exposed ground clearance all around. We're going to run the lifting arm for Storm II on this fight but keep it retracted for most of the time fight except if we get a chance to turn them over.

Our fight's due at 14:00 so we're about half an hour away - that's if they start on time and so far things have been a little relaxed

Anyway, we're just topping up the batteries as Storm II has been sitting on the bench for 24hrs and then we'll be good to go !

Have just arrived at Fort Mason ready for today's competition and have popped a quick picture of Storm II with it's new side armour panels in place on the blog.

Outside the robot looks pretty much the same for Robogames but inside so much has changed, replacement wheel(s), new drivetrain components, new axle support mechanism, new tyre compound, uprated speed controller, change to control electronics, 2 new lifting arms..... we've been busy.

Updates as and when they come !

Ok, have changed the time zone on the blog to make things easier to follow as posts which for us are on different days are appearing on the same day on the blog - don't you love time zones !

Storm II passed it's technical checks at about 6pm last night, we spent most of the day hanging around on site just waiting... and waiting and waiting but it gave us plenty of time to chat to some of the builders and look at the other robots here. It's only when you come to the US that you really appreciate the difference between what goes on in the UK and what goes on in the US. When we get a moment we'll put a gallery up of the bots that are here but there's some serious engineering going on in the US, and with fewer events to attend the events that do take place see people bringing far more advanced machines than we run in the UK, let's hope Storm II isn't out of it's league here ;o)

On that note, lots of interest in Storm II out here, it's always good when the people with the big spinner walk up to a robot full of themselves, and then skulk away looking a little sheepish :o) but today is the first day of competition and with so many destructive heavyweight spinners here the chance of us not being drawn against one is pretty slim !

Lots of interest in our sponsors too including VMWare, if I'd had some documentation on VMWare Workstation 6.5 to give away to people I wouldn't have any left by now :o(

Quick update, it's 13:20 here in San Francisco and Storm II is sitting ready on it's pit bench at Fort Mason. We've tested and checked everything and we're just waiting for our technical inspection which should happen later this afternoon.

There are bots arriving throughout the day and there's loads of excitement from the US teams about Storm II being there, it seems we're the bot that everyone wanted to see which is very flattering.

We're heading off for some lunch now, but hopefully we'll have some pics etc for you all later.

Storm II is fully constructed and fully tested ready for heading over to Fort Mason to check in. At the moment she's looking as good as she ever has done with her new artwork on the sides as well as having had a thorough servicing over the past few months. Everything appears to be running better than it ever has before - this can either be a good or a bad omen depending on your particular subscription to 'sods law'.

As we're sitting here writing this Storm II is about to be loaded onto our scales for a final weigh-in check. We've brought a set of shipping scales with us and they checked out 100% with the cargo scales that British Airways used when we checked in the bits so fingers crossed. According to the scales we're weighing at bang on 98Kg so plenty of slack under the 100Kg limit !

Right... time for us to head off to Fort Mason !

So today was the final day of preperations for RoboGames 2008. Storm II is now fully assembled and we've got to go and check in at RoboGames tomorrow morning.

We think we've got everything sorted and ready to go, we collected a number of packages from reception at the hotel this morning including our new 110v power supply for running our chargers for Storm II, slight issue that it doesn't appear to be working properly but we're sure that's something we can fix - if not we'll have to borrow someone's PSU. We've also taken delivery of some t-shirts from VMWare for a publicity photoshoot taking place on Saturday afternoon with us.

We managed to take some time out today to do some sightseeing and headed over to Alcatraz before a stop a Radio Shack on the way back to pick up some bits to make some cables up and then we've just got back from dinner in Chinatown.

We're going to be up early tomorrow morning to get Storm II over to the venue at Fort Mason for checking in and at the moment everything still seems to be going well.

We'll keep you up to date on how things progress durin the day tomorrow !

We arrived in San Francisco around 1pm yesterday and first walked down to the venue from our hotel to get the lay of the land. Bumped into the guys setting up the arena, looked like a 'Battlebox' style arena, spotted some large 'pulverisor' style hammers stacked in the corner so looks like there will be some arena effects in there too.

The great news we've just had is that we fired up Storm II and checked everything and she's running great. The changes we've made to the drivetrain (loads of parts re-manufactured) have got her running better than she's ever run before - and the changes we've made to the speed controller/control appear to have paid dividends too.

We're well stocked with spare parts to keep her going, we've got multiple spare lifting arms machined up, spare wheels, spare drive train parts and gears, spare gears for the lifting arm mechanism, a complete set of spare armour... spare LEM130's, spare TX and RX (can anyone tell we're taking this kinda seriously) ;o) ?

So, Tim and Meral headed out to celebrate Meral's birthday last night, they've gone to http://www.frascatisf.com/ which in my opinion is one of the finest places to eat in San Francisco so I'm going to head out... find a bar and some locals !

More updates tomorrow, and hopefully some pictures of Storm II with it's new look ready for combat !

Ok, so it's 10:45 and we're sitting esconced in the business lounge at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. British Airways have been great looking after us, Storm II was personally escorted by the Terminal manager through check-in and is being manually transported to the plane to ensure that it arrives safe and sound - big thanks to BA for all their efforts and to Dirk the Customer Service Manager for T5 today.

We're due to take off at 12:05 this afternoon which gets us to LA for 15:00ish (though we'll think it's about 11pm). Plans for this evening probably involve sorting out the inventory of parts we've bought (we're currently carrying around 270Kg of baggage with us which is Storm II, all of our spares - oh and our clothes) and possibly popping up to Beverly Hills for dinner.

Last night we took delivery of our new team outfits for 2008 with our new logos for our sponsors so by all accounts I think we're good to go.

Next update will be from Los Angeles - watch out America, Team Storm is coming !

Well if we've forgotten something it's going to be too late now, everything's packed in the car, we've checked and double checked that we've got everything and we're good to go !

Well following yesterday's slight nightmare it looks like everything is back on track - Ed finally made it back to the UK late last night after a bird strike stopped him from being able to leave Poitiers airport in France where he was taking a couple of days break. Ed has spent the day with VMWare filming promotional work with them, it was very surreal having the workshop kitted out with professional camera, lighting etc as they shot the video before heading off to do some location filming of 'Ed at work'. We should be getting a copy of the video for the Storm website all being well so watch this space.

We've now got just about all the parts together with just the new arms (lifting and self-righting) to be obtained tomorrow morning from suppliers. Our new team outfits are done, we've got new logos etc to go on the robot and we've just finished weighing everything so we can work out the best way to pack things into the bags to fly.

We're going to be flying into Los Angeles with British Airways, landing there mid-afternoon local time, picking up our car for the trip and then heading to a nearby hotel to crash (and start putting Storm II back together following the flight). On Sunday we're off to Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park for a chill-out day before heading up the Pacific Coast Highway stopping along the Monterey coast.

We finally arive in San Francisco on Tuesday..... ready and raring to go !

Well things not going to well today as Ed is stuck in Poitiers, France - he went out for a few days to see friends and gt some r&r (www.vienne-holiday.com if you're interested). On his way out the bus taking him to the airport blew up (pics on the site soon) and now his return flight is grounded after hitting a flok of birds

With publicity filming to do tomorrow before we fly out this does not bode well !!!

Greetings from France, having had a manic few days getting Storm II ready I've (Ed that is) headed over to France for a few days R&R - www.vienne-holiday.com if anyone fancies a look, a lovely little place to retire to.

Storm II is now just about ready for going out to the US. On Thursday we've got a film crew coming down to Team Storm HQ to do some filming for a promotional video for them, hopefully we'll get a copy put on the Storm website so that you can see it !

Other than that there isn't much to report, we'll try to get some pictures online before we head out to the US on Saturday, but while we're over there make sure you keep checking back here as all the latest information and updates on how we're doing and what we're up to will be here first !