Once again we made plans for David to compete in the Kbot World Championship in Las Vegas. Last year David won the Division 1 Phoenix Championship, which made him eligible for the World Championship. This year they didn’t have a Phoenix regional event, but David was still eligible so we went straight to Las Vegas. The down side of this was we lost one week of build time that David needed to develop a radically new Kbot design. Since David is now 15, he can’t compete in Division 1, so I signed him up for Division 2 (4-wheel drive), and the new Division 3 (remote control). So he spent Monday through Thursday mornings building Division 2 and the afternoons building Division 3. Friday would be the actual World Championship event!

Basically David had developed a 2-speed transmission, something that had never been done before. Starting with a single reduction gear, the Kbot moves much faster and crosses the centerline of the table before contacting the opposing Kbot. Once contact is made, David’s Kbot shifts into a double reduction gear, which will out push most of the Kbots. In the event that David can’t out push the opponent, the Kbot’s usually stall out trying to push each other until time runs out. Since David’s Kbot traveled farther then the slower opponent, he wins by distance. Most of the build went as expected, the biggest problem was when stalled, the axles would flex and the locking pins could pop off, which leaves the drive train free-wheeling and easy prey for the opponent to push off the table. By using redundant gear trains and placing locking pins on locking pins, the drive train appeared to finally be reliable.

Division 3 is a whole different strategy. The operator drives the Kbot with a remote control, and scores points by pinning the opponent against the wall, or hitting the opponent with weapons controlled by the motors. The builder usually selects one of 2 strategies, the first is to use both motors for drive and out maneuver the opponent, but you have no motor for weapon control. Or you can use one motor to drive the Kbot and the other to control a weapon, the downside is you can’t steer, only go back and forth. David went outside the box and used both motors for drive control and drove a hammer weapon off one of the motors, so he had the advantage of both strategies. The existing motors have a lot of slippage with the drive axle, David’s Kbot barely moved around. His solution was to add a gear reduction system which finally gave him good drive control, and the ability to out push the opponent for pinning points.

Friday rolled around and David was finally ready. His Division 2 Kbot held together through all his matches, including one heart stopper where the Kbot shifted as soon as it started. Fortunately David was able to out push the opponent for the win. In the end, David won all his rounds and became the 2008 Division 2 World Champion! David’s Kbot is now in the hall of fame for it’s radical design and David has been asked to be an instructor next year.

Division 3 went a little smoother, with David decimating most of his opponents with scores like 9-2 or 7-0. In the end David became the 2008 Division 3 Champion and the 2nd person ever to win 2 titles in the same competition!