Infernal Propulsion Challenge: Walkers, catapults, and more! [Infernal Robotics]

[Ryu Gemini]

The way this challenge works is simple. You design and build something which moves. However, it must be powered by infernal robotics parts. Rotatrons, hinges, sliding rails, pistons, whatever you want. Otherwise, you may use any mod you want for parts, even if you may not be allowed to use the engines those mods have.

You may also just post particularly cool stuff you have done with infernal robotics too, if you like.

Mention whether you use FAR or not, particularly for the siege division and theoretical division.

So basically, you cannot use the vast majority of propulsion, except to get where you want to test the thing (in the event you are going for a boat, for instance). In this case, you must prove you didn't use it during the trial run, or must simple detach it when you get there. Use of hyperedit, or gravity hack, or infinite fuel to GET to another location is fine too, but all such things must be disabled for the run. Any location used must be on a planet's surface, whether solid or liquid (its alright if your infernal contraption is somehow capable of leaving the surface afterwards).

So as far as the trial run goes, its basically:

No rockets. Liquid, nukes, plasma, impulse drives, whatever.

No jets.

No translational RCS.

No ions.

No propellers. (I say this because all sorts of mods are allowed)

No POWERED wheels. Unpowered wheels are fine, and you MAY use a powered wheel if you can prove that it was locked in brake mode the whole time (wheels sometimes seem to have better traction then non-landing-gear parts).

No simply using SAS to roll around for easy velocity. Feel free to abuse it to stay upright though, or to change your heading.

No warp drives or other stuff. Do I really need to say that? Its generally not advisable to use something like that on the ground.

No infiniglide, and no Kraken Drive. Also, no kerbal-on-ladder magic.

No decoupler force abuse (you may use decouplers so long as its not for their "thrust" though).

You MAY use infernal robotics parts in an attempt to replicate a banned propulsion method, with the exception of infiniglide or kraken drives. For instance, you could make some attempt to make a helicopter with it. Or you can quite literally reinvent the wheel. You are NOT limited to just building walkers. Hell, if you can get a flappy winged ornithopter working, that would be incredible.

You MAY use balloons for things like stability assistance, but only if you are not trying for a flight-capable craft. No balloons for

In other words, infernal robotics is what powers you. Infernal robotics compels you.

If you have some ideas for bonuses I can add, feel free to speak up.

That done, lets get to business.

Land Division:

This division is about vehicles that move on the land. Score is based on how fast you can go, then multiplied by bonuses you earn. There may be some debate here for unstable walkers or similar things, admittedly. If its a problem, then take a measure of how quickly you can move the distance of one of the dashed line segments on the spaceplane runway.

Bonuses:

Look mah, no hands: +25% score for each leg you have less then 6. So a two-legged robot would get 100% boost. MUST use legs for both support and movement to qualify, and any rigid object (i.e. the foot) that comes into contact with the ground counts as a leg. Note that a FOOT may have multiple contact points. A foot by definition here is entirely rigid though (that is, the entire "foot" has no infernal robotics parts in it").

Reinventing the wheel: +25% score for each wheel less then 3. Must be using only some form of wheel or another as your transportation. This includes wheels made out of structural parts, which rotate around a robotic part.

Bladerunner: +25% if you use rollerblades for your walker. yes, that is possible. See the second post. Put simply, this means your feet have free-spinning wheels on them.

Jumper: +25% if your mecha uses its legs to jump forward like a frog or something.

Better Turning: +50% if your contraption can easily and safely change its direction, and the mechanism isn't based on large quantities of SAS.

Scoreboard:

1. m1sz: (Mr. Roboto) 5ish (2.5ish, 2 legs)

2. Darren9: (caterpillar) 2.25 (1.5, better turning)

Sea division:

This is about making boats, naturally. Oars, paddlewheels, use your imagination! You are allowed to use mods that have boat parts for better floating (such as firespitter's seaplane bits). Score is your velocity.

Amphibious: +50% if you are capable of reaching the sea from the launchpad/runway without relying on a water launch system, cheats, or a challenge-banned form of propulsion (and you never throw the responsible parts away).

Scoreboard:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Siege Division:

This division is about building a stationary siege weapon that uses good old physics to flings something into the air. The projectile must survive for distance verification sake (your score in this division), so you may want to pack a small control unit and parachute on the thing if you have a fragile one. Projectile may NOT use wings or other sources of lift. You may use decouplers, but only if the projectile's mass or orientation is such that decoupler force alone provides negligable boost (i.e. make it big, have the decoupler face sideways from the path of fire, or decouple it prior to activating the physics engine).

Trebuception: +100% if you do the truly kerbal thing, and use your siege weapon to fling... a smaller siege weapon. Which then flings its own projectile mid-flight. The secondary siege weapon does not need to survive, just the final projectil.

Score is based simply on distance for the time being.

Scoreboard:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Flying/theoretical division:

This is for the possibility of a flying craft, if one is possible. And it may well be somewhere, even if that somewhere isn't Kerbin. Score is your horizontal speed. If you use a physics launcher to get airborne, you must wait 1 minute, then prove you are capable of climbing before recording. Due to the nature of moving wings around in stock, it may actually be quite difficult to eliminate infiniglide potential from an aircraft, so I put some bonuses that relate to having FAR installed. If you are using stock aerodynamics and your craft does enter an infiniglide death spiral at some point, provide your proof from before this happens.

You may remove parts before starting the flight, such as to jettison a command capsule you used purely to supply the kerbal for a command chair. Just be at a complete stop with your "final" aircraft before taking off.

Launchless: +25% if your craft does not get thrown out of a launcher (i.e. just putting wings on the projectile from a Siege Division submission).

Functional (non-helicopters): You are able to control the plane. Well enough at least to land it back at KSP again safely (or you provide evidence you could). +25%

Washboard: Don't use any wing parts that steer for you easily (i.e. canards, parts with aelerons, or big clip-on maneuvering flaps). You MAY "make" flaps with robotics parts. You must show you can still control the craft however. +25%.

No Donuts: Don't use any reaction wheels, or any cockpit that adds more then a couple points worth of SAS torque. You must show you can control the craft still, however. +25%

Fullmetal: Achieve both Washboard and No Donuts. You are using only infernal robotics parts to alter your direction. +50% on top of them.

Ferram Aerospace Robotics: Your craft functions in FAR. +50%

Flappy Planes: Achieve an Ornithopter in FAR. +50%

Scoreboard:

Planes:

1. Genius Evil: (flapper) 132, (88, launchless, no donuts, +50%)

2. Parallax: (flapper) 101 (67, launchless, no donuts)

Helicopters:

1. Darren9: (helicopter) 22.5 (15, launchless, washboard)

Oh, and if anyone is able to build a functional pinball machine with flippers and everything (presumably kerbals are the balls), then they are awesome enough that they don't NEED a score to rate them.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Ryu Gemini

[Ryu Gemini]

As is common courtesy for challenge makers, I have a couple videos here to demonstrate the concept. They are from series I recently started doing. With any luck, I'll eventually become good at making these videos decently funny in addition to just having neat things.

First: A bipedal walker. Followed by a rollerskating robot. Yes, you read that right.

Next: A basic attempt at using infernal robotics on the water, and proving that the KSP physics engine does indeed manage to act logical! To a degree that can be used for a challenge at least!

Edited February 14, 2014 by Ryu Gemini

[m1sz]

Your crations are AWESOME hahahaha, the rollerblader robot is brilliant!

I'm gonna participate, it's been a long time since i wanted to try some walker prototype, or maybe more... let's see

[Ryu Gemini]

Indeed, use of excessive reaction wheels is generally a good idea if you are going for something with less then 6 legs. And mechjeb is quite good too (the key is to enable it, but to force default SAS in that other window I have open during the rollerblade robot). It will then hold your heading, while doing so with the full power of the SAS you have onboard.

Additionally, while it may be more "correct" to do something like I tried in my first attempt at a walker (see below), using opposing rotatrons to cause the feet to basically move in a wheel does seem a bit easier to deal with.

My first attempt, btw.

Rather laughable.

On a side note, I wonder if its possible to make a robot on a surfboard work...

Edit: Oh, right. I had realized a bit earlier that basically putting two of those move-feet-in-a-circle setups in a row, opposing each other, would create a piston that automatically extends and contracts repeatedly without having to push a different button or take your finger off the first button. Maybe I should try that out, and make a classic-style train with it just for the heck of it.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Ryu Gemini

[m1sz]

Building something this complex, will need many time!, ill come back when i have something to show

[Genius Evil]

Alright, I've got a working ornithopter. It's surprisingly simple -- just a pair of rotatrons, and the natural springiness of the parts does the rest.

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Craft: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vl6qlan9msnyqk/Ornithopter.craft

Instructions for flight:

Put the brakes on before transferring the kerbal to the command seat. The ornithopter tends to roll when the kerbal moves around. Once the pod has been staged, activate SAS. Now, alternately press P and O to start moving forward. Don't touch the other controls. The ornithopter should start to lift of the runway on the downstroke at around 15m/s, and should take off at around 25m/s. To pitch up and down, vary the length of your O and P presses. It's hard to explain here, but it's pretty intuitive. To go faster, alternate between key presses faster.

[m1sz]

I'm getting close to a functional bipedal walker. And with thin legs!

[Ryu Gemini]

Updated the last section a bit, in light of some facts revealed by Evil Genius. Namely, reminding me of the fact that moving wings are apt to acquire access to potential infiniglide stuff, and stock aerodynamic flappers probably can get a good deal out of this. So I finalized some things for that section now that I know its actually quite viable.

[TimMartland]

This is brilliant. Do you think this is what NASA really does while they take too long to build the SLS? They probably build motor-powered flailing boatbots.

[Ryu Gemini]

This is brilliant. Do you think this is what NASA really does while they take too long to build the SLS? They probably build motor-powered flailing boatbots.

Well, they have their astronaut candidates train by building motor-powered flailing cylinder-bots.

...So yeah, close enough!

[m1sz]

I made a ****ing bipedal plane transformer wich can walk, fly, and land everywhere, vtol or horizontaly. Im so proud that I'm gonna make a video of how i ended with that design in the type 7!, I'll upload it here to compete when I have the video finished, I want to do a good one

Here's a spoiler of the type 7 !

you are gonna love it

[Rune]

"Pirulo de emergencia". I'm loving seeing compatriots here!

Rune. Así me gusta, intantando salvar a los pobres hombrecitos verdes!

[m1sz]

hahaha yes!, I use spanish for my personal bipedal robot transformer of doom machine

[Darren9]

I have a caterpillar that is stable and controllable and got a helicopter into the air. A walker that can be steered and move at a reasonable speed is proving difficult though.

[Pecan]

I love these things everyone :-) I was going to make an amphibious punt but after installing IR I realised I had no idea how to use it and couldn't find a decent explanation of what each part does. Any recommendations?

[m1sz]

I have a caterpillar that is stable and controllable and got a helicopter into the air. A walker that can be steered and move at a reasonable speed is proving difficult though.

http://youtu.be/QuzT9AJA1XA

Such a good work there Darren9!!!!!!

Keep your eyes open, I'm coming with a bipedal flying transformer robot soon

[m1sz]

Why wait

Here's the deal

[Darren9]

He's brilliant, I've spent a fair amount of time laughing at my hopeless creations flailing about and falling over and now a couple of yours also I need to upgrade my IR, I didn't realize there's new control options, I just have on/off at the moment.

[Parallax]

video 1 - test flight

video 2 - landing on laythe

video 3 - hybrid ssto/ornithopter

Edited February 26, 2014 by Parallax

[Weegee]

Why wait

Here's the deal

I... Err... Uhh...

There are no words. Though describes my reaction fairly well.

[m1sz]

thanks Weegee!!

Parallax, wonderful idea!

[Deathsoul097]

Why wait

Here's the deal

Needs a gatling gun.

That's awesome though, I am thinking about making something like this.

[Darren9]

I upgraded my helicopter to be easily controllable with no reaction wheels and no control surfaces at all. The pairs of small fans control pitch and roll and every rotor has a counter-rotating part to cancel out any yaw effect. Just lean the way you want to go.

[lunait]

I upgraded my helicopter to be easily controllable with no reaction wheels and no control surfaces at all. The pairs of small fans control pitch and roll and every rotor has a counter-rotating part to cancel out any yaw effect. Just lean the way you want to go.

http://youtu.be/WtUlJW9sDoA

How do you get the rotatrons to spin that fast? You don't seem to be using physics warp, and mine only spin very slowly.

[Darren9]

How do you get the rotatrons to spin that fast? You don't seem to be using physics warp, and mine only spin very slowly.

In the "Servo Control" pop-up, the box on the right is a speed multiplier, for me the joints self destruct at around 35-40. Also I'm using the Dec 17 pre-toolbar version and for some reason it moves the joints a bit faster.