I recently read an article on the Popular Mechanics website about Britain’s Grand Challenge, a contest between a number of tech companies hoping to prove to the Ministry of Defence that their robots could have a part to play on the modern battlefield. What does this have to with gas powered RC trucks and cars you may ask but stick with me and all will become clear (I hope!).
Mindsheet Testudo
Amongst the competing companies was Mindsheet from Hampshire, UK. The Mindsheet team’s entry was based around the popular electric RC truck from Traxxas, the E-Maxx. For those new to the hobby, the E-Maxx is the electric version of the widely popular Traxxas T-Maxx 2.5 Nitro RC Truck. That got me thinking, if electric RC trucks can be used by the military, why not nitro RC trucks too? Let’s have a quick look at the relative benefits of electric and nitro RC trucks in the theatre of war:
| Electric |
| + low noise (stealth!?!?) |
| + reliability / low maintenance (just keep an eye on those battery levels) |
| - heavy battery packs (I wouldn’t want to carry all the spares) |
| Gas / Nitro |
| + performance (get in and get out at speed) |
| - high maintenance (you probably don’t want to be tweaking your engine tuning whilst being shot at) |
| - noise (the enemy will certainly hear you coming but sadly the roar of a nitro engine is unlikely to strike fear into them) |
From this ‘in-depth’ analysis we can see that the benefits of electric power probably outweigh those of gas power for most military uses but if there were a requirement for a high speed off-road vehicle then a gas powered RC truck would more than likely be the answer. That requirement probably doesn’t exist where autonomous robots are being used, I suspect the expensive surveillance and control systems on-board wouldn’t appreciate a crash at 50+ mph. You win this time electric rc truck!
For a full run-down of the Grand challenge and the competing robots check out the Popular Mechanics article.
Related Items
- Mindsheet Grand Challenge Robot Videos (based on Traxxas E-Maxx)… – Mindsheet, the company behind the Testudo system have now put up a couple of videos showing the robots in action, check them out below…
- Mini-helicopters, flying saucers and robot buggies fight it out … – Burgess, of the Mindsheet team, says they hope to enter several robotic cars in the final that automatically drive to vantage points before beaming video of the village back to base. In his view many of the finalists’ robots are too …
It’s great to read your post about our Grand Challenge vehicle. I will certainly bear in mind your points about the Gas RC trucks. Maybe we should use it for the Grand Challenge 2!
Thanks for dropping by Raglan. Whilst a large part of my post was written with tongue firmly in cheek, it is great to see electric and gas powered RC trucks being seen as more than just expensive toys and put to good use. I will be monitoring your team’s future Grand Challenge projects with interest!