Mega Hurtz!

Not your average marker.

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With the SparkFun Autonomous Vehicle competition coming up next month (can't believe it's March already) this project from Louisville, Colorado-based Chris Rogers seems appropriate - meet Mega Hurtz, the paintball robot.

Seeing this thing in action brings me back to my paintball days - I can just picture the high school version of myself cowering behind an obstacle with my $20 WalMart brand marker getting absolutely shelled by some guy with a high-end paintball gun. Oh, memories. The Mega Hurtz is essentially a 4-wheel drive RC car outfitted with steel-plated armor, custom made optics, and a remote controlled paintball gun. The whole thing weighs 280 pounds and is powerful enough to drag a human. This would make one heck of a platform for the AVC!

Speaking of the AVC, it's not too late to sign up your team and start designing your robot. The AVC is on April 23rd, which gives you just a bit less than two months to complete your design. If you don't want to enter a robot, but would like to attend, please register via our EventBrite page - it's free and will help us plan this thing! Lastly, we have set up group rates for AVC attendees at two Boulder-area hotels. One is the Courtyard Marriott in Longmont - follow this link to make your reservation (a King-sized bed for $80/night). The other hotel is the Best Western Boulder Inn located in South-ish Boulder. The rate is $84 for a room with a king bed. To reserve a room at the Best Western, call 1-800-233-8469 and use the reference code "SparkFun."

Make sure to make any reservations 30 days prior to the event to lock-in the discounted rate! Hope to see you all there!


Comments 30 comments

  • rmackay9 / about 13 years ago / 3

    Sorry, don't know why people think putting guns on things is cool. It's kinda simple and childish.

    • CaseyGross / about 13 years ago / 3

      So would you consider putting a 50 cal on a military humvee childish? last time i checked it saves lives.

      • Sylvain2 / about 13 years ago / 1

        Casey, you should check again. 50 cal guns are there to kill people, not save them (or maybe you thought "saving" them in the biblical sense).
        The militaristic fairy-tales about how destructive weapons "save lives" should be treated as such.

        • Luc B / about 13 years ago / 1

          Guns don't kill people, na un, I kill people, with guns.

          • Rola / about 13 years ago / 1

            "...saves lives." LOL!!
            I'm totally agree with rmackay9 & Sylvain. And Luc touches a great point: people kill people.

    • cpt.credible / about 13 years ago / 1

      Great, now the rich can kill and mutilate the poor and unfortunate from the comfort of their homes

  • cjbruns / about 13 years ago / 2

    WOW! That's a killer robot.

  • Mastermind / about 13 years ago / 1

    If you were to add treads to it how would you make it climb things such as stairs without the front hitting the stairs before the treads? High ground clearance? I am building something similar and I was wondering what you would do

  • I'll trade you my auto-targeting software for one of those chassis...
    https://sites.google.com/site/projectsentrygun/

  • Member #206640 / about 13 years ago / 1

    These are amazing agents for personal use. One cannot implement these robots to real life applications because the US Military has already issued and conducted robots with the same structure in battle (apologies Chris) those robots are: MAARS(Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System)and SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System).

  • EZ$ / about 13 years ago / 1

    Makes me wonder. I want to mount some accelerometers and a gyro on toy rifle. And see if it could control wireless servo mounted paintball gun. Even a wireless cam with a little screen for a gun site. Then I can swing it and use it like a real gun but mount it remote locations.
    It would be pretty bad on a low price steady base like the ones that got posted a few weeks ago on the new products highlights. With a airsoft gun.
    Has anyone hacked at the guns that Xbox 360 or playstation use? Whats in them? Cool post. gave me some ideas.

  • jakkjakk / about 13 years ago / 1

    You guys should carry plans or carry it. I mean its perfect. There's endless possibilities for it.

  • taktoa / about 13 years ago / 1

    Put a (real) machine gun on top and rename it the "Killo-Hurts" :P

  • BigMike / about 13 years ago / 1

    Hey I live in Louisville! We could use this on the Fire Department

  • Sacman / about 13 years ago / 1

    While this is a very cool remote controlled truck, it is still a remote controlled truck. It has always bothered me that people insist on referring to these things as robots. I know it is unreasonable to let this get to me but the concept of the show Robot Wars was kinda silly when it was simply guys driving around remote controlled trucks.
    By any true definition of Robot, this fails. If I re-purpose my son's $10 Remote Controlled Halo Warthog to bring me skittles if I put them in the back and drive it from the kitchen to the living room, does this then make it a robot? NOPE!
    Now if that thing would track targets and fire autonomously then I am all for calling it a robot!

    • Fogbert / about 10 years ago * / 1

      Exactly! Here's a snippet from my blog back in March of 2013:

      I realized today that I can not find a suitable definition for the word "ROBOT".

      Wikipedia states: "...Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or remotely controlled..." which I disagree with. For a mechanism to be a robot, it must be either autonomous or, at least, semi-autonomous with value-added decision making abilities. Otherwise the mechanism is just a machine or an RC vehicle, etc.

      merriam-webster.com definition of ROBOT includes: "...a machine that looks like a human being and performs various complex acts (as walking or talking) of a human being...". I disagree because a robot does not have to physically resemble a human being at all nor does it have to perform human-like actions other than some sort of actions based on independent observations and/or decisions.

    • Do you mean adding something like this to it?
      http://www.paintballsentry.com/
      I agree about using the term robot too easily. Robot implies autonomy.

  • williams / about 13 years ago / 1

    Good work if you can get it. Give me money so I can play with robots and RC trucks. :-) Why didn't I think of that? In any event, cool stuff.

  • Pinkerton / about 13 years ago / 1

    ENEMY RCXD INCOMING!

  • Wayne / about 13 years ago / 1

    Can anyone identify the base RC chassis he used to build this?

    • Inspectorbot / about 13 years ago / 1

      The Mega Hurtz is based on a new platform called the Mega Bot. Currently only available as RC/Teleoperated but a perfect platform for the AVC.
      See it and the other platforms at: http://www.inspectorbots.com/_Home.html

    • DitchesHurt / about 13 years ago * / 1

      The "ROMP" is just a Traxxas E-maxx with a fancy aluminum plate drilled to mount to the factory body posts.
      I'm surprised he's been able to suspend eight pounds on the plastic posts like that. For an extra $50 he could have upgraded to aluminum body posts. This could be done for $600 easy.
      http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXZJE4**&P=ML
      http://traxxas.com/products/models/electric/3903emaxx-specs

    • Ben121 / about 13 years ago / 1

      Parallax QuadRover?
      http://www.parallax.com/Store/Robots/AllRobots/tabid/128/ProductID/502/List/1/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName

  • dwc309 / about 13 years ago / 1

    You might want to indicate whether or not they'll need transportation to/from the airport to each hotel, whether or not the hotel will provide transportation to/from the "F1 track & stadium" , & let them know that both those hotels are several miles from your place, i.e. not within walking distance.

    • All we've done is reserve the group rates - as far as transportation goes, that's up to the individuals who are traveling here. Unfortunately there is not a hotel within walking distance of our office. The Boulder Best Western is within walking distance of the Dark Horse, which is the site of the AVC After Party. The other hotel in Longmont is within walking distance of several restaurants as well.

  • David Gitz / about 13 years ago / 1

    Reminds me of my FIRST Robotics Team, "The Megahurts"
    http://www.megahurts2219.com/

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