Using Laser Scanning and Fusion 360 to Design a Battle Bot

The Mk. II. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

Oakland, California’s Gui Cavalcanti and Matt Oehrlein are a bit nuts about robots. Over the last two years, the duo, along with a number of collaborators like Howe and Howe Technologies and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC),has been developing monstrous mechs under the name MegaBots.

Since the debut of their second mech, named Mk. II, Oehrlein and Cavalcanti have been in a bit of a feud with Kogoro Kurata, owner of the 9,000 lb KURATAS mech built by Suidobashi Heavy Industries.

In the summer of 2015, Oehrlein challenged Kurata to a duel: “We have a giant robot. You have a giant robot. You know what needs to happen.”

Kurata accepted.

However, to make the stakes more interesting, Kurata suggested that the Mk. II lose its guns and come to the fight with a pair of fists. “Just building something huge and sticking guns on it … it's super American. If we're going to win this, I want to punch them to scrap and knock them down to do it," said Kurata.

Since that time, MegaBots has been hard at work developing its next-generation mech, the Mk. III, and it has been using some of the most cutting-edge production techniques to do so.

Knowing that it was under a bit of a time squeeze to build the Mk. II in time for the 2015 Maker Faire Bay Area, MegaBots realized that it wouldn’t be able to develop its own drivetrain from scratch. Instead, the company salvaged the tracks from a used skid steer, placed them in the proper position where they would fit on the Mk. II, and laser scanned the two tracks. What’s most incredible about this process is that the MegaBots team knew that it could grab data directly from reality with Autodesk ReCap 360 software and use it as the basis for a model.

MegaBots’ laser scanned tracks. (Image courtesy of MegaBots.)

Once the laser scan was created, the MegaBots team imported its point cloud into Autodesk Fusion 360 and began taking measurements of the tracks. Within a short window, MegaBots was able to take those measurements and begin developing the Mk. II’s components. What’s more, MegaBots was able to use Fusion 360 to reach out to its collaborators and invite them to design a new weapon for the robot.

“[Fusion 360’s]ability to edit a model and get feedback on design choices quickly from the team makes it an ideal tool for collaborative design efforts like the robot’s appearance,” said Oehrlein.

As the design of the Mk. III continues to evolve, MegaBots has said that it is committed to using laser scanning technology and software like Autodesk Fusion 360 to improve its production process.

The Mk. III will slowly come to life and at an estimated 16,000lb, the colossal bot will be hard to beat. But whoever wins, whether it’s the Mk. III or KURATAS, I know that the real winners will be all of the people who’ve been dreaming of the day when two monster robots would duke it out for our entertainment.