Figure 1: A shot of the completed Monster Masher.
A ServoCity employee has created an incredibly cool and original robot build for the sole purpose of crushing Monster energy drink cans. The chassis of the robot is built from Actobotics X-Rail components. The X-Rail also plays an important part in how the robot is configured for can crushing. The four large wheels of the robot are driven by 313 RPM planetary gearmotors which are in turn controller by a RoboClaw 2x45A motor controller. The robot is controlled with a Optic 5 radio control transmitter and the matching Minima receiver sends RC pulses to the RoboClaw for steering.
To accomplish the task of crushing cans a pair of large rubber washers in the center of the robot are spun by a brushless motor mated to a hefty gearbox. The gearbox lowers the native 100,000 RPM of the brushless motor down to around 13,000 RPM. Not surprisingly this robot build requires a ton of power. A pair of 3S 5,000 mAh battries in parallel power the build. The batteries also supply power to a pair of LED strips in the transparent gearbox housing.
We thank ServoCity for posting the details of their build for the world to see and for choosing to use a RoboClaw motor controller. More details of the build can be found on Instructables and in the videos below.