9th March 2003

When I first had the idea of creating Electra, I was thinking of a flipper robot loosely based on Firestorm's design.

What I particularly like about Firestorm is that it can't rest on it's side and that it doesn't lose drive when its front is tilted up. I wanted the robot to self right as well. Apart from that I didn't know much about building robots, so I started making cardboard models. The "wings" are to make it fall back on its wheels if tipped over, and the wheels are right at the back so it keeps going when tipped up.

Here are some pictures of my first, from 13th March 2003.

The major design flaw here was the hinge. It was quite thin, and vulnerable to attack from a horizontal spinner which would have basically ripped it right off.