Broxton - project: robotic combat vehicle

If you’re a start-up company, with a rough sketch of how you want your product to look, a first cut bill of materials, and a long list of things you want your product to achieve – price point, reliability, robustness and so on – you’ll have quite a lot in common with another Broxton customer even if your products look very different. For the last three years Broxton has been helping to design and build Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCVs) that today can be found in theme parks across the world.

The initial brief was quite simple: a modular RCV that would be relatively easy to assemble and maintain, and which would be cost-effective to manufacture. The design needed to be straightforward so that it could evolve as issues were resolved. Whilst the marketplace meant that resilience was obviously a key factor, and that sensitive electronics should be housed as far away as possible from areas of impact, other subtler factors such as balance were also vital.

Broxton’s first task was to define the bill of materials and schematics. Functionality was addressed at concept stage, as were the need for a rugged construction and the ability for modular repair. The next stage was to design the metalwork electronically. Electronics and mechanical items such as the drive and gearbox were 3D modelled, which enabled spatial and layout issues to be addressed at development stage. Electronics were also designed in at an early stage.

The design was a two-way process, with Broxton minimizing the part count and ensuring that the components could be manufactured cost-effectively, and with the customer playing an active part in the design process.

“Broxton devoted a good deal of their time to investigation and trials before we committed to the first pre-production run – all of this was part of the service on offer. The pre-production time spent trialling 3D models paid off as when we produced the first production parts, most of the main issues had been ironed out.”

The manufactured prototype enabled performance to be reviewed against the brief, with functionality tests taking place and changes as a result of the subsequent design review being built back into the electronic 3D model. Another pre-production build gave the customer workable units for test and marketing.

Whilst the product was a fairly complex assembly, including sheet metal parts, machined parts, bought out parts, electronics and plastics, there was tremendous pressure to minimize both the cost of development and time scales. The customer found that Broxton’s ‘right first time’ approach, effective systems, and experience paid dividends:

“We held numerous design reviews, often over weekends as timescales were tight, and eventually we produced the first production models on time. Many enhancements have taken place since then, which Broxton has been able to accommodate at short notice with minimal impact on delivery times.

Broxton has also worked with the same customer to rework a RCV for use on TV – a job that required an air-driven flipper to be replaced with a hydraulic crusher and which was complicated because of the TV show’s rules limiting the weight of the robot and an extremely tight deadline.

“Flexibility is what differentiates an average supplier from a good one, but combine this with a commitment to provide quality product on time and you have an excellent one.”