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Odyssey started with 25mm diameter wheels with elastic bands as grip but these were replaced with LEGO tracks with bits of elastic bands for grip. Dozer easily used to be able to push Odyssey around but with the new grip Odyssey is very stable apart from the tracks are very easily broken or the wheels pop off. The lifting arm being driven by a normal servo is extremely powerful and can lift 300g! (lifting the back off the ground). It will be replaced with a smaller one to reduce the weight. The Futaba servo can be seen at the back just below the battery pack made of 130mAh 6g NiCad's which lasted over 10 minutes. A mixer can be seen just behind the lifting arm servo.
Odyssey has now had a major overhaul to firstly reduce the length and the weight. The arm now pivots from the middle of the robot, the tracks are spaced wider apart to increase stability and the center of gravity is lower. The Futaba receiver has now been replaced with a CETO one, weighing in at 8g (without reduction) and nicely sits next to the batteries.
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It happily plods around my desk at the moment and occasionally falls off which it doesn't seem to mind, unlike my brothers hamster. Sorry about the quality of the pictures but you can see the amount of lift Odyssey has, but I might reduce this as it is a bit excessive. If the weight is a problem I will also have to replace the big servo with one of the small ones.
After a bit of time off and after finally getting some decent scales (well borrowing some) I have finally finished Odyssey. The pics below show the final bot:
It is essentially the same as V2 but the weight was aroung 164g, 14g too much. I had to replace the front 45g servo with a 18g one which saved quite a bit of weight, although the lifter is slightly less powerfull. Also now the weight is less I can add a roll bar at the back so if it is lifted up it won't go over without a good fight.
At WS4 (I think) Odyssey proved it wasn't up for anything as it lost every match it entered, this was followed by Nano wars 1 when CombatAnt ripped through the new metal lifter and tracks. I decided tracks are now a bad idea and the metal lifter is a bad idea and that it had no self righter. hmmmm.
The platicard lifter has now been replaced by a metal lifter, I said above I wouldn't use metal but I didn't have a choice as I didn't get round to the fibreglass, check out nano wars 2 where the front scoop got ripped to bits.
As for the back bit its a tail that expands when the lifter is lifted and can also be used as a weapon if required. It stops Odyssey being flipped backwards and the wheels (deordorant lids with elastic bands) make it very hard to be tipped sideways.