Mr Cheeks was a robot designed in collaboration with Kyle Mitchell (VEX intern and WPI student) for Taproom Tapout #6. It was a plastic antweight, as Kyle had already competed with a plastic ant before. It’s name came about when I called Kyle up one night and asked if we should give the robot buttcheeks, to which he responded: “Of course”. 

Mr Cheeks runs a 2306 directly driving the weapon, with a 6707 bearing providing additional support. It runs 4 endbots N20s driving 21mm lego tires with the hubs dual supported with a M3 screw and a bearing. It is controlled by an endbots DESC with a HAKRC 35A ESC. The biggest problem that I saw with most overhead/shell/ring spinners was the lack of traction to counteract the weapon spinning up. Mr Cheeks ran 4 magnets, each providing around .75lbs of downforce, and as wide of a wheelbase as I could fit to allow it to spinup incredibly fast without any loss of control. One problem that I had running such a powerful weapon while restricting the airflow to the motor was with the motor heating up. I designed the motor mount and weapon hub to be in PETG for the thermal resistance, but still overheated the motor in almost every match. I was forced to remove the support bearing to try to lower resistance to the motor, and ended up replacing the weapon motor mount between almost every match. 

Mr Cheeks was very successful, not only going undefeated at it’s only event, but even winning a grudge match. The magnets gave cheeks the advantage in pushing power, as it was able to push around any opponent it faced, and the double supported wheels protected the drive motors from being damaged on big hits. Mr Cheeks proved itself to be the most powerful plastic ant at the event, and had a rule banning magnets in its class made shortly after.