Death Note
ACE 2025
"Death Note" is a 1lb plastic antweight combat robot designed with an emphasis on rapid iteration and a unique aesthetic. At its core, it's a two-wheeled single vertical spinner favoring power over speed. The entire project was a challenge in balancing creative form with competitive function, translating an artistic vision into a functional machine. The design is inspired by a grand piano, featuring a uniquely curved chassis, piano-key style wedges, and forks shaped like musical quarter notes.
The robot is powered by a reliable set of components chosen for their performance in the 1lb weight class. The drivetrain uses two N20 brushed gearmotors, while the weapon is driven by a Sunnysky X2212-16 brushless motor. A Malenki Nano handles receiver and brushed ESC duties, paired with a separate 30A brushless ESC for the weapon, all powered by a 2S 350mAh Turnigy LiPo battery.
V1: Design Challenges
The primary challenge emerged from the core design concept itself: fitting rectangular electronic components into an organically shaped, piano-inspired chassis. The initial version (V1) revealed that the space for wiring and components was underestimated, leading to significant packaging issues. Furthermore, the large, stylish wedges, while visually appealing, proved cumbersome in the arena, hindering mobility and effective engagement with opponents as seen in the above video.
Addressing the challenges from V1 was key to the robot's evolution. To solve the electronics packaging problem, the chassis walls were thinned in the CAD model, and the strength was compensated for by increasing the wall count in the slicer settings, reclaiming precious internal volume. The weapon upright assembly was also simplified to create more space.
To improve combat effectiveness, the large wedges were replaced with much smaller, more aggressive forks. As seen in the video, this change dramatically improved the robot's ability to get under opponents and deliver impactful hits with the vertical spinner. While the unconventional chassis shape created some balance issues for the drivetrain, the choice of large LEGO wheels helped mitigate this by providing excellent traction and stability, justifying their use in the final design. The result is a robot that successfully merges artistic design with a lean into iterative engineering.
Death Note has participated in some friendly matches and skirmishes and will hopefully debut in the 2026 Anteater Combat Engineering Annual Antweight assault.