Memoirs of a veteran roboteer

[maddox10]

The amount of proposals for Tesla coils or RPG's on the robots in the years i'm doing this is rather astonishing and annoying.

[almost_there]

Do any robots even have tethered projectiles?

Those are allowed, right? (Just useless)

[maddox10]

There were a few very very early attempts to that. But if you think it trough.

For harpooning a whale, you have or a number boats that have more floation capacity than the whale, of a boats a few dozen times heavier than the whale.

The machines we build don't have a soft skin.

[R9000]

Guys, if you think people on about RPGs and tesla coils is annoing, try being on a Mechatronic Engineering course. I don't know if any of you guys know this feeling, but whenever people ask you what course you're doing, it pretty much goes like this:

Me: Oh I'm doing Mechatronic engineering.
Them: Mega-what, sorry?
Me: Mechatroni- basically robotics.
Them: Ohhh I seeee. (They don't see) So it's 'Megatronics' right? What do you do there?
Me: Oh, we do some systems engineering, maths, electronics and mechanics. Sometimes we build or program robots.
Them: Ah right, like terminator/robocop/wall-e/transformers then. *sometimes they make stiff robot arm movements* Y'know they're everywhere these days, why just the other day i went into a supermarketandtherewasamachine.....(blahblahblah). .. and it's all SO CLEVER!
Me: Yes, there are a lot of computerized systems around these days, but they've also been around in lots of places you don't see them for years now. Anyway, I must be going.
Them: Alright then, good luck with your course, don't take over the world with robots/build terminator/skynet!
Me: *Forced laughter for the non-joke I've heard for the 50th time.*

First world problems I know, but holy crap does it get annoying.

[shakesc]

Them: What do you do?
Me: I'm an engineer
Them: could you fix my <insert domestic appliance / anything slightly mechanical >
Me: dies a little inside...

Yes , I do wear a boilersuit and proud to do so but only when building robots!

[overkill]

Let's face it, there are a hell of a lot of uneducated idiots out that that deserve to be ruled by robot overlords. The ones we secretly control .

[team death]

Series 6 Auditions.....
Team death was on a high from series 5-immortalis had 3 outings,the most we had ever
done,but with that one wheel drive,same wheel steer it was unreliable and a dog to drive so
it was time for a new robot.
My teamate had sourced some motors on dodgem cars located in skegness,so we took a trip over
and negotiated 6 dodgem cars for £100-sounds a bargain but if you consider the cars fell
apart when you picked them up and only the motors when useable, it was a fair price.

So the new robot-Devil rider was 2 wheel drive with an angular body shape built
around a briggs and stratton IC engine, the weapon was a 2 inch thick steel bar about
12 inch long with a cutter in the middle all driven by the engine and braked by a solenoid
rubber plunger against a flywheel.

Four robots went into the arena and we shared a control cubicle with ming 3 team.
Stupidly we didn't make a pact to take out the other two robots before going one on one
but I'm sure the other teams did do this.
I drove straight at ming 3 and took out his removable link within seconds and he
was immoblised our robot had very low ground clearance and got stuck on the uneven
floor within 30 seconds, the other 2 robots clashed and became locked together,they
waited untill Devil rider was counted out and then freed themselves on our spinning bar.
This had the effect of freeing our robot and we had 2 more minutes of battling on.
Ming 3 and the other two robots were invited to the show (series 6)but we were not, which I
thought was unfair-Still we went on to take part in the techno games sumo.

[brandon_nichols]

Where was the concrete slicing saw on Immortalis perchance? I couldn't really figure out where it was.

[team death]

Hi Brandon
Yes indeed Immortalis had a concrete slicing saw -two in fact, located at the back of the machine in
the drainage pipes-they were based upon hedge trimmer attachments and were sharpend to a saw
tooth effect,they were great on concrete blocks and would cut through-pity the other robots were
made out of every other material but concrete,not that we got a chance to use them in the battle we had.

[team death]

Series 7 auditions
Yet another new robot was built for series 7,driven by 2 cim wheelchair motors(supplied by roger plant)
it was a full body flipper with the 3 sided shovel at the front and a pneumatic claw above, it all run off low pressure
Co2.
We made the journey down to nottingham and did the usual tech checks and were ok to play.
Four robots entered the arena and I recall TAN (tough as nails) was one of them, we quickly got stuck on the
arena floor due to lack of traction and found our Co2 had frozen in the tank pipe so we had no flipper,the
only thing working was the claw so we tried pecking the floor like a bird to free ourselves-without success.
TAN came along and managed to nudge us and we were off again,after a wizz round -it seemed to be all over
-I think we were the last robot moving.
We removed our robots from the arena and the producer said "that was boring guys"-after pleading
that our robot should have been so much better ie lack of traction and flipper not working,he seemed
happy to give us another chance on the show itself(series 7)

[team death]

Series 7 of robot wars
Our Robot- Metalis was ready, teething problems regarding the traction were sorted,we were advised
at the auditions that shortening the pipe in the Co2 tank would prevent any freeze problems
but I decided it was probably a one off fault and shoulden't happen again.
This new venue at nottingham didn't seem to have the atmosphere previous venues had
it was gloomy in fact, channel 5 were to screen series 7 and we got the feeling or
was it the correspondents with mentorn that hinted at this been the end of the road
for Robot Wars.
Our first round group included scrapasaur and ceros and by pure chance ming dienasty.
We were placed in the same control booth as ming d and decided to work together initially
as we thought the other teams would do the same.
All the robots drove out perfectly and things were looking good, I won't describe the battle in detail
as you can see it in full on youtube, but the fact that we didn't shorten the Co2 pipe came
back to haunt us and froze again,leaving us with no claw function not flipper and no
srimech.
Now dosen't it just annoy you when johnathon pearce says they can't self right,when you know you
can if the blooming thing hadn't developed a fault.
Another interesting thing was after we were counted out and then righted by ceros I think-the organisers
didn't seem to want us to participate in the rest of the battle and tried there best to disable Metalis
including Growler ramming our robot into the arena sidewall at full pelt-I felt sure he would go through the polycarb.
Thankyou to Mario for saying "you built a very strong robot" at the end of the battle,just as the dump valve
on Metalis released a full tank of the frozen Co2.

[team death]

So this was the end,no more Robot Wars on tv and as far as we knew there was nobody running
events in the UK,the socials must have been up and running because I recall a conversation with
Kevin Scott about putting Metalis in a robot museum for ex Robot Wars machines.
I discussed this idea with my team mate and he was quite hostile and we decided to split the
robot and move on.
The socials seemed to be the only place to keep up with whats happening, and I attended a number.
The live events got up and running and I decided to build a new robot for them, Chimera was
born ,formally known as the Wall ,this machine had 4 incarnations including a Wall,hammer,thwacker
and grinding blade with sometimes up to 5 years between incarnations and I attended events by
Roaming Robots and black top productions.
Chimera's last battle was at the O2 for the uk championships 2011 against Thor, Storm and tiberius,
the chain for the drive to one wheel came off more or less straight away- after a major onslaught
by Storm and Thor and I was only able to drive in half circles, I recall the VIP audience ticket
holdercoming back stage and one father and son asking about my robot, stating it looked really
good as it drove in, MMM, yes that front profile allways was the best.
Chimera was sold in 2012.

[team death]

2016...
I have decided to build yet another robot for 2016, this will be robot number 7, taking
time out helps on the ideas front and the robot is 10% built, I have a great name in mind
and new team mate on board.
Looking forward to revealing it later this year.

[bigsi]

Interesting to read it from someone else's perspective. My precise memories of the series we entered are all a bit hazy these days. I hated the cheezy TV programme - but loved the time in the pits. It felt in some ways like being back at University, everyone having the same hopes, fears and common objective.

I held on to my hope that it would return for a decade - then decided it was never going to happen. Only six months ago, Barber-ous was sent to the scrap-man. We'd built a much improved version for Series 8 (with removable links that cannot fall out ;-) ). I'd so hoped to run it - but other than the odd drive around the garden, never did!

The new series looks really good! Much less cheezy and I've found myself enjoying watching it - particularly seeing some familiar faces (Ian Watts among others). Now I'm sorely tempted to build Barber-ous 3!

Si

[team death]

I remember barber-ous well,without even checking out old vhs videos, an unusual shape for
the time with a barbers spiral down its length.
Gone to the scrappers 6 months ago you say-ruddy Robot Wars 1 year too late and
I'm more than convinced there are at least 2 dozen similar stories of robots sold
on or disposed of in a falawn wait for a new tv series that never came in time.

I have no doubt that numbers of robots will soon be at a level seen in the
hey days but I just hope the producers do not do it a death like I feel they
did previous-keep them wanting more is the key but not more the same.