Robot Wars: The Ultimate Geeky Garage Hobby

After a twelve year absence, Robot Wars returned to our screens for a new series last Sunday. The BBC show features teams of amateur engineers who design robots with one purpose: to destroy other robots. The remote controlled creations are then pitted against each other in the Arena, cheered on by a hyped up crowd. If you’re thinking of taking up the ultimate geeky garage hobby, here’s our guide to some of the successful designs and techniques that the roboteers have developed over the years.

Flipping

Under the rules of the show, a robot that is immobilised for ten seconds is eliminated. If a robot is moving on wheels then a simple way to immobilise it is to flip the robot onto its back. In the early shows, a simple wedge shaped robot with low ground clearance would ram into and under opponents, flipping them over and winning the bout by immobilisation. Wheely Big Cheese had one of the biggest ever flippers seen on the show, and used it to deadly effect in series five.

Self-Righting Mechanism

The self-righting mechanism (srimech) developed as a response to the tactic of flipping. A srimech enables a robot to return itself to the correct way up when it has been flipped upside down or knocked onto its side by another robot. Some of the roboteers made this mechanism by adapting garage door opening mechanisms. Cassius was the first robot to self-right, and its incredible first battle in 1998 revolutionised Robot Wars.

Piercing and Crushing

The iconic Razer is one of the best-loved robots ever to do battle. Its piercing blade is attached to a hydraulic ram capable of exerting nine tonnes of pressure. Its designers wanted to exploit a perceived weakness of their opponents’ robots by piercing through the armour to get at the wiring beneath. Razer made a reappearance in the first episode of the reboot, but its heyday was in the nineties when it even took on some of the formidable house robots.

Armour

To protect the motors and wires that enable you to control your robot, you need armour. There is a tradeoff here between protection and manoeuvrability, also competing robots are limited to a weight of 110kg. Steel offers the best protection (it is harder than its rivals but also a lot heavier). Titanium weighs less, but is expensive and difficult to machine. Aluminium and magnesium are lighter still, but not as hard. Mortis, one of the most expensive robots ever to compete, was originally armoured with carbon fibre, Kevlar and laminated titanium, before receiving a silicon carbide upgrade for series four.

Spinning Weapons

Circular saws and other types of spinning blade have proved to be the most popular and effective weapons in Robot Wars. Early pioneers of these weapons included the team behind Hypno-Disc, who took out their opponents with a kinetic flywheel. Carbide, the winner of the first episode of the 2016 reboot, used a blade that could reach 2300 rpm!

We hope you’ll find these hints useful. If your robot goes haywire and damages your garage door with its spinning blade weapon, come and see us. We also know a lot about automated systems, so we may be able to give you a few hints if you want to adapt an automated garage door opener into a srimech.

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