Servo - April 2009

good bites in with its lifter. Eventually though, Gilbert ended up driving out of the arena and into one of the pits. In true double elimination format, the two robots were required to fight again. The same result followed, giving Misdirected Pedestrian the title of antweight champion.

Moving on to the three pound beetleweights, Jason Brown brought “Family Joules,” a new four-wheeled robot with a 1.25 pound drum spinning at over 15,000 rpm. In the same spirit, my team, MH Robotics brought our creation, “Misdirected Aggression,” a horizontal spinner with a 13 ounce steel bar spinning at 10,000 rpm. MC Kelley Lockhart temporarily amended the Robot Battles rules to allow Randy Farmer to enter “Dr. Feelgood,” a wheeled platform with a small mobile turret mounted on top that could rapidly shoot airsoft pellets.

Among the other robots present were the pyramid shaped wedge “Pyramid of Death,” the solidly built eggbeater robot “Drumbeat,” the massively overpowered ramming brick “Cloud of Suspicion,” and the simply huge dustpan sporting robot, “Tipan.”

Several exhilarating matches ensued. The ramming brick Cloud of Suspicion fought drum spinner, Family Joules. Cloud of Suspicion was able to bully Family Joules around the arena, actually flipping the drum spinner several times by slamming it into the walls, while likewise, Family Joules managed to get in several good hits with its drum. Eventually, just like Gilbert, Cloud of Suspicion proved to be at a point, too uncontrollable. It often could not drive in a straight line, often slamming into the walls during its intended attacks. It eventually missed its target in an unlucky box rush and flew out of the arena. Cloud of Suspicion won a fight in the losers bracket against

Beetlweight rumble winner Cloud of Suspicion.

The Beetleweight bar spinner Misdirected

Aggression.

Drumbeat, but lost its next and final match against Pyramid of Death when it once again slammed into a wall and bounced out of the arena.

Misdirected Aggression first fought Pyramid of Death. Its weapon proved to be just as deadly as it appeared, but equally unreliable. It loosened itself from the shaft after dishing out several impressive hits. Pyramid of Death had the fight won at that point, but unfortunately, like many others, it drove itself out of the arena and Misdirected Aggression took the win.

Misdirected Aggression’s next fight was against Family Joules. Both robots spun up and cautiously approached each other at first. Then in one huge collision, Family Joules was knocked back and Misdirected Aggression was sent flying through the air, its weapon no longer secured to its shaft. Although Family Joules had lost half of its drive motors in the hit, lacking any way to attack or defend itself, Misdirected Aggression tapped out.

The beetleweight finals ended up being fought between Family Joules and Tipan, who had advanced through the loser’s bracket.

Although it lacked the ability to drive properly, Family Joules was still able to take several decent sized chunks out of Tipan’s large plastic dustpan, though it was eventually pitted, giving Tipan the beetleweight championship.

After the award plaques were presented, all of the antweights present were placed in the arena for one last untimed free-for-all. Rippy was the first to go out of the arena, and was eventually followed by Misdirected Pedestrian. Finally, Segs and Gilbert went out of the arena, giving the robot least expected to win — Tigger — the victory.