Servo - April 2013

FIGURE 4. Pissed Off Unicorn takes its revenge against I Kid during the Fleaweight rumble.

FIGURE 5. Sam McAmis shows the damage to his team's robot, Spare Parts, after the Beetleweight match against DeJa Voodoo.

took advantage and threw Thresh out of the drop-out zone with a single hit from its eight-inch horizontal blade.

Pissed Off Unicorn continued to fight inVertigo, but inVertigo’s exposed wheels soon fell victim to the powerful weapon, forcing inVertigo to fight its way through the loser’s bracket to the semi-finals, placing 3rd overall. Matt Spurk’s Boom Stick surprised the crowd as its horizontal spinning bar took flight and came off his robot! Pissed Off Unicorn’s luck ran out in the finals as Ram Robotics’ I Kid took the win for the Fleaweight trophy.

The Beetleweight bracket got off to an exciting start as Busted Nuts’ DeJa Voodoo flipped Spare Parts high in the air early in the match. New members of the team built Spare Parts based on RamVac’s design, and managed to use their robot to get DeJa Voodoo up against the drop-out zone. Just as DeJa Voodoo was being pushed out, its drum finally got a hit on Spare Parts and launched it across the arena.

After almost a full match of hit after hit, both robots were simultaneously immobilized and the judges declared DeJa Voodoo the winner. The next match paired Voodoo Magic — also from Busted Nuts Robotics — against TeamPyramid’s Box. These robots have faced off in previous GCRS competitions, and Box tried to keep its wedge pointed at Voodoo Magic’s disk. This strategy kept Voodoo Magic’s vertical disk ineffective, until a hit to Box’s side threw Box high in the air and over the arena barrier.

DJ Spinny fought Walla Walla in the next match, both with horizontal weapons. Although Walla Walla had competed previously in GCRS, Paul Grata redesigned the robot for this event: “I changed the base design to be more of a frame than a solid piece of metal, which resulted in a PVC top-plate. I switched to Pololu’s for the drive and changed from a friction based brushed weapon system to a belt based brushless, with the weapon motor on top to maintain a low frame profile.” The finals of the Beetleweight division were the highlight of the event, pairing Ram Robotics’ Steve