SERVO 08.2015 23
EVENT REPORT:
Freeside Robot
Street Fight 2015 ● by Mike Jeffries
Afew years ago, the original Insect arena used for DragonCon
Robot Micro Battles was
retired and a new arena was
built. The original arena spent
the next several years
collecting dust in a garage. In
October 2014, the arena
found a new home with me.
The plan was to refurbish the
arena and put it back in use.
Nothing spurs on a project
better than a deadline, so after some
discussions with Freeside Atlanta, a
date was settled on: May 9th, 2015.
This would be the first event held in
the arena since Labor Day weekend in
2011.
In the months between the arena
moving and the event, the floor was
sanded and painted, new pits were
made, and the hazard was at least
partially repaired. The final few details
were dealt with in the traditional
manner: in a rush and moments
before the event started.
In total, 14 robots showed up for
the event. There were six Antweights,
two Beetleweights, three
Hobbyweights, and three
Featherweights (1 lb, 3 lb, 12 lb, and
30 lb, respectively).
In the Antweight class, the
competitors were:
• Algos, a titanium clad vertical
spinner.
• Death by Twinkies, a durable
and invertible ramming wedge
with Twinkie-like wheels and a
combination of spring steel and
titanium armor.
• The Wolf, an invertible wedge
based on the Titan Tech
Industries kit.
• Cyrano Chubbs, a two wheel
drive robot with an unusual
rotary lifting wedge.
• Eleos, a lightly modified
Finger Tech Robotics Viper Lifter
kit (reviewed in the May 2015
issue of SERVO).
• Gelos, a wedge with a
3D printed chassis and a
hardened 3/32” thick
4130 steel wedge.
In the Beetleweight class,
the competitors were:
• Torgo, a wedge shaped
robot with an actuated
lifting arm.
• Naked Singularity, a four wheel
drive wedge.
In the Hobbyweight class, the
competitors were:
• Omega Force, a kinetic energy
powered flipper.
• Abrasive Personality, a two
wheel drive wedge with an
unusual belt sander based bot
capturing device.
• Hypnus, a dustpan-ish wedge
with top mounted catch hooks.
In the Featherweight class, the
competitors were:
• Overthruster, a kinetic energy
powered flipper with an
automatic firing mechanism.
• Nyx, a four wheel drive bot
with interchangeable weapons.
For this event, the lifter was
used in all matches.
• Spanky, an overhead thwackbot
with a custom electric
chainsaw.
For the Antweight, Hobbyweight,
and Featherweight portion of the
events, a round robin format was
The arena moments before combat started.
Algos.
Death by Twinkies.
