Page 29 - Build Your Own Combat Robot

Build Your Own Combat Robot
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To make the events a little more challenging, the contestant bots have to contend
with “house” bots whose main purpose is to destroy anything fool enough to come
near them. The smallest house robot is Shunt. At 231 pounds., this powerhouse can
pull a Land Rover and wield a deadly axe. Dead Metal, weighing in at 247 pounds.,
is very effective at using its buzz saw and deadly pincers. The 256 pound titanium-
armored Matilda wields a chain saw on her rear, and the 264 pound Sergeant
Bash with his deadly flamethrower can cook his victim when it gets caught in his
front pincers. Finally, there is Sir Killalot, at a massive 617 pounds. His pincer
claws can cut through the toughest armor and then lift a 220- pound hapless vic-
tim—to be dropped into the fiery pit.
The lucky winners of the obstacle courses get to move on to bigger and better
fights. Below is a list of three of the most popular events that bots must pass in
more advanced Robot Wars competitions, prior to moving on to the final round:

Pinball

In the pinball tournament, bots must navigate around a course and hit certain ob-
jects, each of which is worth a different number of points. The bot with the most
points wins the tournament. Bots score 5 points for hitting barrels, 10 points for
the multiball, and 5 points for each multiball in the pit. Crossing over the ramp is
worth 20 points, going through the car door gate is worth 25 points, and moving
the sphere out of the pit is worth 25 points. Hitting Matilda’s and Sergeant Bash’s
guarded targets are worth 50 points each, and getting past Dead Metal to its target
is worth 75 points. All of this must be accomplished in 5 minutes.

Sumo

The Sumo event is held on an elevated ring, and the contestant bot goes up against
a house bot. This is a timed event to see how long a bot can stay in the ring before
being pushed off by the house bot. Most of the time, the house robot wins this
event, but once in a while a challenger will be successful in pushing a house bot to
its doom. The bot with the longest time on the sumo ring wins that event.

Soccer

Robot Soccer is an event where two bots try to push a white ball into the other
bot’s goal. A house bot is positioned in the arena to assist in the game. “Assist” is a
relative term because the house bots have a tendency to capture the ball, thus leav-
ing the other two bots to fight. Once the time limit expires, a judge determines
which robot is the winner.
Robot Wars has several other events that are less common, one of which is the
Grudge Match. In this competition, if your bot has a grudge against another
bot—including a house bot—it gets the opportunity to fight that bot one on one.