Build Your Own Combat Robot

FIGURE 1-1
Biohazard, a
superstar of
robotic combat.
(courtesy of
Carlo Bertocchini)
Chapter 1: Welcome to Competition Robots 3
This sport has become so popular, in fact, that many robots have become better
known than their human creators. For example, devout followers of robotic combat
are familiar with such famous builders as Carlo Bertocchini, Gage Cauchois,
and Jamie Hyneman, but these mens’ robots—Biohazard (pictured in Figure 1-1),
Vlad the Impaler, and Blendo, respectively—are now bona fide household names
among the millions of people who watch BattleBots on TV.
The various robotic combat events have seen many different types of machines,
from two-wheel-drive lightweight robots to six-wheel-drive, gasoline-powered
superheavyweights. Even walking robots, more commonly known as StompBots,
have entered into the mayhem. Probably the most well-known StompBot is the
six-legged superheavyweight Mechadon built by Mark Setrakian. Setrakian has
even built a super heavyweight snake robot. Though his unusual robots have not
won any events, they’ve all been outstanding engineering achievements and great
crowd pleasers.
The weapons on these robots range from simple wedges and spikes to jabbing
spears, hammers, and axes, to spinning maces and claws, hydraulic crushing pincers,
and grinding saw blades of every type, size, and color. The destructive power
of these weapons has been used for everything from scratching paint off a rival bot
to denting aluminum plates, punching holes through titanium and Kevlar, ripping
off another robot’s entire armor plating, and completely disintegrating an opponent
in a single blow.
One of the most destructive robots the sport has seen to date is Blendo. This spinning
robot, more commonly known as a SpinBot-class robot, totally destroyed