So following the November event, we had another due in less than two months with the return of the Mechatrons show at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition, and the Christmas period gave me a few weeks to alter the robots a little more closely. The top priority was to give both Barróg and Barróg Doom the same improved fork mounts. Instead of using thin metal, we decided to upgrade to 15mm HDPE mounting blocks, each side using two barrel nuts to hold them down into the base. For space reasons, the nuts acted as spacers between the forks and the two blocks instead of outside them, and thanks to me making many spares of the forks before the FW champs very little extra work was needed to get the forks running in Barróg. The end result was a far beefier fork arrangement with only a little extra weight, and it’s one that I’d be happy to use in future builds.


The new forks in place next to the old ones. A bit of a bodge job, but very strong.

For Barróg Doom, I wanted to redo the grabbing arm to better catch into points on the top of other bots, as I felt that the old system slipped a little too much. I ended up being rather conservative and using two spaced out 10mm copies of the existing 20mm arm which were certainly an improvement, but this is something I’ll definitely revisit. The more exciting changes were happening to Barróg however. We theorized that with the new weight distribution and carefully shaped side rollers, Barróg could roll back from it’s side, something it has never been able to do. After some fiddling with the curve and the center of mass, we seemed to come across a solution that just barely worked and required expertly timed rocking, but was without question an improvement from before! Barróg was now arguably the better control bot of the two now, and somehow bigger than ever before while still being within the weight!


Barróg, bigger and better than ever, ready to fight.


The new rollcage design.

Footage of the new self-righting mechanism:



Roboriots BT Young Scientist Exhibition 2020:

Unlike last time, there was actually a proper format for the Feathers. There would be three rumbles, one every day, where three or four feathers would enter, and the winner of each would meet in a final rumble later in the third day, where a champion would be called. Barróg Doom would fight on the second day, and Barróg on the third. We were a little disappointed that there would be fewer fights overall for the feathers, but we warmed up to the new format really fast, and the trophy was absolutely something worth winning.


This may be the coolest FW trophy that has ever been made, and all from scrap metal as well!

Most of the first day was spent talking to audience members as they walked in, and chatting with the roboteers, the most notable new inclusion being Team Immersion with Amnesia. Another FW bot, Euphoria, was having some major mechanical issues that seem to come with a first event, and so I spent a lot of that day filing keyways and trying to help in reassembly.


Both bots on display in the pits. This was right next to where the audience walked past to get seated for the show.

Qualifier: Barróg Doom VS. Regicide VS. Pallas VS. Euphoria



My qualifier on the second day was against flipper and fellow Irish competitor Regicide, the wedgebot Pallas, and the new electric lifter Euphoria. This was all around a great fight for Barróg Doom; Pallas was shortly immobilized after getting stranded upside down, and I continued to get great throws and rams against the other two opponents while they eventually began to struggle. The new grabbing arm in particular seemed to help greatly in grabbing onto opponents like Regicide, and the forks gave a consistent advantage in the ground game. Euphoria meanwhile suffered radio issues due to its weapon motor catching onto and chewing through some signal gears. There were issues in this fight however, near the start of the fight I managed to get stuck against the arena wall, and would have been trapped if Euphoria didn’t free me. I also blew one of the fuses guarding the ESC’s near the end, which still kept me moving for long enough, but was certainly a concern given how much more aggressively I was starting to drive like. Overall though this might be my favourite Barróg Doom fight to date, and is what I show people when I want to explain the machine.

Qualifier: Barróg VS. Killer Clown VS. Red Hot Tilly Pecker VS. Flippin Hell:



Barróg was placed against wedgebot Killer Clown, the axebot Red Hot Tilly Pecker, and flipper and fellow Irish competitor Flippin Hell, renamed from Atomic Wedgie since the November event, and whose builder only arrived on the third day due to breaking his arm a few days prior. At first the fight seemed to go well, and Barróg managed to get a good charge in on Flippin Hell. After a quick charge however, the machine seemed to go completely dead, despite the power light still being on. Flippin Hell eventually managed to free itself, and would go on to win the fight while Barróg would go out in a disappointing, anticlimactic manner (still impressive he was able to drive with one arm in a cast though!). After a while we figured out what went wrong; the fuse for one side of drive had blown during the charge, and unluckily that was the very same ESC that powered the receiver, and as such when the ESC went, all radio connection went, and the machine failsafed. This was very frustrating, and at this point I was seriously questioning why my previously reliable ESC setup was failing so much.