Robodojo October 2019

We were sharing our bench with Will and Stabby McUnicornface, same as last time, and with entrants a bit thin on the ground this time there was plenty of space. After performing the rites of Sharpie anointing, we duly proceeded to obtain a tasty breakfast cob.

As usual, we had set ourselves a number of objectives fro the day, specifically:
  • Win at least two fights.
  • Win at least one fight by actual knockout (i.e., not just the opponent breaking down).
  • Not lose by sheer incompetence (i.e., driving off the side of the arena. Again).


Fight 1: Forge Master I
I love watching Forge Master (I or II) fighting, it's got to be my favourite featherweight hammer, but I prefer watching other people's robots getting hammered, so I experienced some trepidation when I lost the dice roll to drive in this fight. It started badly when I turned the gyro on, and the bot just started twitching so I just turned it right back off again. Not sure what's up there.

However, overall I was quite pleased by how this went, the new wheels have completely transformed the way EWC drives. Although we didn't get the win I at least manage to dodge the hammer blows fairly well.



Unfortunately it all went a bit wrong at the end...


That was objective #3 blown, but other than that I was reasonably happy despite the slightly disappointing start.

Fight 2: Piéce de Resistance
Simon won the privilege of driving this time, and did a good job grabbing onto this classic machine, despite the awkward springs getting caught in the teeth.



So that was a win, but not a KO in the sense that we actually broke the other robot, since PdR either had a drive problem or got high-centred.

In the break between rounds, we had put Wedgeley in the box for a quick test drive and to try out the gyro. Still not sure what's up with it, but it may be that the rate is turned right down on the steering channel, so gyro sensitivity needs to be really high. In any case, it seems to run fine without it.

Fight 3: Danger UXB
By elimination, it was Becky's turn to drive here. Danger UXB is a weird shape that is impossible to grab hold of, so this was a tricky one.



After nearly managing to shove UXB out of the arena, we were once again caught out by our own wheelie bar. I thought having just one this time, rather than one on each side, would save us, but sadly it balanced perfectly on the two prongs of the lower jaw. So that was frustrating, but went pretty well otherwise.

Somewhere around this part of the day, Theo (Boring Wedgebot) was having some trouble with his wheels (the hot glue sticking the treads onto the aluminium had surprisingly failed). We still had the old wheels from Wedgeley so offered them up as spares, thinking they could just be swapped out. Unfortunately, BW's wheels were seized on, rather like ours had been, but such problems are no match for the ingenuity of a roboteer in a tight corner:



You don't need to remove the old wheels if you just bolt the new wheels directly to them...

Ironically, our next opponent was...

Fight 4: Boring Wedgebot A*
*where A is a number greater than 10
Yes, we were now pitted in mortal combat against our own donated wheel...
At this point, it was time to roll the dice to decide who would drive, but Becky asked if anyone wanted to before we randomly assigned it. After my short first fight, I actually did want another go so I *gasp* volunteered to drive.



Although BW was rather impaired by its unfortunate wheel situation, I think this qualifies as an actual win, despite my incompetence at the end...


At this point, we packed up and made ready to depart, as Simon had to get a train to Hull to get the overnight ferry to Rotterdam. Then we heard our name over the tannoy summoning us to a rumble to decide 5th-8th place for the day. This was something of a surprise, but with only 16 robots there were 8 of us in the middle with 2 wins and 2 losses.

We considered pulling out, but in the end Becky took Simon to the train station while I very rapidly reassembled the robot and then got into the arena. Since there I was at this point there by myself, I don't have a video of this but hopefully someone caught one and will upload it. My memory is sketchy but I definitely bit some things, before immobilising myself on the edge of the arena but I think I was third-to-last, putting us at 7th overall. That's our first points on the board, which we were all pretty chuffed about.

Wedgeley, however, will be needing some dental work after biting down on either Stabby or Midas, not sure which but I think we came off worse from the encounter...



Cheers for reading!