Schnake - Beetleweight Grabber Build Diary

[Shooty]

Robot Rebellion 2024:

So this build log has been slightly delayed for a couple of different reasons, but there is a lot to cover, so hopefully this one will be worth the wait! Like previous years, this event had us running a Babróg and a Schnake, except this time both robots were totally new and untested going into this weekend, with this being Babróg’s second iteration and Schnake’s third. I’ve already gone into detail with the changes made to both designs in previous posts (basically the only change to Babróg from here and future events was the fork arrangement), but suffice to say I was quietly confident the changes should hopefully allow one of our robots to get back into the top 16.


Babróg and Schnake freshly finished and ready to fight! Unfortunately I was often too busy to take many photos of Schnake, so photos may be a little more limited this time around.

Schnake: Fight 1 Vs. Bop!


Fight starts at 9:25.

Schnake’s heat was much less spinner dominated thankfully, and it had a great controlled opponent for its first match in the hammerbot Bop! Unfortunately Schnake struggled to get a good grab against Bop throughout the match thanks to a combo of great driving from Craig as well as the shape of Bop being rather tricky to grab. There was one part where the grabbing arm almost functioned as a lifter, and we actually got Bop relatively close to the OotA zone, but unfortunately Bop got away, and shortly after Schnake was pushed into the pit. The robot was definitely an improvement from the previous two iterations, but there was still some more work to be done to get Schnake working as intended.

Schnake: Fight 2 Vs. Monterey Jack


Fight starts at 21:04.

Schnake’s second opponent was one of the more unique competitors at the event, being Monterey Jack. This robot had a chainsaw built into the main chassis, and whose grabbing arms were at the back of the robot, so the idea was to drive under opponents and hold them in place while the chainsaw cut into the baseplate or wheels.

This fight started out pretty cagey as Schnake was angling for a grab. It arguably got one early on, though Monterey Jack’s shape allowed it to escape easily. Monterey Jack had the edge early on in the fight, getting under Schnake multiple times and using the chainsaw, but around the midway point Monterey Jack ended up flipped over, and this allowed us to control the fight a bit more, especially with my dad getting back into the rhythm of driving beetleweights. The grabber wasn’t really able to grab, but it did end up becoming a decently effective four bar lifter at times, keeping pressure on Monterey Jack until the end. This felt like an incredibly close fight, but ultimately the judges ruled in favour of Schnake, putting both robots at 1-1!


The best photo I could take of the chainsaw marks underneath Schnake.

Schnake: Fight 3 Vs. Boom Zoom


Fight starts at 25:49.

Schnake’s final fight was against the seeded Boom Zoom, one of the best control bots in the UK, and a fight where winning seemed all but impossible. Boom Zoom kept Schnake under pressure from the very start, tossing us constantly and leaving no room to breathe. Fortunately, Schnake in this iteration was able to free itself from the sides of walls, and even managed to self-right completely, which after the struggles both previous Schnakes had being upside down, was a pretty satisfying moment! Unfortunately Boom Zoom kept the pressure up, and eventually Schnake was tossed out of the arena, eliminating it from the competition outright.

Schnake: Fight 4 Vs. Igor, Critical Fail


Fight starts at 2:40.

Despite being out of the main competition, there were still plenty of opportunities to take part in fights on Sunday, and we ended up taking part in so many fights, that I actually forgot I was a part of many of these before watching the upload on the Robot Rebellion channel! First off was a simple whiteboard for Schnake against Igor and Critical Fail. This was a very typical “Schnake” fight, where the robot drove decently well, the grabber was occasionally effective, while as a lifter it performed somewhat better. At some point midway through, something seemed to go wrong with the drive, and while Schnake attempted to remain aggressive, eventually Igor managed to get its lifter forks into the wheelguards, and carefully drove Schnake into the pit.


Schnake at the ready table.

Schnake: Fight 5/Non-Spinner Rumble


Fight starts at 12:49.

Schnake’s last fight of the event saw it against seven different non-spinner opponents, which was, predictably, pretty chaotic. Schnake kept somewhat involved in the action, shoving, self-righting, and somehow knocking Chucky out of the arena, which will no doubt go down in history as the Schnake lines greatest accomplishment. Unfortunately Impulse would shove Schnake into the pit not long after, ending our input in the rest of the fight.

Conclusion:


A very nice photo of Schnake courtesy of Mark Mellors.

Robot Rebellion was once again a very busy, frenetic, and fun event, and left us with a lot to ponder about for the future. Tournament wise, we basically ended up matching our results from last year, each finishing our heats in third place, but I’d argue that these beetleweights were significant improvements from their predecessors.

Schnake has remained a mixed bag, though I have no doubt that this was the best iteration yet. The drive system remains strong, though at this stage I’ve accepted it’s too twitchy for my dad to drive, and even for myself, all of the Schnake’s seem to have had an issue where they struggle to drive straight. The self-righting actually worked perfectly, though I still struggle to give Schnake the reach to be an effective grabber, and at this stage, I feel like three cracks at the design was enough. This is likely the last iteration of Schnake I’ll make, as my CAD concepts for Schanke V4 can sit right next to my Léim 3 folder. By this stage I’ve already built and competed with my second beetle successor, though I’ll save that build log for a later post.

And that’s it, finally done! This one took far longer than it should, mostly on my end being busy with a ton of other personal issues, but even if I’m taking a break from building for the next few months, I can at least use this time to get through the gigantic backlog that was robot combat for me in 2025. A massive shout out to all of the people running Robot Rebellion, and to Jevan and all his crew for the mammoth task of getting the web series edited, it was definitely worth the wait!