This was our first appearance on TV but it was filmed after all the real
action, hence the rather battered appearance of SMIDSY's side armour and
the 'crackle effect' of the leather on the top armour.
Our strategy
The rules are simple, avoid being pushed out of the ring for as long as
possible (ideally push your opponent out of the ring, but we were up
against Shunt, who is nearly 50% heavier than a heavy-weight contender).
We'd seen a number of robots pushed out of the ring in the blink of an
eye; before we entered the ring none had lasted more than 6 seconds. We
knew our jaws were twisted from repeated ramming the previous day so
there was no way we were going to get under Shunt's mighty
bulldozer blade. Instead we opted for the stategy of dodging him for as long
as possible.
What happened
We dashed into the middle of the ring, slewed sideways and waited for
Shunt. Just before he hit us we squirted forwards out of his way. At
this point we knew we'd beaten at least half the robots that went before
us, and our plan had worked perfectly :-)
Unfortunately that was as far as we'd planned :-(
We were now accelerating at high speed towards the edge of the ring and
only another handbrake turn stopped us from flying over the edge. As
soon as we'd recovered Shunt was heading for us again. We shot past him
and again narrowly missed the edge.
This happened a number of times and often a part of the robot was jutting
into empty space and at one point a wheel was even over-hanging the
edge. Fortunately SMIDSY's 4 wheel drive works even when one wheel is
spinning uselessly.
We were beginning to get the hang of avoiding Shunt when a fantastic
opportunity arose; SMIDSY had its jaws pointed directly towards Shunt's
vulnerable flank AND he was right by the edge - after all the dodging we
had a chance to push him over the edge! We rammed as hard as we could
and pushed. We opened the jaws to lift the nearest wheel off the ground.
It didn't work; Shunt was too heavy to push and too heavy to lift. He
twisted slightly and SMIDSY shot past and over the edge. It was all
over.
It was only 14.11 seconds but it was the longest 14 seconds of my life.
It was also the best Sumo bout that the crowd had seen so far, and they
went absolutely wild - no one had managed to dodge Shunt so many times.
We were very happy at the time and only mildly disappointed later
when a couple of robots
manged to jam themselves under Shunt and last the whole 60 seconds -
they had just been lucky, we'd actually used speed and manoeuverability
to avoid him. We didn't even mind that Panic Attack managed to dodge for
even longer than us and trick Shunt into driving over the edge, because
Kim is a ReallyNiceChap and an excellent driver. We'd put on a good show
and had an adrenaline buzz that would last for days.
The salt
Real Sumo wrestlers throw salt into the ring for luck (salt used to be
expensive, so it was a sacrifice) We wanted to do the same. We
'borrowed' a couple of plastic salt cellars from the RobotWars
cafeteria. Before the bout, at the point where we were introduced, we
opened the jaws to allow the salt to roll out - except they didn't and
we had to jerk forwards and back to throw them out.
- In the second picture (the first of SMIDSY)
you can see a couple of blue and white
objects in his jaws, these are the salt cellars.
- In the fourth photo you can see them just inside
the red circle.
- In the fifth photo we have driven over one and pushed it
ahead of us, it's just visible by our front right wheel.
- In the sixth photo you can just see the one we pushed on the edge of
the black circle, at about 1 o'clock. The other salt cellar is still
where it was in the fourth photo.
- Seventh photo, no change.
- In the eighth photo one of the salt cellars is just visible behind
SMIDSY at the extreme left of the frame.
- We've driven over the left hand salt cellar (the one we missed
originally) and spread a small drift of salt. The white smear is quite
visible for the rest of the overhead photos.
We had to explain the significance of the salt to every member of the RW
crew but they all liked the idea and were keen for us to try it. We
don't know why it was cut from the TV show, possibly they thought it
would be too complicated for the target audience, maybe the camera wasn't
able to focus on us as we jerked back and forth. Maybe it just wasn't
very exciting, but that doesn't matter because now YOU know a bit of
Robot Wars Trivia that very few other people know. It's just possible
that one day (under a bizzare set of circumstances) it may come in
handy.
The technical bit
In a robotic pushing match you need grip and torque. Your grip is
limited by your choice of tyres and your weight. Most people are using
very good tyres and so there isn't much difference between robots. There
is a weight limit of 80kg so all robots weigh the same too. Many robots
choose a gear ratio that gives them enough torque to use all this grip
although quite a few opt for a higher top speed instead.
This ought to mean that all pushing battles are nearly equal but there
is another way to gain an advantage. If you can get under your opponent
and lift them (even only slightly) you reduce the weight on his wheels
and increase the weight on your own wheels, giving you more grip and
eventually lifting his wheels right off the ground.
Unfortunately Shunt is much heavier than all the competitors and has
very low ground clearance, making it very difficult to get under him.
Two robots managed it and they both managed to reduce the effect of
Shunt's weight advantage to the point where they could hold their
ground. They couldn't move but Shunt couldn't push them out of the ring
either.
In 2001 of course the weight limit has gone up from 80kg to 100kg, the
better competitors should be able to push Shunt around!
Watch this space!
Last modified: 2003-08-04 22:03:13 127
