Team Immersion took the top prize this month at the 2020 Irish Heavyweight Robot Championship, hosted by Mechatrons at the Dublin BT Young Scientist Festival.
Ed, an engineer here at Labman, along with his Immersion teammates, travelled to Dubin to battle with some of the most notoriously powerful combat machines in the sport, controlled by expert drivers from all over Europe. Winning this battle would be no easy feat! The robot spent weeks at Labman HQ, where Ed and the team made good use of the equipment available such as CNC machining and 3D printing. Immersion is the result of the 25 combined years of experience of the veteran builders; a compact, 27-horsepower beast weighing 110kg, designed to resist being fired at by a tank, no less! Not to mention the ability to turn over a car with its flipper. Why not?
The first round ended with the classic but deadly pincer robot ‘Kan-Opener’ wedged into the arena barrier and quickly counted out. By the second round, three-time champion ‘Ripper’ and its renowned driver gave the team a run for their money but with some skilful driving, dodging and flipping, team Immersion managed to throw the deadly machine around the arena until it finally succumbed.
By the time they had reached the final round, Immersion had fought off opponents Diotoir (which only in 2018 had reached 2nd place in the 2018 Chinese Championships) and Beast, another veteran machine with titles under it’s belt. With a broken weld in one of the weapon gearboxes but only 40 minutes before the final round, team Immersion decided to trust their redundancy system which used 2 motors (instead of the conventional 1) on their wheels and flippers in case of a failure.
Again they faced Beast, and after an intense final the judges took no time to announce that Immersion, proudly sponsored by Labman, were the winners.
Here at Labman we are always encouraging our staff to take on projects which increase their skills, knowledge and understanding of mechanics and electronics. Robot Fighting is an ideal way for engineers to engage in exciting and challenging projects, and it is especially rewarding when they are crowned the winners! Well done Team Immersion.