Check out this fight in BattleBots Season 5, Episode 11.
Another year, another tense bracket announcement. We ended up matched against Whiplash, in a rematch of what many thought was 2019’s closest fight. They were bringing in a host of upgrades, including new rubber wheels, a thinner spinning disk, and redesigned armor panels based off their 2019 design. Separately, HUGE was bringing an all-new drive system along with upgraded armor, heavier spinning blade, and a changed strategy from the first fight. So this really could go either way!
We caught a glimpse of these armor panels during their earlier fight against Sawblaze, and also saw Whiplash knocked out by a Sawblaze hit to the top plate. In prior seasons, we had to re-wire the robot to spin backwards (such as against Gigabyte in 2019) and had no other options once we had made the change. A design goal for 2020 was to be able to change directions on the fly, specifically in response to our 2019 loss to Whiplash. We chose to spin downwards and try to mimic Sawblaze’s knockout blow, and hoped for the best.
This strategy was effective at landing the blade in critical locations on Whiplash, but rarely with enough time to spin up and do true damage. Whiplash is a smothering opponent, and our slow spinup was not well-suited to their style of fighting. Their thinner blade also did an effective job of tearing up our rear stabilizing legs, meaning we had very little control for the second half of the fight. Once you can’t run away from Whiplash, you won’t ever have a chance to get a big blade up to speed. We were able to damage the extra armor that Whiplash mounted, and bounced off their new weapon-pulley guard, but never struck deep enough to affect their functionality.
One unsurprising judge’s decision later, our run at the 2020 Giant Nut was over. We learned a lot this season, especially about the need for more weapon power in the future. It was also an odd year, as we never really got the chance to test this version of HUGE against any “conventional” opponents. Two jungle-gyms, the only crusher in the field, and the unique versatility of Whiplash. But, these are the opponents that we have to be ready for too! Nevertheless, the robot was basically un-damaged, so we swapped out legs and wheels to prepare for the upcoming bounty tournaments.
Photo Gallery
Whiplash’s configuration for this fight.
The legs began to fail sideways once Whiplash had damaged both of them.
The only spinner hit from Whiplash that punctured the frame. Everything has a suitable air-gap though, so this did not affect our functionality.
Photo Credit: Dan Longmire