Walkerbots

A Walkerbot or Walker was a robot using 'legs' as locomotion, instead of the traditional wheels or tracks. Walkerbots were rare, and success was thin on the ground, with only two robots escaping the first round with a walking robot, one of which reached a heat final. Walkerbots had the benefit of being allowed twice the weight limit, a rule put in place to encourage variation of design, and also as a result that the walking mechanism would tend to be far heavier than a wheeled alternative. Most walking robots tended to be very heavily armoured, but featured little weaponry, notable exceptions being Anarchy and RT81.

Walking robots were not particularly popular in Robot Wars, but were far more prominent in its sister show Techno Games, where there was an event, the Sprint, designed to test walking machines. This competition featured such famous Robot Wars faces as Team Power with Tecumseh and Team Nemesis with Ulysses.

Walkerbots could weigh up to 200kg in the original TV series of Robot Wars. However, they were somewhat discouraged in 2016, as the walkerbot weight limit for the new series was reduced to 135kg, only 25kg higher than the natural weight limit.

List of Walkerbots
Fourteen walkers took part in a Robot Wars competition, broken down into the following weight classes:

Featherweights
Featherweight walkerbots could weigh up to 24kg
 * Mammoth (Featherweight)
 * Neoteric

Lightweights
Lightweight walkerbots could weigh up to 54kg
 * Mammoth (Lightweight)

Middleweights
Middleweight walkerbots could weigh up to 108kg
 * Anarachnid
 * Stomp

Heavyweights
Heavyweight walkerbots could weigh up to:
 * 160kg - Series 1-4
 * 200kg - Series 5-7
 * 135kg - 2016 series


 * Anarchy
 * Black Widow
 * Clawed Hopper
 * Eleven
 * Iron Man
 * Jim Struts
 * Millennium Bug
 * Miss Struts
 * Namazu
 * RT81

Anarchy, built by Team 101, was by far the most successful walker in UK Robot Wars, winning an award for best engineering, having above average manoeuvrability and speed by walkers' standards, and having decent weaponry, which it used to good effect. It made the Heat Final in Series 6 and only lost to the seeded Tornado, who went on to win the series. The only other walker to pass round one in the main UK series and the first was Clawed Hopper, which reached Round 2 of its heat in Series 5 and lost to Pussycat, having scraped through the first round on the back of Twister's sudden breakdown. Jim Struts, the first walker in Robot Wars, won the Reserve Rumble in Series 2 against several robots with wheels, and was the only other walking machine to win a battle (save for the Walker Battles of Series 3). Jim Struts, due to its slower speed, took little part in the battle, allowing opponents to be immobilised around it, before holding its own against Bumblebot to secure victory.

During the Third Wars, two special Walker Battles were held as a side event to complement the main competition. The two battles saw Miss Struts fight Stomp, and Anarachnid fight Mammoth. Neither of these fights were particularly entertaining, but Stomp became the first walker with a zero turning circle, due to a unique turntable mechanism. This feat was not repeated until much later on in Robot Wars' run. Another bot called Iron Man attended the qualifiers for these battles but did not qualify after being deemed too intimidating by producers.

Innovation
When Jim Struts appeared on television, it was an almost weapon-less box (technically it did feature a special mode on its legs to flick opponents over), that was overweight even for a walker. The second incarnation of Walkers were more effective and more innovative, Stomp would even spin on the spot. Like the previous series, no walkers qualified for the main competition. This would change, however, for the fourth series, where two walkers would qualify. Millennium Bug was sluggish, at only 4mph, but there was a definite improvement for this series. Millennium Bug, despite its extra weight, was tipped onto its side and eliminated. Clawed Hopper also suffered the fate of being flipped, but would return in Series 5, to secure a shock victory against the experienced Twister, before being soundly beaten by Pussycat. The first victory of a walking machine over a wheeled robot appeared to mark a sign of how far walkers had progressed, but this was something of a fluke, Black Widow and Eleven, the other two walking robots in the series, were both convincingly beaten. After this came the impressive Anarchy, that was unlucky to be drawn in the same heat as Tornado, who would go on to win the series. Easily controlling the two fights it won, Anarchy is considered to be the best true walker fighting machine ever. Anarchy's innovations were impressive, and far beyond what any walker had previously achieved, cleverly balancing good armament with speed, agility and killing power with its axe and flipper.

Shufflebots
A variation of the walker does away with the legs, instead having sections, or "banks", of feet in line with each other. The "feet" move in an elliptical pattern, guided by a camshaft mechanism. Although never seen in the UK Championship, the American Drillzilla, the German Ansgar and the Dutch Scarab utilised this "shuffling" mechanism. Unlike true walkerbots, shufflebots tended to be much faster and had more room for efficient weapons, as well as being much more successful. Shufflebots were originally classed as walkers and allowed double the weight limit in their class, until 2001 when the distinction between walkers and shufflers was officially recognized in BattleBots (after Son of Whyachi won, perhaps controversially, the heavyweight division), and the shufflers were excluded from the walkerbot weight advantage. This was the reason that Drillzilla did not return for the second season of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors. However, this rule change was not immediately recognised by Mentorn, and therefore not enforced in Europe until Series 6.

Despite the rule change reducing the weight limit to 150kg, the 200kg shufflebot Ansgar was allowed to compete in German Robot Wars (which was filmed alongside Series 6) The Third World Championship during Series 7.

Shufflebots were further handicapped in 2016, with the weight limit for the new series being reduced from 150kg to 125kg, a mere 15kg heavier than a wheeled heavyweight robot, and 10kg less than a conventional walker.

List of Shufflebots
Three shufflebots took part in a Robot Wars competition, both the same weight class:

Heavyweights

 * Heavyweight shufflebots could weigh up to:
 * 160kg - Series 1-4
 * 200kg - Series 5
 * 150kg - Series 6-7
 * 135kg - 2016 series


 * Drillzilla
 * Ansgar's Revenge
 * Ansgar 3
 * Scarab