Expulsion

Expulsion was a robot which competed in Series 9 of Robot Wars, entered by Brentwood School's Technology and Physics department, built on a budget of £1000. Despite its innovative design, it fell in the first round due to mobility issues.

Design
"The weapon has the ability to spin one way to slash the opponent and the other way to skewer them, whilst the blades move at an impressive 20 times a second"

- The Robot Wars website

Expulsion used a two-wheel drive system and features a large box-shaped chassis with a unique curved front end. Its armour features several holes in it to save weight, and the robot's top was decorated with flame graphics and the Brentwood School logo. Expulsion's weapon was a black horizontal flywheel made out of 10mm steel and featuring four teeth, spun at 1200rpm (77.3mph). Uniquely, the teeth retracted within Expulsion's disc, and they emerge when the flywheel accelerates. The robot's name was cut out of the robot’s back panel, which was also spiked. However, weight restrictions required Expulsion's steel armour to be thinner than the Brentwood School team intended. The robot could be stranded on its side, and was slow at 5mph.

"The innovative 'blade sandwich' design came about after some unusual brainstorming. Team Captain Georgina Henwood explained: “We were really hungry when we first sat down to start designing. We were thinking about bagels and the whole ‘ring with spikes sandwiched in between’ came out of that train of thought!""

- Brentwood School

Series 9
Expulsion competed in Episode 3, where it faced three veterans; Foxic, M.R. Speed Squared, and Heavy Metal. Team Expulsion demonstrated their weapon to Dara Ó Briain using a cardboard model, spinning the model disc in the opposite direction.

Expulsion started the battle slowly, as it could seemingly only turn left, having struggled to enter the arena in the first place. This still allowed the team to get their weapon up to speed, but it was charged by Foxic, and then sustained a direct hit from M.R. Speed Squared. Heavy Metal pushed Expulsion towards Sir Killalot, where it was flipped by the arena spike, landing on its side before being knocked down by Foxic.

Expulsion was rendered fully immobile, and sustained a glancing blow from M.R. Speed Squared. Sir Killalot moved Expulsion from its position, but it took more damage from two M.R. Speed Squared attacks, and was hit one last time when M.R. Speed Squared rebounded off Heavy Metal. Foxic had also been immobilised by the floor flipper, so Expulsion was counted out at the same time, and both were eliminated from the battle, while M.R. Speed Squared and Heavy Metal progressed.

After 'cease' was called, Sir Killalot picked up Expulsion and placed it on the floor flipper, where it was thrown up, although these attacks were not shown on television.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 1

Outside Robot Wars
Following Robot Wars, a press release from Brentwood School claimed that the students were also working on "Expulsion: The Next Generation", which referred to a brand-new robot which debuted at Extreme Robots in Manchester, having only attended a Robots Live! event as a backstage display. It was intended to use its new spinning weapon in battle, but the roof of the event was deemed unsafe, and Expulsion fought without a weapon. It did not win any fights, but was held aloft spectacularly by Big Nipper, and held up to blows from Gabriel.

Aside from Expulsion, the team built a second robot, Suspension, a 70kg robot armed with a set of rear flails shaped into the letters of Suspension's name. It made its live events debut at the Robots Live! event in Burgess Hill, where it was thrown out of the arena by Weird Alice in one battle and immobilised in another against Eruption and Big Nipper. Later in the same month, Suspension competed at the same Extreme Robots event as Expulsion, managing to pick up a combat win.

Trivia

 * Expulsion was first unofficially revealed by Professor Noel Sharkey via Twitter on December 6th, 2016, supporting the presence of female team members. Team Expulsion later confirmed their qualification on February 24th, 2017.
 * Although he was not officially a member of the team, the Expulsion project was led by Design & Technology teacher Thomas Walland.
 * Footage of Explusion's chassis being welded is also used for the opening/ending titles for the Facebook video series, How to Build a Robot.