Draven

"So, they think they can topple the king with the 4-tonne hydraulic jaw on a raisable arm?"

- Jonathan Pearce in the Wild Card Warriors

Draven is a competitor robot from Cranbrook, Kent, that competed in the first series of Robot Wars Extreme and Series 8-9 of Robot Wars. It took part in a Wild Card Warrior battle against series veteran King B Powerworks in Extreme 1, but lost, and was defeated in its Group Battle in Series 8 after being damaged and immobilised by M.R. Speed Squared.

The team was formed by a group of friends who met at the University of York, where they were studying Electronic Engineering. The Series 8 and 9 teams work together at a hand-dryer company - Dan Heggs and Leigh Salmon applied for a place on the team through this connection.

Design
Draven is a six-wheeled box-shaped robot armed with a hydraulic crushing jaw that operates with 4 tonnes of pressure. The jaw is mounted on a lifting arm, which allows the robot to lift approximately 200kg and self-right whenever it is flipped, although these actions have yet to be seen in televised combat.

For its appearance in Robot Wars Extreme, Draven was painted silver all over, and was fitted with blue LED's to illuminate its eyes. However, these did not show up on-screen as well as the team had hoped, so they were later replaced with red LEDs.

In 2016, Draven's armour was made of a carbon-fibre and Kevlar composite shell, with bonded-on titanium plates, giving it a black and silver colour scheme. The robot weighed 110kg in Series 8.

Draven was updated again for Series 9. It features a new cad-based chassis, new drive motors, motor controllers, batteries, armour, pump with BLDC motor, and new radio systems. The robot's body-shape and weaponry remains similar, but Draven returned to its silver colour-scheme. Its jaw now bites at double the speed of the previous version.

Etymology
"...and Anthrax were all talk. To be honest, two years went into building this robot, that was disappointing."

- Jonathan Pearce's original commentary at the conclusion of the Wild Card Warrior battle

Draven was originally given the name Anthrax and this name was used during the original airing of its Robot Wars Extreme appearance on BBC Choice. By the time the episode reached BBC Two, however, the name had to be changed due to an anthrax scare in the USA which occurred at the time. All usage of the original Anthrax name was removed and all subsequent airings of the episode remained this way, although Draven is still referred to by its original name in Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide. This case was very similar to Roadblock years before, which had also required a name change due to concerns about its original name, Road Rage, being raised before filming of Series 1 began. "...and once again it's the more experienced machine, King B Powerworks, that wins it!"

- Jonathan Pearce's alternate commentary at the same moment

The name Draven is inspired by the 1994 film The Crow, where the main character is called Eric Draven, and the robot Draven's beak is much like that of a crow. An official BBC press release referred to the Series 9 version of Draven as Lord Draven, although this name has yet to be seen outside of this context. Draven's team later revealed that the Lord Draven name was a suggestion from the production crew, but the team were not interested in using it. "Lord Draven was something some of the production guys decided they liked the sound of and tried to get us to take it on board. Draven's lore is linked to The Crow so it simply doesn't fit."

- Draven's Facebook page on "Lord Draven"

Qualification
Prior to entering Series 8, Draven had attempted to enter the original series of Robot Wars three times, but failed on every occasion as a result of its poor reliability. Anthrax first failed to qualify for Series 4, where it entered the arena but never moved. It then lost its qualifier in Series 5 after it broke down and was reportedly dumped out of the arena by Shunt. Draven attempted to enter again in Series 6, but lost to S.M.I.D.S.Y. in its qualifier, and did not attempt to enter Series 7. Draven finally qualified for a main series in 2016 when the qualification process changed to open applications, which also allowed Draven to qualify for Series 9.

Extreme 1
"It actually looks quite nasty, it's little bit of a worry really 'cause we're just the sort of robot he'd like to take on, a nice low flat one that he can get his jaw around and crush it up"

- Simon Harrison of the King B team before the fight

Draven was given its first chance to compete in the Wild Card Warriors, drawn against former Semi-Finalist and Tag Team Terror winner King B Powerworks, which was the inspiration for Draven's design. Anarchic Engineering were able to organise this battle with their inspiration after Pussycat was unable to compete.

"That wasn't *entirely* coincidental, was it Simon Harrison? We were supposed to face Pussycat but they were banned due to having used a shattering blade. We couldn't return the following day so had to find someone to fight there and then. So I did indeed tap up my mate..."

- Draven's Facebook page on why they fought King B Powerworks

The battle started, and Draven manoeuvred its way towards the back of King B Powerworks, as the latter's saw blade was not spinning. However, Draven could not use its weapon either, and failed to grip King B Powerworks when it had various opportunities. Draven backed King B Powerworks into an empty CPZ, but was stabbed side-on by King B's prongs in retaliation. "The crow-like beak of Draven - shines, gleams, can it penetrate and crush in this Wild Card Warrior battle?"

- Jonathan Pearce

Draven and King B Powerworks attempted to attack each other in vain, causing no external damage, until Draven started to lose a noticeable amount of speed. At this stage, King B Powerworks used its prongs to wedge underneath Draven and lift it up, slotting the weaponry into one of Draven's wheelguards. Draven lifted its head up and down to show mobility, but it was pushed into the pit release button and turned directly into the pit.

Series 8
Draven competed in Episode 2, facing fellow newcomers Chimera and Foxic, as well as a new robot from a veteran team, M.R. Speed Squared, in the first round. "We're certainly hoping to get through this part, although our big achilles heel is probably spinning robots and we're up against at least one"

- Anarchic Engineers

Draven made the first move in the qualifier, driving towards Foxic, but ending up on top of its wedge. Draven chased Foxic across the arena, catching up and slotting underneath the back of it, but failed to use its crushing jaw. Draven pushed Chimera, which had already lost a wheel, beyond the flame pit and into an empty CPZ. However, despite the strong start, Draven was then targeted by M.R. Speed Squared, which ripped a piece of armour away. Draven returned to attack the struggling Foxic, but M.R. Speed Squared caught up, and ripped another panel from Draven. This blow immobilised Draven, and it was counted out, eliminating it from the competition. "We had terrible control problems, I'm not sure why, it was glitching backwards and forwards!"

- Anarchic Engineers

Series 9
Draven will compete in Episode 2.

Results

 * }

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 2

Outside Robot Wars
Following its appearance in Extreme, Draven was rebuilt, and made two appearances the ESAT/BT young scientist exhibition in Dublin, where it appeared alongside King B Powerworks, Bigger Brother, Razer, Panic Attack and Chaos 2.

Trivia

 * When teams were given permission to publicly reveal their participation in Series 9 over social media, Draven was the first robot to be revealed this way.