Gravity

"It's the bad boys of the Seventh Wars!"

- Jayne Middlemiss before its battle with Dantomkia

Gravity was a Dutch robot that competed in the seventh series of Robot Wars. Resembling a snowspeeder in shape, its main weapon was an extremely powerful full-pressure flipper, easily capable of flipping in excess of 300 kilograms (as demonstrated when Growler was flipped by Gravity) and driving through a car at speeds of 10 mph. The armour on the other hand was not the most resiliant. Gravity easily made the series semi-finals, finishing in the top eight, and defeating the seeded 13 Black and Dantomkia in the process, before finally losing to reigning champs Tornado. Gravity's pneumatics system was loosely based on Dantomkia's, as Dantomkia had participated in a Dutch Robot Rumble and been stripped down as part of a workshop to help the Dutch roboteers. The use of buffertanks, multiple inlet 1/2bsp valves and the giant high pressure 100mm bore 180mm stroke ram combined with the uncoupled flipper arm was a first, and spawned many successful copies and derivates. Gravity was the first (and only) robot to overturn Dead Metal, Growler and Cassius Chrome. It also scored the shortest fight ever recorded (flipping Dantomkia out of the arena in six seconds) and was the most successful international robot ever to compete in the UK series

The Gravity seen in the UK Robot Wars was in fact the third version of the machine. The Series 7 model was sold to Team VHS and rebuilt and renamed Hades. The first version competed in the second series of Dutch Robot Wars. It was a polycarbonate box-wedge with a pneumatic flipping arm, that lost to Scrap-2-Saur in the heat final. WJ Dijkstra has now built a new version of Gravity but it has been sold to Team Tie-Rip.

The Team
Team Captain WJ Dijkstra originated from Project One, before temporarily splitting from the other members of Team Mad Science for Series 2 of the Dutch Wars. He built Gravity by himself (although the 63m bore 220mm stroke ram and unfortunately misused hydraulic 4/2 valve were provided by Team Mad Science teammate Maddox and the Bosch 750 based drivetrain by Kos of Team KODOX), before selling a spot on his team on a public forum, won by Mark Nievelstein. During this wars, Dijkstra also teamed up with Jeroen van Lieverloo from Impact and Alex Ruschen from ODT-Zero to create the three way clusterbot √3, with each team member entering an individual featherweight and joining for the clusterbot. For the UK Championship, Dijkstra rebuilt Gravity, but as van Lieverloo and Ruschen did not have their own robots ready, Dijkstra offered them each a place on his own team, as they had become good friends.

Dutch Series 2
Gravity's first battle was against Das Gepäck. Das Gepäck slammed Gravity into the wall, but Gravity was able to get underneath and lift Das Gepäck with its arm. It pushed Das Gepäck into the wall and pinned it before driving it into Sergeant Bash's CPZ and flipping it over. Das Gepäck escaped, but Gravity caught it and again forced it into Bash's CPZ, this time flipping it up against the wall. Bash freed Das Gepäck, and time ran out, meaning the jury would be called upon to make a decision. They ruled in favour of Gravity. In the next round, Gravity faced Bloody Murder Weapon. Gravity's flipper was not working, but its pushing power was sufficient enough to push Bloody Murder Weapon into Growler's CPZ. After Growler released it, Gravity simply pushed it in again. Gravity tried twice more to push Bloody Murder Weapon into a CPZ, but Bloody Murder Weapon escaped unharmed. Persistently, Gravity pushed Bloody Murder Weapon into a CPZ again, and this time Sir Killalot picked up Bloody Murder Weapon and spun it around the arena, releasing it just as the clock ran out. The jury's decision was, predictably, in favour of Gravity. In the Heat Final, Gravity faced Scrap-2-Saur. It managed to dodge Scrap-2-Saur's flipper for a few moments, but Scrap-2-Saur eventually got underneath and flipped it. It righted Gravity immediately after, only to flip it again. "Technical ****ing knockout!"

- Eric Corton's assessment of the situation. Gravity's flipper was still not working, so it was defenceless as Scrap-2-Saur pushed it into the CPZ, where Dead Metal sliced through its tyres. Gravity was counted out, and Matilda charged in with her flywheel, destroying Gravity's left side and tearing out its internals. Gravity was placed on the floor flipper, and the force of the flip caused Gravity's CO2 canister to separate from its hose and go skittering across the arena, propelled by its rapidly escaping gas. The CO2 canister eventually fell into the pit, followed shortly by Gravity.

UK Series 7
"The bad boys of the Seventh Wars..."

- Jayne Middlemiss on Gravity

Gravity made a tremendous start to its heat as it went up against Hydra, Thor and Hodaf the Bad in Round 1. Gravity tossed Hydra around the arena with ease. Hydra tried to flee to attack Hodaf the Bad, but Gravity picked it up Hydra again. Gravity then flipped it, in an attempt to throw Hydra out of the arena, Hydra fell on the arena wall, destroying a section of it. Gravity then threw Hydra from the arena and into a camera, before cease was called for safety reasons. The judges marked the criteria up until cease was called, and Gravity moved through, along with Thor. In the second round of the heat, Gravity went up against the seventh seeds, 13 Black, Gravity was by far the more aggressive robot, 13 Black spent much of the battle upside down after just one flip from Gravity, but after a while, Sir Killalot came in and righted 13 Black, before Gravity picked up 13 Black again, accidentally throwing the previous Semi-Finalists out of the arena with a flair.

It is known that before the heat final, and possibly before the semi-final, that Gravity had to lower the power of its flipper. This may have come as a result of Gravity damaging the arena wall and camera in its first battle, and this may also explain why Gravity did not attempt to throw 13 Black or Lightning out of the arena.

Gravity then met fellow newcomers to the UK main competition Lightning in the heat final, using its powerful flipper to send Lightning flying high into the air, which Lightning could not escape due to entering the arena with a punctured tyre. After a long while of flipping Lightning up in the air, Gravity finally managed to force Lightning to break down, Gravity then threw Shunt and Dead Metal over, leaving Refbot as the only other mobile machine. Refbot showed Gravity the red card, but Lightning was already counted out therefore Gravity had already qualified for the series semi-finals.

In the first round of the Series Semi-Finals, Gravity was placed up against the number 5 seeds Dantomkia. In the battle, Gravity very quickly slid beneath Dantomkia and rushed over to the arena side wall, throwing Dantomkia from the arena in less than 6 seconds, setting the incumbent record for the shortest UK fight ever. "That stunned even them. They can't believe it."

- Jonathan Pearce on the reaction of the quick battle

This quick victory put Gravity up against the reigning champions, Tornado, in the second round of the Semi-Finals. In this battle, Tornado was the quicker machine, and slammed it into the arena wall and then into Sir Killalot's CPZ. Gravity sustained a puncture and Tornado continued to push it around the arena. Gravity finally got underneath Tornado and flipped it high into the air and upside-down. Tornado shoved Gravity again, but Gravity flipped Tornado the right way up. Tornado activated the pit release button and pushed Gravity onto the pit just as it was opening, and Gravity fell into oblivion. "And Gravity are on the pit, and caught there. And descending away from the Seventh Wars."

- Jonathan Pearce as Gravity's reign of terror ends

Gravity represented the Netherlands in The Third World Championship. Scraptosaur and Tough As Nails were its opponents. Tough As Nails pitted Scraptosaur, then chased Gravity around the arena and caught it, but Gravity escaped and flipped Tough As Nails. Tough As Nails was not affected, and it grabbed Gravity, pitting it alongside Scraptosaur.

Gravity also participated in the last battle to be filmed in the Robot Wars Arena, the House Robot Rebellion, competing alongside Behemoth. Gravity was bought in as a substitute for Bigger Brother, who was originally due to fight in the battle, but was replaced after aiding in an assault on the House Robots in The All Stars tournament, the producers feeling that it had attacked the House Robots too often. As Gravity had already defeated two House Robots, its inclusion in this battle was very fitting. Gravity was rammed by Growler in the opening seconds, but recovered and flipped Growler onto its back fairly quickly. Behemoth meanwhile activated the pit just as Cassius Chrome drove over it. Gravity used this opportunity to flip Cassius Chrome onto its side over the pit, but Refbot would later free the trapped House Robot. Gravity tried to attack Mr. Psycho but could not flip it, and the colossal House Robot smashed Gravity with its hammer, immobilising it. Behemoth attempted to use the driveless but still actively armed Gravity as a weapon against the House Robots, but Gravity's flipper ran out of gas, and Cassius Chrome shoved them apart. Behemoth immobilised Mr. Psycho, and the audience decided that Behemoth and Gravity were the winners of the House Robot Rebellion. Later on the damage caused by the hammer blows from Mr. Psycho was discovered to be nothing more than the long antenna dropping from the supporting tube into the robot. The sensitive failsafes of the Mythras speedos didn't accept the radio controls any more, but the simple RC switch that commanded the flipper didn't have that problem.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * UK Wins: 5
 * UK Losses: 2
 * Dutch Wins: 2
 * Dutch Losses: 1

UK Series

 * Series 1-6: Did not enter
 * Series 7: Semi-Finals, Round 2

Dutch Series

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Heat Final and entered with √3

Robot Wars Live Events
Gravity 5.2 competed in the first live event of the new Robot Wars at Portsmouth in March 2013.

Trivia

 * Gravity was one of the two competitor robots to fight in the final ever battle filmed in the Robot Wars Arena, fighting alongside Behemoth in the House Robot Rebellion.
 * Every house robot except Matilda was flipped by either Team Firestorm or Gravity. Ironically, Matilda inflicted grievous damage to both of them at one point.
 * Like Anty B, there was a model of the robot which only competed in live competitions.
 * Gravity holds the record for the shortest battle in Robot Wars televised history by flipping Dantomkia out of the arena in a mere 6 seconds. However, since this fight, in March 2012, Kronic defeated Iron-Awe in a Roaming Robots event in just 4 seconds, also by flipping it out of the arena, making this the new record for the shortest battle in all FRA competitions.