Tauron

"Tauron is a fast, fully invertible, highly manoeuvrable, charging robot, equipped with a powerful, reversible, vertical spinning bar. An unusual feature is the articulation which allows the weapon section to swing into the new position when the robot is inverted."

- Team Tauron website on the original robot

Tauron (also known as Tauron Mk 2 in Series 10) was a robot which competed in Series 9 and Series 10 of Robot Wars, entered by a father-and-son team. In Series 9, it was defeated in the first round by fellow newcomer Concussion, after its removable link was knocked out by the latter. The robot's name is a portmanteau of taurus (Latin for 'bull') and automaton (a self-operating machine).

Tauron (Series 9)
"The weapon weighs 13 kilograms and is powered by a brushed DC motor running at 42 volts. This delivers approximately 3,000 revolutions per minute and a tip speed of around 100 metres per second. Tauron features an innovative pivoting design which allows the weapon to function equally lethally when inverted."

- Robot Wars website on Tauron

Tauron was a box-shaped robot armed with a 13kg vertical spinning bar, 65cm in length, made from HARDOX 450, with a maximum speed of 220mph - roughly 3100rpm. The robot was powered by two wheels, which were exposed on top of the robot, making the robot invertible, with top speeds of 12mph. Uniquely, Tauron's bar spinner was mounted on a pivot, so if Tauron was inverted, the weapon would rotate into the upright position, or its direction could be reversed, like IG-88's spinning axe.

Tauron's chassis and exoskeleton were made out of 6mm and 4mm HARDOX 500, with additional 6mm polycarbonate armour. 2x 1.5 horsepower electric motors powered the drive, and the robot used a 32V lithium polymer battery. To conserve weight, many sections were cut out of the HARDOX frame, and the robot was internally lit by red LEDs. The robot's batteries were two ZIPPY Flightmax 8000mAh 5S1P 30C, running at 18.5 volts.

"Tom has been a Robot Wars fan since he was a child, and says he always dreamed of entering. He realised entering Robot Wars was a possibility when the new series started. He now works as video games tester in Birmingham and has used these skills in building Tauron. Tim has always been interested in how things work, and has made lots of things from musical instruments to a 13’ boat, which was built in the 13’6” living room of the family home. Tauron is Tim’s first venture into robotics."

- Robot Wars website on the origins of Tauron

Tauron Mk 2 (Series 10)
The Series 10 version of Tauron, referred to as Tauron Mk II by the team, was a complete rebuild of the previous machine. Tauron Mk 2 featured a much more compact design, with a narrower front end and a shorter rear, but was still two-wheel driven and invertible. The robot's bar spinner was visibly thicker at 600mm, and holes were cut out of it to reduce its weight to 18kg - a 5kg increase over the weapon of the original version. The bar spinner runs at 3,600rpm, for a tip speed of 244mph. The pivot in which the bar spinner was held is now found within the centre of Tauron Mk 2, instead of being the robot's entire front end as before. Eyes were designed into the front of the robot for aesthetics. However, Tauron Mk 2 can still be stranded on its flat sides.

Qualification
Like Hobgoblin, Tauron was one of only a small selection of robots to qualify for Robot Wars despite not being built at the time of application. Team Tauron instead applied for Series 9 using a CAD of Tauron and a wooden prototype, but this was enough for Tauron to be accepted into the series.

For Series 10, Team Tauron returned with the new design of Tauron Mk 2, but due to the show featuring only 30 robots as opposed to the previous 40, there was no longer room for Tauron in the initial line-up of the series. However, the team were invited to bring their robot to filming as a reserve, and when Triforce withdrew from the competition due to locomotion issues, Tauron Mk 2 took its place, the first reserve to join the main competition.

Series 9
Tauron competed in Heat 3. In its Group Battle, it faced Series 8 fourth-place finisher Thor, Series 8 returnee Chimera2 and fellow newcomer Concussion, whose team formed a friendship with Team Tauron after sharing a workbench with them in the pits. Tauron started the battle by dodging Concussion's initial charge and driving away from Thor, its spinning bar sending sparks flying as it hit Thor's side while the latter tried to push it. It was then buffeted away by a slam from Concussion, the impact causing more sparks to fly and dislodging Tauron's removable link, leaving it immobilised close to the wall. "And what is, err, Tauron doing? Hello, TAURON! What are you doing? Not a lot."

- Jonathan Pearce notices Tauron's immobility Tauron was briefly nudged aside as Thor charged after Concussion and Chimera2, and was eventually eliminated from Series 9 along with Chimera2, which became immobilised later on in the battle. Off-screen, Tauron's top armour was punctured by Shunt, and the robot was heated over the flame pit. "Tauron, what happened to you, Tom and Tim? Oh deary, deary me!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Tauron and Chimera2 are eliminated

Following this loss, Tauron's link was plugged back into the robot, and proved to be fully functional in the test arena. Team Tauron remained on-site in case other teams withdrew, but Tauron ultimately did not return to the arena.

Series 10
Tauron Mk 2 competed in Heat 4, replacing Triforce.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 1

Outside Robot Wars
With help from Dorset Roboteering Team, Series 9's version of Tauron was converted to be safe for live events, while spinning weapons were still deemed unsafe. Tauron's gear ratio was altered to compensate for a new weapon, an axe in the shape of Tauron's logo, mounted in the same place as the spinning bar before it.

At Extreme Robots in Guildford, Tauron fought Behemoth, Atom and Expulsion, but its axe weapon broke early into the fight, and it was stranded on its side by Behemoth for a large portion of the match. It also broke down in a match with Expulsion, Atom, Suspension and Cyclone. It also fought Ripper and Saint but did not win. In the Tag Team event, it partnered with Thor to battle Audacious and Weird mAlice, but Tauron broke down upon its first contact with Audacious.

To test the reliability of Tauron Mk 2, the team challenged Tornado to a practice battle on the streets of the team's village. Tauron was willingly pushed around by Tornado, and retaliated with slams of its own.

The new, third version of Tauron competed at Extreme Robots in Gloucester, where spinning weapons were now legalised. The weapon bar was attached but not yet connected to the motor, so not used in battle with Manta, Two-Headed Death Flamingo and Vortex, where it was the only robot to take Manta to a Judges' decision, but lost. It also fought Gabriel, Audacious and Griffalo, pushing the latter into the pit. In battle with Eruption, Two-Headed Death Flamingo and Beast, Tauron eventually became stranded on its own weapon. Tauron and Two-Headed Death Flamingo then joined forces and won a Tag Team match against Chimera and Rattler on a Judges' decision.

In addition to Tauron, Team Tauron have built and competed with three robots in lighter weight classes:
 * Straddle, a two-wheeled featherweight axlebot with a vertical bar spinner and a design initially inspired by Gabriel. Straddle made its combat debut at the 2017 FRA Featherweight International Championships, where it finished thirteenth in the main championship, won a whiteboard battle and finished runner-up in a 20-way 'Gladiator' battle.
 * Spectre - A weaponless prototype for Straddle, which competed at live events to test the latter's design and drive systems prior to its completion.
 * T.T.R.E. (The Tim Rackers Experience) - an antweight with an horizontal asymmetrical bar spinner, which debuted at Antweight World Series 53 in November 2017.

Trivia

 * The Robot Wars website and Robot Wars: The Official Handbook erroneously refer to Tauron's weapon as a spinning drum.
 * Excluding Ka-Pow!'s appearance in the Series 8 pilot, Tauron is the first competitor in the rebooted series to come from Bedfordshire.
 * The producers had a reserve robot on standby in case Tauron failed its safety tests. Team Tauron believed that the reserve team had already filmed an interview with Dara Ó Briain.
 * After Team Tauron competed in Series 9, Andrew Marchant of Team Tornado got in touch with them, revealing that he and Team Tauron live in the same small village. The Series 9 Tauron and Tornado were then brought together for photographs; Tauron Mk 2 later fought the latter in a 'test fight' to prove its reliability ahead of its appearance in Series 10.