Rapid

Rapid is a heavyweight robot which competed in Series 9 of Robot Wars, entered by design and manufacturing firm RPD International.

Design
Rapid was built through heavy use of CNC, and is box-wedge shaped, armoured in a reflective metal. Its weapon is a very broad flipper with seven tonnes of force, which also serves as the robot's self-righting mechanism. Rapid is driven by four wheels towards the back of its shell. The robot's shape is somewhat reminiscent of Turbulence. According to the Robot Wars website, Rapid cost £25,000 to build. This can be explained by the CNC techniques made available by Josh Valman's company RPD International, and Rapid uses top-of-the-line components including motors valued at £1,000. Rapid is reportedly capable of throwing a transit van one metre into the air.



However, the team referred to their robot as 'completely overengineered', and ultimately their forfeit from the competition was because of the inaccessibility of Rapid's parts during the repair process, and the time it would take to remanufacture essential parts.

Series 9
Rapid competed in Episode 1. It was the only newcomer in its melee as it faced former Grand Finalist Terrorhurtz, alongside two halves of Team Nuts, Nuts 2 and Jellyfish.

As soon as activate was called, Rapid targeted the lightest machine in the arena, and launched Jellyfish into the air. Rapid required a few seconds to close its flipper, where it was pursued by Terrorhurtz, but once the flipper had retracted, Rapid stormed under Jellyfish, and on a second charge, trapped it on top of the flipper, and backed it into the arena wall. Rapid lined Jellyfish up against the arena wall, where its next flip powerfully threw Jellyfish backwards. Team RPD noticed that Nuts 2 was suffering from mobility issues, so Rapid clamped its open flipper onto the chains of Nuts, and dragged it towards Matilda, which threw Nuts 2 out of the arena with her flywheel. Rapid returned to Jellyfish, pushing it into an empty CPZ to throw it high once more, although Rapid then sustained a blow from Terrorhurtz. Rapid's flip has caused Jellyfish to lose fluent control, so Rapid fled from the pursuing Terrorhurtz, failing to breach its wedge, but cease was called and both robots qualified, with Rapid only sustaining minor damage to its wedge.

In the second round, Rapid was drawn against vertical spinner Aftershock, entered by Grand Finalists from the previous series Team Shock. "If we go out of the competition, it's going to be our fault, I don't think it'll be the opponent."

- Josh Valman in his VT

Rapid was not hesitant in its attack, and snuck straight under the front ground clearance of Aftershock, driving it into the arena wall and flipping it high, causing the spinner to land on its disc, and self-right. However, while Rapid's flipper was still open, Aftershock hit it from underneath, and knocked the robot towards Sir Killalot. Rapid was still mobile, but on another charge, it rode up the ground clearance of Aftershock, and was thrown over. Rapid attempted to self-right, but threw itself straight back onto its open flipper, and tumbled onto its back. Rapid's flipper would not close, leaving it unable to self-right, so it was counted out and defeated by knockout. "£25,000 worth of machinery, hours and hours of work ends up like that! Sympathy? None here!"

- Jonathan Pearce

It was revealed after this battle that Aftershock had significantly bent the flipper arm, which required cutting in half and re-welding straight. During reassembly of the robot before the next fight the gearbox was discovered to be seized within Rapid that would normally take one hour to repair meaning Rapid was unable to compete in the remainder of the second round, and the team forfeited from the competition, and Rapid was replaced by Jellyfish, to which the team offered their spare speed controller. "Something's got into the gearbox. Problem is, the gearbox is just too deep inside for us to fix that in time, so I think we're going to have to forfeit, gonna be too long to get back into the game."

- Josh Valman

Results

 * }

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 1
 * Losses: 1

Outside Robot Wars
Josh Valman's first robot was a lower weight class competitor known as Shovit which fought Dave Lawrie's robot at what was their first event. Team driver Andy built an antweight called Anticide, the most successful UK antweight robot.

Trivia

 * The team are all employees at RPD International, the company owned by Josh Valman, hence the robot's name.
 * As the £25,000 valuations of Storm 2 and Kan-Opener were spent across the entire competitive histories of those robots, spanning over a decade, Rapid is the most expensive robot to be purpose-built for a series of Robot Wars.
 * Team RPD had a memorable 'hero shot' when they entered the arena, as Josh Valman opened an umbrella in the face of the steam jets. This umbrella actually belonged to Tara Ware.