Gravity

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). 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 flipperarm was a first, and spawned many successful copies and derivates.

The Gravity seen in the UK Robot Wars was in fact the second version of the machine. The first version competed in the second series of Dutch Robot Wars, losing in the heat final. 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. WJ Dijkstra has now built a new version of Gravity and is preparing to enter it in Roaming Robots events.

The Team
Team Captain WJ Dijkstra originated from Project One, before splitting from the other members of Team Mad Science for Series 2 of the Dutch Wars. He built Gravity by himself, 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 heavyweight 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.

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

- Jayne Middlemiss on Gravity

Gravity made a tremendous start to its heat against Hydra, Thor and Hodaf the Bad, tossing Hydra around the arena. 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, before cease was called for safety reasons. The judges marked the criteria up until cease, and Gravity moved through, along with Thor. In the second round, Gravity threw the seeds, 13 Black, from the arena with flair. It met Lightning in the heat final, using its powerful flipper to send Lightning flying high into the air. After Lightning broke down, Gravity threw Shunt and Dead Metal over, leaving Refbot as the only other mobile robot. Refbot showed Gravity a red card, but Gravity had already qualified for the semi-finals.

In these, Gravity slid beneath Dantomkia and rushed the arena wall, throwing Dantomkia from the arena in less than 6 seconds. This quick victory put Gravity up against the reigning champs, Tornado. Tornado was the quicker, and slammed it into the arena wall and then into Sir Killalot. 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.

Gravity also participated in the House Robot Rebellion, alongside Behemoth. As Gravity had already defeated two House Robots, its inclusion was very fitting. Gravity threw Growler onto its back in the opening seconds, before flipping the trapped Cassius Chrome into the pit. However, when attacking Mr. Psycho, 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 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 hammerblows from Mr. Psycho was 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 anymore, but the simple RC switch that commanded the flipper didn't have that problem.

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.

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