WJ Dijkstra

William "WJ" Dijkstra was a prominent roboteer in Robot Wars and Dutch Robot Wars. He is best known for Gravity, a series of robots with flippers, the third of which reached the top eight in Series 7. They were sequentially numbered 1-5, although during their TV appearances, they were known simply as Gravity.

WJ was the captain of Team Mad Science (also known as Mad Science Robotics or Team Madmen) and worked with Dutch Greg Cathalina and Belgian roboteers Mario "Maddox" de Jongh and Babeth van Son to build and enter Project One in Dutch Series 1 (although Babeth did not appear on TV with Team Madmen because of the three team members limit, Team Flextreem accepted her as the third member, a practise not uncommon with the Dutch/Belgian Roboteers). After this, WJ split from the other team members and built all of the team's other robots on his own, including all versions of Gravity and Elevation, one third of the clusterbot √3. However, WJ did invite the other two members of the √3 team, Jeroen van Lieverloo from Impact and Alexander Russchen from ODT-Zero, along to UK Series 7 as his teammates as they did not have their own robots ready in time. He also sold a spot on his team for Dutch Series 2 on a public forum, which was won by Mark Nievelstein.

Dutch Series 1
Team Mad Science entered Dutch Series 1 with Project One. The robot was renowned as the favourite to win, but broke down and lost in the first round.

Dutch Series 2
"I knew my weapon of choice was a flipper (why a flipper? Quickly disables an opponent without really destroying it)"

- WJ Dijkstra

WJ built two different robots for Dutch Series 2. His main project was Gravity 1, a simple box-wedge with a hydraulic flipper. The other was √3, a three-part clusterbot, which WJ was responsible for one third of. Despite having just three weeks and no one to assist him, WJ completed both robots in time for Dutch Series 2. Both robots did respectably well, reaching the heat final of their respective heats.

After the Dutch Series had finished, a robotics exhibition was held in The Netherlands, with many Robot Wars experts from England in attendance. One such person was Mike Lambert, who had brought along his robot Dantomkia. He took it apart and showed off the inner workings. WJ made a new version of Gravity, based on the mechanics of Dantomkia. Called Gravity 2, it competed in live events around The Netherlands. WJ intended to use Gravity 2 in Dutch Series 3, but Channel Five did not end up greenlighting a third Dutch Wars.

UK Series 7
WJ stripped down Gravity 2, and converted it into Gravity 3. This version was the most successful yet, with a powerful flipper, capable of throwing opponents high into the air. It was wildly successful in Series 7, defeating the seeded 13 Black and its inspiration Dantomkia to reach the top eight. It also spectacularly flipped Dead Metal, Cassius Chrome, and Growler during the Wars, marking the only time that any of the three had been flipped.

Post Robot Wars
After Series 7, Dijkstra sold Gravity 3 to Marco Van Hek of Team Pika, and built a new version of Gravity, Gravity 4. Though it was not as powerful as it predecessor, it cost less to build and maintain, and met the safety requirements of the live events. This new version of Gravity was a basic box-wedge with a flipper arm, similar to Gravity 1. It was built in only 24 hours with a body made out of wood, it was used in only two events before being retired.

After that, Dijkstra built Gravity 4.5 from scratch. It was a black robot with a blue flipper arm, similar in design to Scraptosaur. It too had a very brief lifespan, appearing in just one event before Dijkstra began work on Gravity 5 "...till now, Gravity 3 was definiately the best, but I think Gravity 5 will be better armoured and maybe even better balanced. If the buffertanks work like they should it might even be more powerful."

- WJ Dijkstra

Wins/Losses

 * UK Wins: 5
 * UK Losses: 2
 * Dutch Wins: 4
 * Dutch Losses: 4

UK Series

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

Dutch Series

 * Series 1: Heat, Round 1 with Project One
 * Series 2: Heat Final with Gravity and √3