- "Our entry (named 'Automatic Jack') will be 79.4 kilos of slice and dice war machine. A sad wedge design might give us a better chance of winning but we are in this to send as many other robots to the big arena in the sky as possible, preferable in small pieces."
- — The team introduce their machine on the Automatic Jack website[1]
Automatic Jack was a heavyweight robot that attempted to qualify for the second series of Robot Wars. Despite being designed and beginning the building process, the robot was never completed and did not attend the auditions or appear on the show.
Design[]
- "Jack is a heavy-duty warrior robot, Our design intention is to produce a robot that will win by damage rather than by flipping. The robot will be capable of full functionality regardless of being flipped, the weapon systems has also been designed to operate fully regardless of orientation."
- — Automatic Jack on the robot's design[2]
Automatic Jack was originally designed with three weapons - a spike, a drill and a movable chainsaw - and was planned to feature a tubular chassis made out of steel and iron and Kevlar-coated aluminium armour[3]. While the chainsaw would be mounted inside the machine and rotate through 360 degrees, there was a hope that the spike and drill could be interchangeable with other weaponry in the future[4].
- "Jack has 3 weapons. The two secondary weapons (a Drill and a powered spike) are mounted to extend from the front of the vehicle. The primary saw weapon (around which the front half of the chassis is designed) is mounted in such a way as to give it 360 degrees rotation allowing us to attack an enemy above, bellow and in front of the robot. This mechanism also allows us to return the saw to a safe position where it is not exposed (so it is not damage in a high-speed collision)."
- — The Automatic Jack website on their planned weaponry[5]
Qualification[]
Work on Automatic Jack continued into June 1998[6] and even got as far as having a rolling chassis, but despite the best efforts of the team, the robot was not ready in time to attend the qualifiers[7] and withdrew from applying for Series 2.
- "Updates here have been slow recently, partially because I haven't as much time to work on the robot at the moment and partially because it would be incredibly boring for you all to read how I've been cutting yet more metal for the chassis. I'm still trying to track down some 30mm tubing if anyone anyone can help, otherwise I'll just have to bite the bullet and buy a hollow Kart axial (about 50ukp). Anyway, we on alt.robotwars are trying to organise a get-together on the 4th of July so If your interested get on the newsgroup and follow the discussion."
- — The team's final entry in their build diary, dated 23rd June 1998[8]
Series Record[]
| Series | Automatic Jack Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Withdrew application |
| The Third Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fourth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fifth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Sixth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Seventh Wars | Did not enter |
| Series 8 | Did not enter |
| Series 9 | Did not enter |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
References[]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030803041140/http://www.exaflop.org/robotwars/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030803041140/http://www.exaflop.org/robotwars/
- ↑ Automatic Jack website
- ↑ Automatic Jack website
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030803041140/http://www.exaflop.org/robotwars/
- ↑ Automatic Jack Build Diary
- ↑ Private correspondence between snowdog140 and James Sharman, August 2024
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030803041140/http://www.exaflop.org/robotwars/