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Mega Hurts 2
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Big Dave 3 was a heavyweight robot which was originally intended to enter Series 10 of Robot Wars. Despite the team beginning construction and testing ahead of the series, it was not selected to compete. Builders ARC Robotics also applied for the proposed Series 10 featherweight competition with Catch Me If You Can, though the event would end up being postponed indefinitely.[3] A redesigned version of Big Dave 3 was conceptualised and entered the build process ahead of a possible eleventh series, though the Robot Wars reboot would not be renewed beyond Series 10.

Design[]

Team ARC

Team ARC with their initial work-in-progress build of Big Dave 3

According to ARC Robotics' build and video diaries, the iteration of Big Dave 3 intended for Series 10 was to be an invertible box-shaped robot with two-wheel drive and go-kart tyres. Drive was provided in the initial build by a pair of Alien Power Systems C8085 brushless outrunner motors, connected to the wheels by belt systems with a 5:1 reduction ratio.[4][5][6][7][8]

Big Dave 3's weapon was to be a vertical drum spinner weighing 40kg. The drum, supported by 15mm bulkheads and taper roller bearings at the front, was fabricated out of EN24 steel. A pair of large 'impactors' made from H13 tool steel were intended to be fitted at the drum's outer surface. Big Dave 3's weapon system utilised a separate TP Power brushless inrunner motor and 'V Belt' drive, operating in conjunction with a 300A ESC. The motor was rated at 12hp, providing the drum with a theoretical force of 100kJ at full speed. ARC Robotics claimed that, had Big Dave 3 been selected, it would have been the most powerful spinner to ever compete in UK Robot Wars. While the planned Series 10 build demonstrated high torque and speed during early trials, the drum caused major traction and gyro stability issues once installed and tested at half speed.[1][9][10][2]

Following the robot's rejection from Series 10, and the aforementioned problems encountered during testing, ARC Robotics redesigned Big Dave 3 ahead of a potential eleventh series. This updated design, first publicised in September 2017, showcased a four-wheel drive machine with a lower box-shaped chassis and the same 40kg drum weapon with a graphite and magenta colour scheme. The new chassis shape provided a much lower centre of gravity, with the aim of making the robot easier to drive and less susceptible to gyro dancing. Further details on the drum's specifications and performance were shared, including a rotational speed of 8,000rpm; a spin-up time of just three seconds; thicker 38.1mm mounts held by M20 screws; and new 'impactors' made from 'case-hardened' Grade 5 titanium.[1][9][2]

The robot's revised construction was planned to comprise of a 15mm aluminium 'core' with an 8mm polycarbonate top panel and other titanium sections. In front of the drum, there was to be a wide, flat 'floating' wedge to help get underneath its opponents. Independent drive systems for each wheel incorporated Turnigy SK3 6374 brushless motors rated at 192kV, and a 'two-stage' belt system set at a 8:75:1 reduction. ARC Robotics listed a target power output of 21hp or 16kW, along with 130 newton-metres of torque. Top speed was alternatively quoted by the team website as 14mph or 16mph. Other intended features included a total of six 22.2V lithium polymer batteries, along with 'advanced remote monitoring technology', the latter potentially suggesting the inclusion of an onboard telemetry system.[1][9][2]

The Team[]

Based in York, North Yorkshire, ARC Robotics (alternatively known as Team ARC) comprised of three members: driver Alistair Galt, designer Robert Keyes and electrical engineer Chris Malton. Galt himself had grown up watching the original UK Robot Wars series in his youth, with Roadblock and Hypno-Disc being his key inspirations, and he and Keyes first meeting each other at school. Responsibility for Big Dave 3's design and maintenance would mostly be shared by Keyes and Malton; Keyes would oversee the robot's construction and is suggested by the ARC Robotics website to be central to their organisation. Malton, then a University of Southampton student, would design and assemble Big Dave 3's electronics, including the onboard 'remote monitoring' and telemetry system, as well as run the team's website.[11]

Series Record[]

Main Series Big Dave 3 Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
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 Not selected
Applied for Featherweight Competition with Catch Me If You Can
Robot Wars Extreme Appearances
Series 1 Did not enter
Series 2 Did not enter

Outside Robot Wars[]

Amidst hope that the Robot Wars reboot would be picked up by a new broadcaster, construction of Big Dave 3's second build reached a relatively advanced stage. The main chassis, drive and weapon systems were completed and assembled, with the robot being presented in this state at Extreme Robots Portsmouth on 21-22 April 2018. Big Dave 3 primarily attended as a static display for VIP ticket holders, as the absence of a few key parts prevented it from being used in battle.[12]

ARC Robotics also brought Big Dave 3 to the subsequent Maidstone event on 27-28 October, where the second build - minus its drum - ran under its own power for the first time. However, the power in its drive system caused its left-rear tyre to fall apart while entering the arena for testing.[13][14] The team sought out to resolve these issues ahead of further combat appearances in 2019, with Big Dave 3 undergoing further drive tests.[15] These appearances would end up not materialising, following Robert Keyes' move to the United States the same year.[16]

Featherweights[]

While ARC Robotics were in the process of building the original Big Dave 3, team member Chris Malton built a four-wheeled featherweight Catch Me If You Can, also featuring an invertible box-shaped design and a drum spinner weighing 2.8kg. Catch Me If You Can was built in ten weeks for Extreme Robots Portsmouth on 6-7 May 2017. However, it was unable to use its weapon, as the Extreme Robots arena had not yet been fully set up to contain 125mph spinners, and generally suffered from mobility issues throughout its scheduled melees.[17][18]

Following the debut of Catch Me If You Can, the team began work on designing and building other featherweight robots for UK events. Two such machines are known to have entered the design stage by July 2017: a pneumatic axe robot by Robert Keyes, named Boing!, and a Tazbot-inspired robot by Alistair Galt, tentatively named ARCTank. Boing!'s pneumatic system was intended to run at 1,000psi - taking inspiration from the systems used by Chomp and the robots of Team Hurtz.[19] In 2018, ARC Robotics retrieved an electric golf caddy from a fly tip, converting it into the featherweight Golftank. Modifications included temporary wooden armour and a ramming shovel. Golftank made its first public appearance at Extreme Robots Manchester on 21-22 April, alongside Big Dave 3 and a reportedly 'broken' Catch Me If You Can.[20][12]

Big Dave's Little Brother

Proposed internal layout for Big Dave's Little Brother

Team ARC also had plans to make a featherweight version of Big Dave 3 named Big Dave's Little Brother, with a full four-wheel drive system and an emphasis on reused and off-the-shelf parts. Technical information and drawings suggest that the robot's internals would have incorporated bevel gearing into both of its main drive systems.[21] It is unknown whether work on Big Dave's Little Brother progressed beyond the design stage.

UK antweights[]

Chris Malton hosted and supplied an arena for two Antweight World Series events at Dunchurch, near Rugby: Antweight World Series 55 on 30 June 2018,[22][23][24] and Antweight World Series 58 on 29 July 2019.[25] Two antweight robots built to the UK 150g ruleset are also documented on the ARC Robotics website: the flipper/lifter Antigravity 1, and the titanium bar spinner Ant-eater.[26]

BattleBots applications and US live events[]

In 2021, Team ARC applied for the sixth season of the modern BattleBots run with Broadside, a completely new heavyweight design with a pneumatic cannon weapon. The cannon was intended to be a more highly developed version of the weapon type first used by Double Jeopardy, capable of firing between three and five untethered slugs, measuring 2x2.5 inch each, at 250mph.[27] Broadside was not chosen to compete, and a 'Mk2' version with a side-firing cannon and secondary axe weapon[28] was similarly unsuccessful in entering BattleBots World Championship VII, filmed in October 2022 and aired in 2023.

Upon moving to the US in 2019, Robert Keyes began conceptualising and building additional robots to compete in live events across multiple categories. CAD renders for a heavyweight electric hammer design, Traveling Whack-A-Mole, were shared on the ARC Robotics UK Facebook page in February 2020, with the intention of it competing in the sportsman-only Robot Ruckus.[29]

Later in 2020, Keyes began work on a beetleweight shell spinner with a prospective debut at the 21 November Norwalk Havoc Robot League event. The robot, eventually named Green Eggs and Wham, withdrew from the 3lb tournament due to electrical and safety issues. Instead, it fought its first fights at the follow-up event on 6 February 2021. Green Eggs and Wham's first match of the event resulted in it defeating Jamison Go's Silent X by knockout, despite a major design issue which caused it to frequently eject both of its own wheels. A substantially revised, four-wheel drive 'Mk2' version of Green Eggs and Wham appeared at the 24 July NHRL event, though both of its recorded victories were via opponents' forfeits.[30][31][32][33][34] By February 2023, work on a third incarnation of Green Eggs and Wham had started, though no further updates on this build are available.[35]

Alongside Green Eggs and Wham, Robert Keyes began building a featherweight pneumatic flipper for NHRL 30lb competitions in late 2021. The machine, named Yeet, was intended to compete at the 26 March 2022 event, serving as the first round of their 2022 tournament, but is documented to have forfeited both of its recorded battles.[36][37][38][39] Another axe robot, Pancake, was also designed for the same weight category in August 2021, with the view of competing in NHRL and serving as a scaled-down prototype for Broadside Mk2.[40]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 'Big Dave 3 – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Dave’s Triumphant Return – ARC Robotics UK, ARC Robotics UK, 8 November 2017
  3. https://www.reddit.com/r/robotwars/comments/5xu51j/comment/desicoh/
  4. 'Test Driving! Dave’s exploits so far… – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 22 March 2017
  5. 'We have motors! – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 8 December 2016
  6. 'Tyres & Drive! – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 10 December 2016
  7. 'Live from the workshop – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 10 December 2016
  8. 'January Update 1 – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 15 January 2017
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 'We Need to Talk About Dave. – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 7 September 2017
  10. 'Build weekend review 29th January 2017 – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 12 February 2017
  11. 'Meet the team – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK
  12. 12.0 12.1 'Manchester XR review – ARC Robotics UK' ARC Robotics UK, 13 May 2018
  13. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=349169338975893
  14. 'Maidstone XR 2018 Review – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 4 November 2018
  15. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2293721553992008
  16. 'Belated happy 2020! – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 20 January 2020
  17. 'Catch Me If You Can – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK
  18. 'Extreme Robots 2017 - Portsmouth', Team Panoramic (YouTube), uploaded 11 May 2017
  19. 'Boing! A new featherweight arrives (hopefully) – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 1 July 2017
  20. 'The origin of Golftank – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK
  21. 'Big Dave’s Little Brother – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK
  22. 'AWS 55 preview – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 29 June 2018
  23. 'AWS 55 Review – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 1 July 2018
  24. 'Workshop day 27/05/2018 – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK, 30 May 2018
  25. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid02LLjoXv7gwxKgPsycJTwByD57Q5PzAQs9KwXUAu2bYCfsHhGXhVzkpCzfUEqqZb5jl
  26. 'Antweights – ARC Robotics UK', ARC Robotics UK
  27. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid02BJriDieoZMNhCSNZQiv9y1EufoxWWociZAeqzeQf4H2h7zn2MRvJREcdjyLYXb2ul
  28. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid0Sk46YD7aqP8RUteTXngNNoxYzzJMbGavVC19zeEf3UMwDFPLFBo6tZHFTYQV7zfyl
  29. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid02VBoox3rtRhwAhTKY9LeSynkv91wsWtq9yMEogjqKStELi3T6SCk6P5hAJ89Pzup1l
  30. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid02SBQ7cPYopjBnjuouMpwxJxaUbchnSMnTEvycKas4fWwoV7VTV8rnsbhcaqgMQVEel
  31. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid022cxmxcJg4bqB17iRm2349oGvhHYPX6ZnEh4J3CqzRHwveb8XsKrSak5GfQsv4hqdl
  32. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid02spjQ2XHTHgZVfTk9FkWTJPT5CHQwMDsHBy2qJVUMXbFNruVkR5uyUXzjtyzq4qF3l
  33. 'Green Eggs & Wham! - NHRL', NHRL wiki
  34. 'NHRL 2021 Round 1 February: from Feb 7, 2021', NHRL (YouTube), streamed 6 February 2021
  35. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid02gPPYsX2NNVhJ4TA22uD6PAfvcwFWtkxTBAbXtMLeD1i4QNqS45N8mmDyUvpnv4Tyl
  36. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid0e6UuU6QoyatTGMk7ijsJfsVpTdGCcAy6uEkx8BvP1bKEV8isrJJEkS5yG1khhUkbl
  37. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid023hsF27PkxnuyJm4c2iNrkMm5jjRoiRDQAubedSiSDDEsHYKrhsAzuGWpkGkWPmDFl
  38. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid031f9wspjgEW4LvyLwK3WtQWuvLvdtwXQ6xLnDQYVM8iD82Xdad86GYSjV7LMCnj9bl
  39. 'NHRL March 2022 - 30lb', Challonge
  40. https://www.facebook.com/ARCRoboticsUK/posts/pfbid0fwQ5EWJArK8HqAa2VfxNMd4FnYEVsrQcJt1qbxdjDqpDcwhisH6tC4Kca9fCyEbAl

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