- "Don't be disheartened if your first designs aren't too great - our first attempt Charybdis failed to qualify, and was, in hindsight, rubbish. We cringe at how awful it was, in fact. And that was when the team was comprised of 3 mechanical engineering students!"
- — The University College London team on Chraybdis[1]
Charybdis (pronounced "Ka-rib-dis") was a heavyweight robot which attempted to qualify for Robot Wars: The Fourth Wars. Built by a team from University College London, it was chosen as a reserve following its appearance at the Robot Mayhem live event, but went unused.
After missing out on Series 4, the team stripped Charybdis down, before designing and building the more successful Fluffy.
Design[]
- "This was our very first robot which we started building in late 1999. The frame was made of inch box section steel tubing (school table legs). Our university very generously coughed up enough money to buy 3 bosch 750 watt motors, 2 4QD NCC-70-24 speedos and some surplus batteries."
- — Team Website[2]
Charybdis with its spinning axe after the Robot Mayhem qualifiers
Charybdis was an invertible, two-wheel drive robot with a heptagonal-shaped chassis. The framework consisted of 1-inch box section steel tubing repurposed from school table legs, supporting 8mm polycarbonate armour panels throughout. This gave Charybdis a close resemblance to Fluffy, but with shorter, wider and taller proportions. As its main weapon, it initially adopted a small horizontal spinning disc, though this would break during its attempted qualification run at Robot Mayhem. The disc, in turn, would be replaced by a double-headed bar spinner in the event it would get selected as a reserve. Made out of 10mm mild steel plating with Ti-6Al-4V titanium cutting teeth, the replacement weapon effectively served as a prototype for Fluffy's spinning axe.[2]
- "The producer still thought we were worth a reserve place, so we threw this together in a few days."
- — The Team Website on the spinning axe
The University College London team started work on the robot in late 1999. Various components were funded and obtained by the university themselves, including the three Bosch 750W motors, two 4QD NCC-70-24 speed controllers and a surplus of Kiel 12V 18ah batteries.[2]
Etymology[]
- "The name 'Charybdis' is from greek mythology, some lady that got turned into a deadly whirlpool, or something. We quickly dropped it after realising that no-one could pronounce it."
- — Charybdis website[2]
The robot was named after the Charybdis sea monster from Greek mythology. The name ultimately proved hard to pronounce, prompting the team to drop the name in favour of Fluffy for future series.
Qualification[]
The disc, broken after its qualifier against Velocirippa
Charybdis fought on an unspecified date at the 2000 Robot Mayhem live event, serving as the official qualifiers for The Fourth Wars. Its only known qualifier match was against Velocirippa, where it immediately attempted to use its disc against the Robotic Soccer returnee. On impact, the disc broke apart, severely hampering Charybdis' damage capability for the rest of the battle. Though not initially chosen for The Fourth Wars, a producer in attendance believed that it was competitive enough to become one of the series reserves. Ultimately however, unlike fellow reserve V-Max, Charybdis did not get a chance to compete in the televised show[2], a position it shared with Killer Carrot.
Series Record[]
| Main Series | Charybdis Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Did not enter |
| The Third Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fourth Wars | Unused reserve |
| The Fifth Wars | Entered with Fluffy |
| The Sixth Wars | Entered with Fluffy |
| The Seventh Wars | Entered with Fluffy |
| Series 8 | Did not enter |
| Series 9 | Did not enter |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
| Robot Wars Extreme | Appearances |
| Series 1 | Entered with Fluffy |
| Series 2 | Entered with Fluffy |
Gallery[]
