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"Who can stop-per, the whopper, that is Chopper?"
Jonathan Pearce introduces Chopper.

Chopper was a robot that exclusively fought in the New Blood Championship of the second series of Robot Wars Extreme, entered by a team of pilots, hence the robot's helicopter inspiration and name. It reached the second round of its heat, before losing to eventual New Blood and future World Champions Storm 2.

Chopper had originally attempted to enter Series 6, but failed to qualify for that series[1].

Design[]

"Before we started any design work we decided on the criteria that we felt would make a good robot. These were: Low profile - We felt this would give us a number of advantages: Low centre of gravity making it harder for others to flip us and it would position our weapon where we felt it would do the most damage. Rotary weapon - From what we have seen watching hours of Robot wars, it was clear to us that rotary weapons were more exciting (we were getting a bit fed up with standard wedges and flippers) and very destructive. Drive & Control - Chopper's wheels are driven by two Bosche 750w motors. Each motor is controlled by its own 4QD speed controller. The controllers are in turn controlled by a Delbots mixer board. This has proved to be a reliable and rugged combination."
— Robot's Revenge website on the design of Chopper
Chopper EX2

Chopper in the arena

Chopper Top

Top view of Chopper

Chopper was a red, octagonal-shaped robot armed with a 1000rpm spinning bar resembling a helicopter rotor blade, with a hammer on each end. It had a steel frame with two layers of amour - a bulletproof polycarbonate top layer and an aluminium bottom layer. Its weakness was listed as "poor traction".

"We have used a wide range of materials in the construction of Chopper. The frame is made of 1 mm wall 20 mm x 20 mm mild steel square tube. The central body is made from 5 mm aluminium. The body armour is made from 10 mm thick sheets of Polycarbonate. The wheels are made from 6 inch diametre billets of solid aluminium with a one inch tread made from vulcanised rubber tube."
— Robot's Revenge website on the materials used to build Chopper[2]

Chopper's wheels were driven by two Bosch 750w motors, with an additional Bosch 750w motor driving the spinning weapon. Each motor was controlled by its own 4QD speed controller, which were in turn controlled by a Delbots mixer board. This gave the robot a high top speed of 21mph.

Chopper chassis

Chopper's chassis

The team noted that a low profile design would be one of their core principles in designing the robot. The robot had a wide base to give a low centre of gravity, wedged sides, and a very low ground clearance, in order to make the robot more difficult to flip over. However, the weapon was ineffective and fragile, and the robot had no self-righting mechanism, which cost it against Storm 2 after its intended low-profile design still could not prevent it from being overturned.

Etymology[]

The name Chopper refers to the spinning nature of the robot's blade, but also the team's experience as helicopter pilots, otherwise known as "choppers".

The Team[]

ChopperTeam

The team with Chopper

Philippa Chopper

Philippa Forrester interviews the team

Chopper was built by a team from Hedge End in Hampshire, largely comprised of pilots. Team captain Ian Bennett held a Private Pilots Licence A (Fixed Wing), drove the robot and was noted as the team's electrician. He was joined by Guy Gibson, who held a pilot Private Pilots Licence H (Helicopter). He designed the robot along with Ian Bennet, and the team's website described him as the most capable welder on the team, and he was also responsible for obtaining parts and constructing the robot. Guy Gibson's son Tom completed the team - the team website describes his role as "Tool management, design suggestions and father counselling"[3].

The team were known as "Those Magnificent Men", a reference to the 1965 film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.

Robot History[]

Extreme 2[]

In the first round, Chopper fought against former Series 6 competitor ICU and Mad Dog.

Chopper vs ICU

Chopper's weapon comes to a halt after hitting ICU

NewBloodCRound1.1

Chopper's weapon and armour are shredded by Matilda

Chopper started slowly as it tried to spin its blade up to speed, eventually reaching near enough its top speed, and crashed the weaponry into the side of ICU, but seemingly caused no damage and was forced to spin up its weapon again after stopping it dead on contact. ICU attacked Mad Dog in the background, while Chopper meandered off to the CPZ and came in close to Matilda, failing to escape and Chopper's spinning blade was eventually knocked out of alignment by the House Robot's flywheel, rendering it useless. Not long after this, Chopper was pushed into the wall near the flame pit by ICU, and in its efforts to escape, Chopper drove directly onto the Flame Pit, where it proceeded to get stuck. Chopper's front wedge was caught under the wooden perimeter of the flame pit itself, leaving Chopper to roast on top of the flame pit for a prolonged period.

"Well, Chopper came out, I think with one plan in mind...Let's just get mullered! Let's get absolutely massacred, let's do our very, very worst!"
— Jonathan Pearce as Chopper is stuck on the flame pit
Chopper Flame Pit

Chopper is stuck on the flame pit, note its wedge caught in the floor

ICU vs Chopper vs Mad Dog

Chopper manages to outlive Mad Dog

During this time, ICU pushed Mad Dog into the arena wall, where Mad Dog stopped moving. Refbot eventually helped a smoking Chopper break free, but Mad Dog was counted out, sustaining damage from Sir Killalot and Matilda as the battle ended. In spite of driving itself into danger on numerous occasions, Chopper qualified for the second round alongside ICU.

There, it would meet the eventual winner of the tournament, and future success Storm 2.

Philippa Forrester: "Are you in good running order now?"
Ian Bennett: "Very good running order, yes. Lowered the hammer slightly, because they've got a nice, low robot, spins a bit faster now I think, and we'll do very well."
— Pre-battle interview with Philippa Forrester
NewBloodCRound2.2

Storm 2 takes Chopper out

Shunt Chopper

Shunt axes the underside of Chopper

It did not last long, as Chopper once again attempted to spin its blade, inflicting a minor dent in a front corner of Storm 2, before the resistant Storm 2 rammed Chopper across the arena into the wall of a CPZ, the force of the impact flipping Chopper over onto its back.

"In underneath Chopper, very little ground clearance, and it didn't matter, they're over! They've turned turtle!"
— Jonathan Pearce

With no self-righting mechanism, Chopper was counted out by Refbot, before Shunt dragged Chopper with its axe over to the Floor Flipper. Rather than being thrown forward, Chopper was thrown airborne and landed back onto the flipper, but was hurled across the arena after Shunt repositioned it for a second flip.

"Chopper - well it was designed on a helicopter basis, came crashing down. Let's have another go, back they go, little bit higher this time, see if you can get higher than six feet off the floor, Chopper ... That's much better! That flew further than the Wright Brothers, I'm sure! Down comes Chopper. That was almost Trans-Atlantis!"
— Jonathan Pearce as Chopper is flipped

Chopper was pushed onto the Flame Pit by Shunt before finally being pitted by Shunt.

"Chopper, comes a cropper!"
Craig Charles after the battle

Results[]

CHOPPER - RESULTS
Extreme Series 2
New Blood Championship
Heat, Round 2
Heat C, Round 1 vs. ICU, Mad Dog Qualified
Heat C, Round 2 vs. Storm 2 Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 1
  • Losses: 1

Series Record[]

Main Series Chopper 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 Failed to qualify
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter
Robot Wars Extreme Appearances
Series 1 Did not enter
Series 2 New Blood Championship, Round 2

Trivia[]

  • Chopper's sponsors were Inside Information Ltd, Specialized Fabrications Ltd, Abbey Air Systems Ltd, VFS Ltd, Wirefield Lighting Ltd, Sprayzone Ltd, G2 Systems and Romwy Power Garden Machinery Ltd[4].

References[]

External Links[]

Navigation[]

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