Coyote

For the team who built Lambsy and Ewe 2, see Team Coyote.

Coyote
Participation Information
UK Series	9-10
Team Information
Team	Team Coyote
Team Members	Jamie McHarg Rachel Gibson Calum Jones Tony Smith (Series 10)
From	Irvine, Ayrshire
Associated Robots	PP3D (Jamie McHarg) Reaper (Calum Jones)
Robot Statistics
Weight	110kg
Top Speed	12mph
Power	8Ah LiPo battery (22.2v)
Drive	24v, 800w scooter motors
Weapons	Clamping jaws and chainsaw
Statistics correct as of its most recent show/competition appearance, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

"With Coyote, we're not just here to destroy, we're here to scare!"

— Rachel Gibson during Coyote's Series 9 VT segment

Coyote was a heavyweight robot which competed in Series 9 and 10 of Robot Wars. It was captained by Jamie McHarg, previously a member of PP3D Robotics. In its first appearance on the show, it qualified from its Group Battle but was unable to win any of its Head-to-Head battles. In Series 10, Coyote finished fourth in its heat in spite of defeating Hobgoblin, after being defeated by Thor twice and losing its Third Place Playoff to Expulsion.

Design

"Coyote is a mean, menacing dog from hell."

— Jamie McHarg

Coyote in Series 9

Coyote was driven by two wheels with large tyres. At the front, it was equipped with an overhead clamp with orange LED 'eyes', which works in conjunction with two lifting jaws, flush to the ground. This large weapon took up half of the robot's entire weight. In theory, the weaponry was designed to be able to grab and lift opponents simultaneously, although the team found during Series 9 that Coyote could only grab or lift and not both together.

"The front jaws can move independently of each other, allowing Coyote to achieve a large bite span. The jaws are driven by electric actuators rated to roughly 750-1000kg, though with leverage ratios and mechanical disadvantage, this is less at the jaws. The front weapon assembly is constructed mostly out of 10mm Hardox, and itself weighs around 50kg!"

— Coyote Facebook Page

Top view of Coyote for Series 9

At the back of the robot was a chainsaw, making Coyote the first UK competitor to use the weaponry since Series 4. This weapon was driven by a Scorpion 4025-1100kV electric brushless motor running at 22.2V on a 9:1 ratio, giving the chainsaw a top speed of 3000rpm. Like Matilda, Coyote's chainsaw tail could also move up and down. Coyote's back panel was also inspired by Dead Metal.

"The chainsaw tail may seem token, but there is method in the madness. While an ineffective weapon from the original Series 2 onwards, now that more robots feature HDPE and other plastics, a chainsaw actually stands a chance of doing some damage, albeit minor."

— Coyote Facebook page

Underside view of Coyote

During construction, the team used Team Danby's past middleweight Tanto Jr as a base to build the robot around, and also reused some components from the same machine, such as Tanto Jr's anti-spinner wedge which would later be used as an interchangeable weapon by Coyote in Series 10, for matches where it required a defensive weapon. In this form, it created an actuated lifting scoop, the back end of which was angled upwards to stop spinners from connecting with the main body of Coyote.

"Tanto Jr, an old middleweight robot was put up for sale by Jamie's friend and Scot-Bots cohort, Tony. As it already had a working heavyweight-grade drive system, we bought it to help us get our first foot off the ground in terms of building a robot for Robot Wars!"

— Coyote Facebook page

Coyote in its Series 9 VT

The robot was driven by a 22.2 Volt Lithium-Polymer battery, driving 2750w brushless out-runner motors, which gave the robot a good top speed of 15mph The robot had six speed controllers, two Victor 883s for the drive, three Turnigy TZ-85 brushless motor controllers to power the actuators (two in the jaw, one on the chainsaw) and a Hobbywing EZRun 150A brushless speed controller to drive the chainsaw. The chassis was constructed from Hardox 450, with the team sending their CAD plans to a cutting company to make the parts, then welding them together. The robot had 5mm steel plate side armour, reinforced by 10mm HDPE, and an aluminium top plate, also reinforced with 10mm HDPE.

"The idea was that if the HDPE got damaged, we could just remove and replace it while the steel underneath remained intact."

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

The robot's grabbing/lifting jaw was inspired by BattleBots competitor Diesector, whilst the use of a chainsaw was inspired by the original version of Matilda.

"One of the main aims of Coyote was to capture the creativity and feel of the robots from the early days of the show, but with the ability to withstand modern combat. Nothing says old-school Robot Wars more than a chainsaw protruding from a robot! This gem was picked up on eBay for £10, listed as not working. Turns out all it needed was a fuse and it was good to go. Howver {sic} due to its size and 240V AC supply, it would need a custom gearbox designed for it to be usable on our robot."

— Coyote - Robot Wars on designing Coyote

Coyote in Series 10

A new chassis and jaws built for Coyote in Series 10, following the previous version's loss to Carbide. Whilst the robot's internal components and armour panels had mostly survived, the front jaw assembly was damaged beyond repair. The new Coyote heavily used pipework for its outer frame, consisting of 22mm copper pipe containing 20mm mild steel bars.

Coyote with its anti-spinner scoop, originally sourced from Tanto Jr

The robot's design remained mostly the same, but with several improvements based on the team's experiences in Series 9. Coyote's weaponry was now made from mild steel, replacing the HARDOX used by the previous model, with additional bracing in the areas Carbide had damaged the previous year. The motors were replaced with 24V, 800W scooter motors, though this slightly reduced Coyote's top speed, from 15 to 12mph. The robot also had new Vantec speed controllers for the drive, which had previously been used by PP3D, whilst the other speed controllers were retained. The base of Coyote in Series 10 was also decorated with a 'Cheshire cat grin', which was not seen on television.

"This time, they were cut out of mild steel instead of Hardox, reason being that if we suffered more Carbide levels of damage, it's easier to bash mild steel back into shape with a big hammer at an event with limited tooling than it would be with Hardox."

— Coyote Facebook page

Roadrunner in Series 10

In Series 10, Coyote was also accompanied by a minibot, Roadrunner, a birdlike sit-and-spin thwackbot, designed purely to serve as a distraction while the main body of Coyote aims to grab opponents, and to activate the Arena Tyre. Roadrunner was invertible, and was particularly light at an intended 10kg, meaning that Coyote generally had to battle without its chainsaw in order to use Roadrunner, as Coyote was otherwise 107kg.

Etymology

Coyote in the arena during Series 10

Coyote is named after coyotes, also known as prairie wolves. While not the direct inspiration behind the name, Coyote would also reference the Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote, in partnership with the minibot entered alongside Coyote in Series 10, which the team named Roadrunner, after Wile E. Coyote's rival in the cartoon.

The Team

"Jamie has competed with robots for 12 years and fulfilled his childhood dream by competing in the last series of Robot Wars. The team are friends from university where they studied Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Jamie and Rachel undertook many complex projects together (including travelling to Peru to build a small wind turbine)."

— The Robot Wars website

Coyote with its team in Series 9

Team Coyote was captained by 29-year old gas service and repair engineer Jamie McHarg, who designed and built Coyote, and was its driver in all of the robot's battles. Jamie McHarg had previously competed in Series 8 as part of PP3D Robotics, with their robot PP3D.

In Series 9 and 10, Jamie McHarg was joined by 28-year old Rachel Gibson, a facilities technician by trade. Rachel Gibson was responsible for all of the welding that Coyote required, and was also the robot's weapons operator in combat. Gibson also contributed to the programming and electronics of the machine.

"Rachel wants to represent female engineers and the team feel that their winning formula of aggressive fights together with repairing and maintaining the robot in the pits could take them all the way to the final."

— The Robot Wars website

The team with Coyote and Roadrunner in Series 10

CNC machine operator Calum Jones was also present in both Series 9 and 10, having previously entered the 2016 pilot as the team captain of Reaper. Calum Jones was involved with the construction and maintenance of Coyote between fights, and also drove the minibot Roadrunner in Series 10. Calum Jones was a very vocal member of the team in battles, often shouting 'lads lads lads' before plenty of his televised battles.

In Series 10 only, Team Coyote also featured Tony Smith, a Glasgow-based college lecturer who had previously qualified for Series 8 with Pod and Series 9 with Clyde Built, before withdrawing from both. Tony Smith contributed to Coyote through CAD work and logistics.

Qualification

Coyote qualified outright for Series 9 through open applications. However, the robot was only finished on the week of the event, late on the Tuesday night, two days before the team travelled to Glasgow for the filming

As Series 10 reduced the number of competitors from 40 to 30, Team Coyote narrowly missed out on the initial selection when the upgraded Coyote applied, but was chosen as one of five reserves to attend filming. When it was declared that Deadlock would not be finished in time for its Group Battle, Coyote filled its place, becoming the third reserve and penultimate robot to join the cast of Series 10.

Robot History

Series 9

Coyote debuted in Heat E of Series 9, where it faced newcomers Rusty and Ms Nightshade, along with the reigning champion Apollo in its opening Group Battle.

"We noticed that Ms Nightshade was down to one-wheel drive before the fight had even started so we decided that we'd target them; a predator always picks off the weakest prey. We felt a bit bad as it was their first event but our only priority at this stage was to get through the meleé, and the longer we could stay away from Apollo, the better!"

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Coyote attempts to push Ms Nightshade

Coyote immediately made its way over to Ms Nightshade and tried in vain to push it backwards, before Apollo came in and hurled Ms Nightshade skyward, with it landing on top of Coyote.

"Unfortunately we quickly realised that the outriggers were a bit far back so when we tried to lift Ms Nightshade, the wheels broke traction just enough for us to have no pushing power. So we resorted to just driving around and trying to look aggressive."

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Coyote was then pursued by Apollo, which only managed to flick Coyote up slightly.

"Apollo on the drive - this is to end the Coyote bark."

— Jonathan Pearce as Coyote comes under pressure from Apollo

Coyote is attacked by Apollo

After nudging Rusty, Coyote was once again in the sight of Apollo, which rolled it through the air and into the CPZ with a flip. After this, Coyote remained in the CPZ for a period, capable of only spinning in circles. Coyote was thrown once more before Rusty was declared immobile, which confirmed Coyote's progress to the Head-to-Heads with Apollo.

Angela Scanlon: "Coyote through to the Head-to-Heads!"

Team Coyote in unison: "Phew!"

Angela Scanlon: "That is the reaction I think that I would've gone with, because it wasn't spectacular."

Jamie McHarg: "It wasn't, no. There's a few things to improve on and work on, but it's just a massive relief to get through that."

— Reaction as Coyote qualifies from its Group Battle

The damage to Coyote's chainsaw is explained

Before Coyote's first Head-to-Head battle against Crackers 'n' Smash, the team made the decision to remove their chainsaw for future fights, because it had been bent and the actuator broke when Apollo flipped Coyote in its Group Battle.

"Chainsaw's a bit of a write off at the moment. Sadly, it's quite bent and quite broken - so we'll sacrifice that."

— Jamie McHarg

Coyote clamps down onto Smash

Coyote drives Smash across the arena

Coyote moved to its left to clamp down onto Smash and drove it into the arena side gate, before turning and moving it into the claws of Dead Metal, a backup plan after realising in this moment that Coyote could not both grab and lift its opponent at the same time. After taking damage from the House Robot, Smash came in with a ram on Coyote and attempted to force it into Dead Metal, although Coyote spun away and Smash was caught once again. Coyote then decided to activate the Arena Tyre, which called Dead Metal into the action, and Smash was placed onto the Flame Pit. Smash then moved away and drove over the top of its teammate, Crackers, which finally got involved and slipped underneath the side of Coyote. Smash took its turn at pressing the Arena Tyre, which signalled Rogue House Robot mode again. This time, it was the turn of Matilda to attack, and Coyote was forced to weather a hit from the House Robot's flywheel on its jaws.

"And here comes Matilda with a flywheel tail to have a go at Coyote. Can they withstand this sort of punishment?"

— Jonathan Pearce

Coyote is attacked by the flywheel of Matilda

Coyote is backed into submission

After this, Coyote struggled for movement on its right-hand side due to a burnt-out controller, and a flurry of bumps and rams from Crackers 'n' Smash left Coyote motionless in the CPZ. Suddenly, Smash drove itself over the Flame Pit, where it failed to move away from, with Crackers left as the only mobile robot at the end of the countdown. With Coyote's immobilisation confirmed, it ended its first Head-to-Head battle with a loss.

"We went into this fight perhaps a little bit too confident, thinking that it would be easier to fight smaller robots, even though there were two of them. We got an early bite on Smash and drove it into the wall, but again we struggled to lift and move them due to lack of traction; the transmitter controls for the jaws weren't set up in their right configuration at the time either, so in the heat of battle it was hard to remember which way to move the stick. We started off strongly, but soon lost one side of drive and Crackers 'N' Smash started working well together to bully us around the arena. Eventually we were pushed into the corner and just stopped working (later found to be a burnt out controller, you can faintly see smoke in the footage) and our 10-second immobilisation count started with 13 seconds to go, meaning we were out of the fight with only three seconds remaining!"

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Post-fight, Jamie McHarg noticed the damage inflicted by Matilda, with focus also turning towards Coyote's second Head-to-Head battle against reigning champion, Apollo. Unable to flatten their jaws in time for the fight, the team instead sharpened the jaws to inflict ramming damage.

Coyote has its jaws sharpened before fighting Apollo

"We found in the Group Battle with Apollo that the jaws were actually really good at getting under their front flipper blade, so that was going to be our main tactic, but Matilda's put paid to that slightly, so we need to get a big hammer out, give it a bash and get the grinder out just to make sure it's nice and razor sharp for them."

— Jamie McHarg

Coyote is thrown by Apollo

ALthough it was fully working when it entered the arena, Coyote failed to move out of the starting gates, immobile on one wheel after slipping a pinion and breaking half of its drive during the setup of the battle.

"It was our turn to do a Ms Nightshade; we drove to the starting arrow and immediately lost one side of drive to the most stupid of reasons, the grub screws that held the sprocket onto the motor shaft had slipped, so the motor was spinning but the motion wasn't being transferred. Straight away we knew we were done for, so just tried to be as aggressive as possible while Apollo toyed with us before sending us out the arena."

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Coyote could only spin around until Apollo engaged with it, where a flip sent Coyote onto its back and into Sir Killalot's CPZ. Coyote was shunted out of the danger area by the House Robot, but once again was only able to move inside its own circumference. Another Apollo flip saw Coyote land right-side up, but its top jaw was snapped in the process.

"And Coyote is whimpering."

— Jonathan Pearce as Coyote sustains damage to its jaw

Coyote is flipped out of the arena

Coyote found itself stuck between Apollo and Sir Killalot for a period, before it was stacked up against the arena gate, and with Coyote unable to move, Apollo followed up with another flip, which sent Coyote over the arena wall and down into the trench.

Angela Scanlon: "Okay, so what's the plan now? Are we going to be able to patch it back together?"

Jamie McHarg: "We hope so, because we're fighting Carbide next - so it might be its final farewell!"

— Thoughts concerning the final Head-to-Head battle after a second consecutive defeat

Unseen on television, Apollo attempted to flip Sir Killalot after flipping Coyote out, to the amusement of the Coyote team.

"We were busy looking at Coyote lying in the trench, then when we turned round, there was Killalot up in the air on the end of Apollo's flipper. Cue ecstatic cheering and banging of the polycarb windows by us, but unfortunately, they couldn't get him turned over. Valiant effort though"

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Pointless after two Head-to-Head battles, Coyote was already eliminated, but it still had one final battle against Series 8 runner-up Carbide. With Coyote's jaw repaired from its previous fight, Team Coyote entered the arena in hope of ending their Head-to-Head campaign with some points on the board.

"We were still sitting at the bottom of the league table with zero, so we knew we couldn't progress if we somehow beat Carbide, so decided we'd just try and put on a show instead, and keep driving at Carbide for as long as possible. We also told Dave and Sam to keep hitting our robot after it stopped working, just as long as they avoided the inner working if they got through the outer armour."

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

The first hit from Carbide sends both machines flying aside

Coyote charged across the arena floor straight away but shot past Carbide in doing so. After turning around, Coyote was met with a head-on blow from Carbide which sent it reeling towards Sir Killalot. As Coyote attempted to escape the CPZ, Carbide came in with another attack that buckled the armour protecting the right hand wheel, which allowed Sir Killalot to pick Coyote up and hold it over the Flame Pit.

Coyote is torched on the Flame Pit

"Oh dear - and Coyote had started so well!"

— Jonathan Pearce as Coyote is held aloft by Sir Killalot

Coyote is left mutilated by Carbide

Coyote twitched after being dropped down onto the arena floor before being met with another scintillating Carbide slam which ripped the wheel from Coyote's left side off. Coyote was now left motionless, but this did nothing to halt the Carbide assault, as further damage was carried out while Coyote was being counted down. Coyote was then thrown by the Floor Flipper before finally being put out of its misery by the sounding of cease. This saw Coyote end its Head-to-Head campaign bottom of the table with zero points.

Jamie McHarg: "Total annihilation would be best to describe what's happened here."

David Moulds: "It's kind of like modern art now, isn't it?"

Jamie McHarg: "Yeah, I'll sell it for a fortune to fund the next robot!"

— The opposing team members share a laugh after Coyote's defeat to Carbide

Off-screen, Shunt had also axed through the immobile Coyote at the end of the fight, destroying the robot's one surviving Victor 883s speed controller.

"We knew it was done, so we were quite happy for the House Robots and Carbide to cause some proper damage to it, in the end Shunt axed through our one Victor 883 that still worked, and then they didn't even show it in the episode!"

— Jamie McHarg

Series 10

"We felt a bit vulture-like at times as we occasionally observed the Deadlock pit bench to see what the robot was looking like. It always seemed to be a mix of promising signs (their drive or arms working) and the robot being in bits. Again it’s a very technologically interesting robot, and one we would love to see working but, in the end, they too couldn’t get done in time and we were drafted in to replace them. We bid farewell to our reserve pit neighbours Hobgoblin and hoped they would get called up too."

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

A rebuilt Coyote returned in Heat E of Series 10 as a reserve, filling in for Deadlock, which withdrew due to being incomplete at the time of recording. In its Group Battle, it fought fellow Series 9 returnee Expulsion and Series 8 Grand Finalist Thor. It entered the arena equipped with its lifting forks, and rear chainsaw.

"For the meleé, we opted for the chainsaw as the robot was already configured and weighed with it in place. We also thought that since Expulsion had some plastic armour that we may have a chance to use it. In short, we didn’t. It became damaged early on in the match from non-direct impacts, so I’m finally accepting that it’s completely useless"

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Coyote barges Expulsion over

Thor strikes Coyote with its axe

Immediately, Coyote charged into Expulsion, knocking the latter off its wheels and pushing it into the wall. This left Expulsion stranded on its side; however, Coyote was caught by Dead Metal as a result, the House Robot spinning and pushing it onto the Flame Pit before slicing through its outer pipework. Coyote backed away as soon as it was released, only to get itself stuck on the partially-opened pit. The pit was soon raised to let it escape, but with Thor activating ‘Rogue House Robot’, Dead Metal spun Coyote round as she left her CPZ to attack the competitors. Coyote was then pushed into the wall by Thor, but drove away, dodging Thor before driving head-on into the latter and sustaining an axe blow to its top jaw.

"We didn’t expect to knock it out with one impact, so ended up duelling with Thor for almost three minutes anyway. We thought our forks would stand a good chance of getting under Thor but every single head to head impact resulted in Thor edging us out. Combined with Jason’s driving, it really didn’t leave us with much we were able to do."

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Coyote squeezes back on Thor

Coyote and Thor team up to attack Dead Metal

It spun away to escape, but was repeatedly rammed and pushed around by Thor, sustaining more damage from Thor’s axe. Eventually, Coyote spun round and pinned Thor against the wall, grabbing its front wedge and dragging it back while losing one of its own pipe sections. The two competitors separated, with Coyote hesitating before Thor again pushed and axed it twice more. Each time, Coyote swerved out of the way; it eventually slammed head-on into Thor, and pushed the latter over the Flame Pit after getting scooped up by its wedge. It proceeded to push Thor towards the Arena Tyre – triggering ‘Rogue House Robot’ again – and grab one of Dead Metal’s pincers in response to her attacks. Both competitors soon resumed their attacks; a head-on slam broke Coyote’s top jaw, with Thor proceeding to push Coyote over the Flame Pit before Coyote pushed it back. Coyote was almost thrown onto its side by the Floor Flipper as it retreated, and sustained more axe blows from Thor while driving itself into an arena spike.

"Oh, right in the neck!"

— Angela Scanlon as Coyote takes an axe blow to its clamping jaw

Official photo of Coyote's opening melee

Coyote backed away from the spikes and weathered a few more rams from Thor to survive for the full duration. The battle went to a Judges’ decision, which went in favour of Thor. With this, Coyote was consigned to the Robot Redemption stage, where it faced Hobgoblin for a chance to stay in contention. For this battle, the team opted to use their minibot Roadrunner for the first time, while removing the chainsaw from the main robot. Being friends with each other, Team Coyote and Team Hobgoblin wished each other good luck before the start of the battle.

"While we didn’t appear to sustain that much damage in the meleé, there were a lot of time consuming things that needed sorted. We had six hours before our redemption battle and thought that was plenty but, in the end, we were working almost right up until the last few minutes to be done! The armour needed remade, the chainsaw needed removed and the gap covered up, and the front jaw assembly was bent in a few places which needed some TLC. As we had already removed the chainsaw, we opted to enter Roadrunner for this fight; the anti-spinner wedge was designed more for horizontal than vertical spinners."

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Coyote hassles Hobgoblin

In the battle itself, Coyote began by ramming straight into Hobgoblin, withstanding a collision with the latter’s ‘egg beater’ spinner, before pushing it around the arena. It and Roadrunner drove around Hobgoblin for some time, before Coyote briefly lifted Hobgoblin onto one side and attempted to push it numerous times, gradually causing Hobgoblin's drive belt to slip.

"Open the pit, Coyote. Roadrunner, open the pit! Yes, he’s doing it! Go!"

— Angela Scanlon as Roadrunner activates the pit

Coyote feeds Hobgoblin to Sir Killalot

Coyote roasts Hobgoblin

In the meantime, Roadrunner pressed the Arena Tyre, opening the pit in doing so. Coyote resumed its attacks on Hobgoblin, bumping, pushing and manoeuvring the latter around the arena. Eventually, it got its lower jaws underneath Hobgoblin, pushing and dragging it back. Coyote drove into Hobgoblin again, then Roadrunner, losing a small chunk of its pipework in the process, before pushing Hobgoblin into Sir Killalot. The latter attack fully dislodged one of Hobgoblin’s drive belts, which Coyote dragged and dropped on the arena floor as the two competitors separated. With Hobgoblin struggling for mobility, Coyote pushed it into the CPZ as Sir Killalot vacated it, leaving Shunt to come in and attack Hobgoblin as it fully lost drive. After ‘cease’ was called, it proceeded to attack and chase Shunt towards an entry gate, before being rammed into the wall by the House Robot. Nevertheless, Coyote emerged victorious, and progressed to the Heat Semi-Finals.

"We’ve literally just found out we’re fighting Thor, and obviously we had them in the melee, and they gave us a bit of a tanking. So, we’re going to maybe alter our tactics slightly, just see how we get on, see if we can, err… put on a bit of a better show against them than we did in our previous fight."

— Jamie McHarg ahead of Coyote’s Heat Semi-Final

There, it faced Thor for the second time, equipped with the lifting scoop instead of its lower jaws, and with most of its external pipework removed.

Thor drives Coyote towards trouble

Coyote dodged Thor several times in the opening moments, only to drive up Thor’s wedge and sustain an axe blow from the latter. It was pushed onto the spark jets by Thor, before being axed, chased and pushed into the wall by the latter. Coyote sustained a few more axe blows in the process, but recovered to ram Thor head-on and press the Arena Tyre after Thor axed it again and got caught in Dead Metal’s pincers. As a result, ‘Rogue House Robot’ was enabled, with Coyote driving underneath Thor as it self-righted after getting thrown by the Floor Flipper. It retreated to an empty CPZ as Matilda damaged Thor’s CO₂ system, before the two competitors drove into each other again. Coyote was constantly manoeuvred around the arena by the now-weaponless Thor, almost getting thrown by Matilda’s tusks and the Floor Flipper in the process.

"Coyote sense here, they could have an unlikely victory… and all of a sudden, Jason [Marston] looks concerned."

— Jonathan Pearce as Coyote survives rams from the axeless Thor

Both machines hover over the Arena Spikes

Time ticks down on the Semi-Final affair

At one point, Coyote got underneath Thor with its scoop, but was unable to lift it effectively. It resorted to ramming Thor again, only to lose more parts of its pipework as Thor rammed it into an entry gate in response. Coyote drove over the lip of the Floor Flipper and near the arena spikes, nearly getting flipped over by each hazard in the process. The two robots circled round and rammed each other once more, with Coyote getting pushed round a few more times before ‘cease’ was called. The battle went to a Judges’ decision, which unanimously ruled against Coyote as a result of it being unable to use its weapons effectively throughout.

"Our disappointment at not being able to get under the front of it in the meleé led to us fitting the anti spinner wedge as its edge had been ground down nice and sharp, so we thought this would help us control the battle more. The bottom jaws have to be fitted upside down to fit the wedge but we can still attach the actuator making it an active wedge rather than a defensive addition. As it turned out, Thor could still get under it. Looking back at the fight, I think it was due to movement in the actuator allow the wedge to be lifted up slightly, rather than the full weight of the robot being on it pushing it into the floor."

— Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page

Following its loss, Coyote fought Expulsion again in the Third Place Playoff, for a chance to qualify for the 10 Robot Rumble, and maintained its anti-spinner wedge.

Coyote is damaged by Expulsion

This time, Coyote started more tentatively, following Expulsion around as the latter drove over the spark jets. Coyote sustained a hit from Expulsion’s tool spinner, which tore part of one of its pipes off, before briefly pinning it against an entry gate. It bumped into the gate itself as Expulsion drove free, and momentarily stopped moving after turning away from the gate. Coyote pursued Expulsion again as the latter drove into Matilda and the walls, before slamming and pushing it across the arena.

"He’s been tactically astute all the way through, Jamie – ooh, what’s happened here? The shovel’s working… but I think they’ve lost traction or something – they’ve stopped!"

— Jonathan Pearce as Coyote stops moving in the centre of the arena

Coyote is rendered immobile

As it turned away from a fleeing Expulsion, Coyote suddenly stopped again, lifting both of its weapons up – it shuffled back and forth, but soon lost drive completely in the centre of the arena. While Expulsion proceeded to attack – and was flipped by – Matilda, Coyote was counted out, and lost the playoff. As a result, it finished fourth in its heat, and was eliminated from Series 10.

"There wasn’t much to the fight, they spent a lot of it crashing into the walls and our driving wasn’t that great either. Then it happened. We broke down in the middle of the arena inexplicably. The weapons still worked but absolutely nothing from the drive. We took it out of the arena, plugged the link in on the bench and everything worked – how odd! Testing on and off a few times worked fine, then it cut out again and we realised it occurred when the top jaw actuator reached the end of its travel. This baffled us as it never happened before and now it was misbehaving with regularity. A few ideas were mooted by other teams but they were based on things like back EMF and opto-isolation between the weapon and drive ESCs, things that would have affected it right from the start. It wasn’t until two months later when I was doing repair work on the robot that I found one of the actuator motor brushes cracked and in bits. Something no bigger than the size of my pinky nail taking out a 110g fighting robot! Tracing things back, we reckon it was sustained against Thor in the semi-final; the actuator motor got hit and broke off so we didn’t suffer breakdown there as the motor wasn’t working, but the shock would have gone through to the brush. We repaired it and tested it on the bench but not to full travel, then it was only against Expulsion that we had it at max travel. Just one of those things!"

— Team Coyote explain the robot's breakdown on Facebook

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 2
• Losses: 6

Series Record

Series	Coyote Series Record
Series 1-7	Did not enter
Series 8	Entered with PP3D (Jamie McHarg) Pilot only with Reaper (Calum Jones) Withdrew with Pod (Tony Smith)
Series 9	Heat Round 2, Fourth Place Not selected with Reaper (Calum Jones) Withdrew with Clyde Built (Tony Smith)
Series 10	Heat, Fourth Place

Gallery

Team Coyote's hero shot in Series 9

Coyote in the reserve tables for Series 10

Coyote in the pits in Series 10

Coyote's clock aesthetic in Series 10

Coyote in the arena during Series 10

Outside Robot Wars

Coyote

Coyote, as well as Rusty, is associated with Scot Bots, which educates Scottish youth about robotics. Both robots appeared at Glasgow Science Centre as part of the Science Lates: Get Curious event on 8 April 2017, where Coyote debuted its new jaws and chainsaw.

Coyote's top jaw was listed on eBay in April 2017. When the auction ended in early May, the item sold for a final price of £122. Other parts of Coyote were later sold in Alex Brown's Charity Auction.

Coyote at Mechatrons in 2018

The Series 10 version of Coyote made its live circuit debut on 8 January 2018 in Dublin, at an event hosted by Mechatrons. In its first battle, it fought Iron-Awe 5. Despite Iron-Awe 5's flipper only achieving two flips before it stopped working, it was able to beach Coyote on the wall, and thus Coyote lost the battle by knockout. It then lost to ThunderChild in similar fashion - despite being freed later into the battle, Coyote was deemed to have been immobile for long enough to lose the battle by knockout. In three more battles, it was immobilised by Iron-Awe 7 after repeated flips, immobilised by Dozer after being slammed into the arena wall to break pipework from its chassis, and was also immobilised by King Buxton 20 in a whiteboard match.

Coyote at RoboNerd 2023

The Series 10 version of Coyote was among other former Robot Wars competitors which appeared at the 2018 RoboNerd event as a static display piece. It has continued to appear at RoboNerd events since, most recently being displayed at the 2023 edition (hosted by Jamie McHarg himself) alongside House Robot replicas created by its team members (see below).

Coyote at RoboRiots in October 2023

Coyote at FightFest in August 2024

On 7-8 October 2023, Coyote returned to Dublin to participate in the RoboRiots event, winning at least one battle against a spinnerless Donald Thump, but losing another to Two-Headed Death Flamingo. Coyote was retired from combat after this appearance, but appeared at FightFest 2024 on static display.

Heavyweight robots and above

Jamie McHarg's restoration of Milly-Ann Bug at RoboNerd 2019

In 2013, Jamie McHarg also bought Robot Wars veteran Scar from another Glasgow-based team who had other Robot Wars robots Eric and Chimera and had the intentions of restoring it. However, he did not have the time to do so, and so sold it again to Dave Lawrie in October 2015. Jamie McHarg is now the owner of Milly-Ann Bug.

In 2019, Jamie McHarg built a to-scale working replica of Shunt in its Series 3-7 guise, with both of its weapons functional and powerful. Jamie McHarg has taken Shunt to various events as a static exhibit including Scot Bots, also destroying a television in a functional demonstration at Robodojo in July 2019, and retired robots of smaller weight classes at Robonerd in August 2019. The following year, Jamie McHarg built a fully functional replica of his favourite House Robot, Dead Metal. Shunt and Dead Metal were brought along to RoboNerd 2021 and both did demonstration performances. Shunt would destroy a microwave along with several smaller robots and Dead Metal would slice into a steel wheel hub, creating a shower of sparks similar to how the original robot would do so on the TV show while cutting into competitors.

The Shunt replica testing its axe

The Shunt replica at Robodojo in July 2019

The replica Shunt during its performance at RoboNerd in September 2021

The Dead Metal replica in August 2020

Right-side view of the Dead Metal replica

The replica Dead Metal slicing into a wheel hub at RoboNerd in September 2021

Jamie McHarg's Shunt and Dead Metal and Calum Jones' Sgt. Bash in July 2021

The Sgt. Bash replica with Minítóir

Calum Jones' replica Growler

The replica House Robots at RoboNerd 2023 with Hypno-Disc, including the Sir Killalot base

The replica Shunt, Sgt. Bash and Dead Metal with Firestorm 5

The replica Shunt at FightFest 2024

The replica Dead Metal at FightFest 2024

The replica Sgt. Bash at FightFest 2024

The replica House Robots at Extreme Robots Newcastle in 2023, from left-to-right: Dead Metal (Jamie McHarg), Sgt. Bash and Growler (Calum Jones), Shunt (McHarg) and Matilda (Alan Gribble, owned by John Findlay)

In July 2021, Calum Jones completed a fully-functional replica of Sgt. Bash, based on his Series 3-7 incarnation. This made its first public appearance at the Robots Live! Crawley event in October, also appearing at several FightFest events prior and after the event. From Robots Live! at Makers Central in Birmingham onwards, Sgt. Bash would start to perform live demos, crushing various props with its claw. Shunt would also perform demonstrations of its own, occasionally alongside Sgt. Bash, with Dead Metal typically remaining a static display for safety purposes. As of 2023, these replica House Robots continue to make appearances at public events in both capacities, later joined by a full-scale replica of Growler created by Jones. Jamie McHarg is underway with a replica build of Sir Killalot, the tracked base of which appeared at RoboNerd 2023.

Earlier in 2021, Jamie McHarg joined Simon Harrison, Harry Hills and Mark Mellors to form Team Sabotage, who applied for the 2021 season of BattleBots with the four-wheel drive undercutter Hoodlum. However, Hoodlum would not be selected to compete that season.

For the 2024 RoboRiots Irish championships (5-6 October), Jamie McHarg introduced a brand-new heavyweight armed with an electric lifter. Named Salvage XL, the two-wheel drive machine weighs 75kg and is made entirely out of spare parts, including a wedge-shaped chassis donated to the Caley Creations team.

Featherweight robots

Team member Jamie McHarg has fought on the live event circuit mainly with featherweights under his own team called Team Terminal Damage, later RogueTwo Robotics and finally Caley Creations. Jamie McHarg has fought with the following robots:

• Carcinus: A black two-wheeled robot with electric jaws similar in design to the Series 6-7 version of Kan-Opener. This featherweight was built in 2009 mainly for Jamie's father Michael to drive at events. Carcinus would later be captained by Rachel Gibson at the FightFest Winter Challenge 2021 alongside the FightFest pilot event.
• Critical Damage: A featherweight made from an inverted wheelbarrow painted in the colours of the Scottish Saltire flag.
• Drumroll: Jamie's most successful featherweight, equipped with a spinning drum. Drumroll has been fighting since 2007, finishing runner-up in that year's Tag-Team Championships paired with Gary Cairns' featherweight Hornet 2, and finishing fourth in the 2009 UK Championships. Later upgraded to the invertible Drumroll 2.
• Kaizer: A four-wheel drive rammer which was at one point fitted with a pair of lifting forks, similar to those of Series 2 champion Panic Attack. This robot has since been sold to Ceri Jenkins.
• Mobot: Originally built from a Scot-Bots kit, a two-wheel drive rammer named after British Olympic runner Mo Farah, constructed during the time of the 2012 Olympic Games, and named after his signature celebratory pose, pictured on the robot.
• Onyx: A two-wheel drive featherweight armed with an electric axe.
• Reaver: A four-wheel drive robot originally built from a Scot-Bots kit before being heavily modified, armed with a vertical pincer.
• Revolver: An invertible drum spinner converted from 722. Would later be rebranded back to Drumroll for FightFest competitions.
• Renegade: A low-pressure pneumatic flipper built in April 2020. Regular competitor at Robodojo sportsman and Labman FightFest events, finishing runner-up in the 2021 Battle of the Isles side event to Amnesia. 2023 RoboRiots Irish Featherweight finalist.
• Spin Cycle: An invertible two-wheel driven horizontal spinner. Jamie McHarg's first full combat featherweight built besides Drumroll since 2007. Scales up a beetleweight design of the same name, and competed at FightFest 2024.

Carcinus when it was first built

Carcinus in 2021

Critical Damage

The first version of Drumroll

Drumroll 2

Drumroll in 2021, converted from Revolver

Kaizer in 2007

Kaizer at the 2009 UK Championships

Mobot

Onyx

Reaver

Reaver in July 2019

Renegade in 2020

Renegade in 2021

Renegade in 2024

Rear view of Spin Cycle

Spin Cycle at FightFest 2024 after battle

The spare chassis of Spin Cycle with a bar spinner

Team member Rachel Gibson has also competed with:

GERTY at Robodojo in July 2019

• GERTY: A 7kg invertible wedge robot, built from a frame provided by Harry Hills.
• Telekinesis: An invertible robot with a horizontal bar spinner under loan from builder Andy Russell, Rachel Gibson drove Telekinesis to fourth place at FightFest 2023 under her own team with Brooke Reay.

The team found great success at the Robodojo event in July 2019, having originally signed up with Revolver, but ultimately entered the full combat competition with Drumroll 2, whilst Rachel Gibson entered the sportsman class with GERTY and Jamie McHarg fought in the same class with Reaver. Although GERTY only won one of its four fights due to a faulty speed controller, Reaver earned third place out of 24 in the sportsman class having won three of its four head-to-heads and then emerged victorious in the seven-way rumble for third place. Drumroll, under the name Revolver, won the full combat event with three back-to-back wins against Elevate 2, Forge Master II and Sawcerer, along with a win by default over Telekinesis, finishing the event with a demonstration of Jamie McHarg's Shunt replica.

Revolver and Drumroll 2 in August 2019

In August 2019, the team (presently known as Caley Creations) competed with two robots in the UK Featherweight Championship 2019. Revolver was revealed to be a rebranded 722, and was driven by Jamie McHarg, while his father Michael drove Drumroll 2. Revolver lost its opening battle to Plastic Fantastic after being pitted, but pelted Elevate out of the arena in its second battle. However, this broke Revolver's drum spinner ahead of its battle with Amnesia, which it lost as a result. Revolver still earned a win by default over Virus, and a direct win over Blunt Force Trauma 3, allowing it to finish third in its group, but lost its qualifier for the Top 16 after being double-teamed by Barghest and Crabsolutely Clawful. Drumroll 2 was slightly more successful, finishing third in its group and winning its Top 16 qualifier over Red Hot Tilly Pecker, but it was defeated by Barghest in the main bracket.

Jamie McHarg competed at Robodojo again in July 2020, in Renegade's debut event. Despite losing mobility against Virus in the opening seconds of its first battle, Renegade won five matches in a row including various flips over the lower arena wall, with wins over the likes of Luna-Tic 2, Bob 3 and Bread Dead Redemption to finish in third place. Reaver also competed at the same event with less success. At the Irish Featherweight Championship in 2023, Renegade comfortably qualified through its first melee within the top three, and was also amongst the final three robots active in the final, having immobilised Rip with a flip, but suffered an unfortunate breakdown, losing the final to Euphoria.

Drumroll at FightFest 2022

At FightFest 2021, Jamie McHarg competed with Drumroll, having converted this version of the machine from Revolver (formerly 722). It was beaten by Captain Jack Spinnah after running an "anti-HUGE" plastic sheet in place of its drum functionality. Ultimately Drumroll was eliminated after its link came out in battle with Euphoria, though it did collect one win on teammate Calum Jones' robot Drivetrain to determine the final standings of the group. In FightFest 2022, Drumroll competed only in side events, winning a whiteboard fight against Kitchen Grill, and finishing second in the Tag Team, earning revenge against Euphoria in Round 1 before losing the final to Drive By and Drivetrain. Drumroll then entered the Gladiator battle and received significant damage, forcing Drumroll into retirement.

Spin Cycle ahead of FightFest 2024

Prismatic at FightFest 2024

After missing the 2023 event, Jamie McHarg competed at FightFest 2024 with Spin Cycle, whilst Rachel Gibson competed alongside Brooke Reay with Prismatic, both of which were invertible robots with horizontal spinners.

Beetleweight robots

Jamie McHarg has built the following beetleweight robots:

• Flatulence: a tribute to Turbulence, scaling down the design as a servo-driven lifter.
• Spin Cycle: a two-wheel drive horizontal spinner, later upscaled to a featherweight design nine years later. Finished third at Clydebank Iron Games in August 2015, including a destructive win over Lynx, also returning to the beetleweight championship later that year.
• Scavenger: a beetleweight tribute to Dead Metal, armed with a cutting disc on a moving system. Finished fourth at Robot Rebellion 2021, and also fought at Battle in the Burgh 2022 in a non-competition capacity.
• Salvage One: Recon Protocol: an invertible robot with cambered wheels and servo-driven lifting forks, the team's main entry at Battle in the Burgh 2022, reaching the play-off for the knockout rounds before withdrawing.

Spin Cycle (left) and Flatulence (right)

Salvage One: Recon Protocol

The lifting forks of Salvage One

Scavenger

Scavenger in 2024

Scavenger's disc system extended

Other

For more information on the excursions outside of Robot Wars from other members of Team Coyote, see Reaper for Calum Jones, and Clyde Built for Tony Smith.

Trivia

• Coyote is the only robot in Series 9 to have never had its weapon read out by the announcer. Instead the robot's introduction stated where the robot came from, which would be repeated as the teams entered the arena.
• Coyote's two linear actuators started life as off-the-shelf Duff Norton products. They passed through various different owners over the years, notably being used in Ed Hoppitt's featherweight Force X before eventually being sold to Jamie McHarg by Matthew Pearman in 2016.
  • The actuator powering the top jaw was later adapted to use a Banebots P60 gearbox + 775 drill motor combo.

External Links

• Coyote - Robot Wars Facebook page
• Team Coyote Twitter
• Coyote (Series 9) on the official Robot Wars website
• Coyote (Series 10) on the official Robot Wars website
• Coyote's announcement trailer
• Caley Creations Facebook page
• Caley Creations Twitter
• Caley Creations Instagram