DisConstructor

DisConstructor
Participation Information
UK Series	7-8
Team Information
Team	Team DisConstructor
Team Members	Mike Phillipson James Phillipson Laurie Phillipson Albert Phillipson (Series 8)
From	Redhill, Surrey
Robot Statistics
Weight	103kg
Dimensions	0.28m x 1.16m x 0.68m
Clearance	10mm
Top Speed	15mph
Power	24v lead acid battery
Drive	3x 1500w Lynch LEM-130 motors
Weapons	Spinning Disc
Statistics correct as of its most recent show/competition appearance, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

"If they have time to spin that disc up in the arena, this could be a very destructive robot indeed!"

— Jonathan Pearce in Series 8

DisConstructor was a heavyweight robot which competed in the seventh and eighth series of Robot Wars. Despite having a potent horizontal flywheel, it failed to progress beyond the first round in either of its appearances, ending up in the pit in both series it competed in.

The team had previously failed to qualify for Series 5 with Demolition Doris, and for Series 9 with a new design. DisConstructor was initially built for Series 6 but its qualification details remain unknown.

Design

"It has a powerful spinning disc made from both stainless steel and titanium. The disc has been reinforced with teeth to tear apart its opponent, and weighs 20kg. It runs at 2500rpm, making it one of the most powerful spinners in the competition."

— The Robot Wars website on DisConstructor

DisConstructor in Series 7

DisConstructor was a grey box-shaped robot, which was invertible thanks to its large two-wheel drive system. It was armed with a horizontal spinning disc, angled towards the arena floor to strike robots from above, although this meant that the disc would spin upwards if the robot was inverted. The 20kg disc could spin at around 2,500rpm, and was made from titanium with stainless steel teeth, powered by Lynch LEM motors. Similarly, the robot's armour was also made of 6mm Grade 5 titanium. Though well-armoured and featuring a powerful spinner, DisConstructor had a high ground clearance and lacked driving experience, which was clearly shown in each of its competition battles in the main competition.

DisConstructor between Series 7 and 8

"The high ground clearance of this robot makes it susceptible to flipper opponents. However, its stainless steel and titanium spinning disc features teeth designed to inflict maximum damage."

— Robot Wars: Build Your Own Robot

The Team

"DisConstructor has been built by father, Mike, and his three children James, Laurie and Albert."

— The Robot Wars website

Team DisConstructor in Series 8

Team DisConstructor were a family team, captained by Mike Phillipson, the designer and builder of DisConstructor, also driving the robot in Series 7. At the time of Series 8, Mike Phillipson was aged 54, and was a project manager by trade. Sons James and Laurie Phillipson were youths at the time of Series 7, but were aged 24 and 23 respectively in Series 8, the former being listed as one of the team's engineers on the Robot Wars website, and the latter being listed as the tactician. The youngest son Albert Phillipson was only present in Series 8, aged 21, but became the driver of DisConstructor for this series.

Qualification

"Built for UK Robot Wars Series VI. Heavyweight, 20Kg 3000rpm spinning disk."

— DisConstructor Website (archived)

DisConstructor as it was built for Series 6

Internals of the Series 6 DisConstructor

The original Series 6 incarnation of DisConstructor featured a number of differences over the version seen in Series 7 and 8. While maintaining a similar design, construction and LEM power source, the disc rotated at up to 3,000rpm with an approximate tip speed of 130mph. Additionally, it was angled sideways at 15 degrees in an attempt to provide DisConstructor with an 'upward' cutting motion, while minimising the gyroscopic effects found on conventional vertical spinners. 5mm titanium was employed for the outer armour, with a shinier finish and no logo.

According to one version of the archived Team DisConstructor website, DisConstructor is suggested to have attended the qualifiers for Series 6, though further details on its qualification record are unknown. At some point, the LEM-130 motor originally powering its disc became severely damaged, with the team also acknowledging structural issues with the original flywheel mounts. While it is unclear when DisConstructor sustained this damage, or whether it impacted its Series 6 entry attempt, it would ultimately not appear at this point in the UK Series' history.

To qualify for Series 7, DisConstructor fought a fellow newcomer in the form of Cayenne. This proved to be a highly damaging and successful endeavour. DisConstructor first hit its opponent and destroyed its message board, before its disc caused the jaws to bend into the latter's frame. 'Cease' was called, and DisConstructor was selected to compete in Series 7. Due to the severity of DisConstructor's damage, Cayenne had to decline a discretionary place in the series.

In Series 8, the qualification format was changed to online applications, and DisConstructor successfully qualified for the series in this way.

Team DisConstructor's full-body spinner design for Series 9 (http://www.disconstructor.com/our-robots/heavyweight-class/disconstructor-2/d2-build-diary)

Team DisConstructor created a CAD design for a brand-new robot, which they intended to build for Series 9. However, the team were not selected to compete, and thus the design - an invertible ring spinner - was never completed. Team DisConstructor did not apply to compete in Series 10, despite beginning work on another new heavyweight spinner design featuring an ARMOX construction, four-wheel drive and a 25kg, 20-degree 'offset' flywheel weapon. The new machine, named DisConstructor 2, was to have reused the Lynch motors and other internals from the Series 7-8 incarnation, but sacrifice invertibility for a larger diameter spinner. Though the new disc was fabricated, and the chassis almost fully assembled and welded, DisConstructor 2 would also end up becoming unfinished.

Robot History

Series 7

"New boys, could prove "disconcerting" for some!"

— Jonathan Pearce

DisConstructor participated in the penultimate Heat of the Seventh Wars, and was placed up against fellow newcomer Xenomorph, Dutch Robot Wars veteran Hammerhead 2 and Robot Wars veteran Iron-Awe 2.1 in the first round of the heat.

Jayne Middlemiss: "Spinning discs do a lot of damage out there, a lot of people are frightened of them, but what are spinning discs frightened of, Mike?"

Mike Phillipson: "Ooh, drivers with more experience than we've got, I think!"

— Team DisConstructor on their inexperience

DisConstructor crashes into Xenomorph

DisConstructor pits itself

Immediately, it darted towards Hammerhead 2, but missed, instead clipping the edge of the closed pit, turning and driving into the side of Refbot. In addition to damaging Refbot's right side, this attack seemingly left the House Robot immobilised as he was pushed back into a nearby CPZ by Iron-Awe 2.1. DisConstructor then caught Iron-Awe 2.1 twice and reversed into it, but caused it minimal trouble. DisConstructor then clattered into Xenomorph twice, sending a small amount of sparks flying. After this, DisConstructor hung around Sir Killalot, as it slipped into his claws before reversing away and slamming into the arena wall, accidentally activating the pit release button in the process. As the pit siren sounded, DisConstructor slid into Sir Killalot's CPZ, before moving away from danger once more. On its retreat this time, though, DisConstructor skidded along the arena floor and drove itself down into the pit.

"Oh, into the pit goes DisConstructor! No danger whatsoever - oh, what on earth happened, Mike Phillipson!"

— Jonathan Pearce

As a result of its erroneous piece of driving, DisConstructor was eliminated, and after a lengthy battle and a judges' decision for the other three machines, Xenomorph joined it in exiting the competition.

Series 8

DisConstructor returned for Heat B of Series 8, filling in for Overdozer after the latter withdrew and was reallocated into the following heat. In its Group Battle, it was drawn against newcomer Shockwave, veteran Thor, along with experienced Dutch competitor and Series 7 Semi-Finalist Tough as Nails.

DisConstructor's disc throws sparks off Tough as Nails

DisConstructor is thrown by the Floor Flipper

DisConstructor immediately backed away to try to get its weapon up to speed, with Tough as Nails coming in to keep the speed of DisConstructor's weapon down. Sparks flew as DisConstructor was deflected back by Tough as Nails' initial charge, with DisConstructor tentatively moving forwards before turning towards Shockwave and the pit release button. As it attempted to dodge an approaching Shockwave, DisConstructor was rammed by Tough as Nails again, the impact causing it to recoil towards Shunt's CPZ. Showing limited signs of movement, DisConstructor barely turned onto the Floor Flipper following a nudge and an attempted lift from Shunt. It proceeded to twitch backwards over the edge of the Flipper, which promptly threw it a short distance towards the centre of the arena.

"Oh, look at the power of the flipper! Lifting one hundred and three kilos of DisConstructor as if it was a feather!"

— Jonathan Pearce as DisConstructor is sent airborne

DisConstructor is pitted by Shockwave

DisConstructor (top) is later joined by Tough as Nails

Seconds later, DisConstructor was scooped up and pushed into the wall by Shockwave; its disc clipped the wall, causing more sparks to fly and the robot to rebound towards the pit. DisConstructor tried to turn away, but Shockwave quickly got underneath and pushed it into the pit, eliminating it early on from the Group Battle.

"And they must've been affected, because they're gone, they're out - almost straight away! The team from Redhill in Surrey gone!"

— Jonathan Pearce as DisConstructor is pitted by Shockwave

As a result, DisConstructor was eliminated from Series 8 altogether, having been pitted in both of its appearances on Robot Wars. It was eventually joined by Tough as Nails, which became immobilised and pitted later on in the same battle.

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 0
• Losses: 2

Series Record

Series	DisConstructor 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	Failed to qualify with Demolition Doris
The Sixth Wars	Unknown
The Seventh Wars	Heat, Round 1
Series 8	Heat, Round 1
Series 9	Not selected with new build
Series 10	Did not enter

Outside Robot Wars

DisConstructor competed at the 2004 Robot Crusade event in Cosford. It lost in the group stages to Atomic and moved into the losers melee against X-Terminator, The Stag and The Wall. Despite delivering significant damage to the side of X-Terminator, it ultimately still lost the fight and was eliminated from the competition. After a two year hiatus, DisConstructor returned to competition at the 2006 UK Championships, but would fall in the group stages after losing all of its fights against to Merlin, Hammerhead 3 and Hannibal. DisConstructor then competed in the annihilator, but would be the first robot eliminated, finishing sixth overall. This marked DisConstructor's final robot combat appearance for ten years when it returned to compete in Series 8.

DisConstructor in the arena with Atomic in 2004

DisConstructor in 2006

Team DisConstructor at the Fighting Robots UK Championships 2006

Laurie Phillipson, with team mates Jordan Gear and Albert Phillipson, has since built six antweights, Little Doris, THRUST, ANTi Matter, TiNY, Red Dwarf and Avenger.

Little Doris

THRUST

Anti Matter

Avenger

All of the team's antweights together

Trivia

Official Series 7 photo

• DisConstructor was one of only four robots in Series 8 to not use modern lithium polymer or nickel metal hydride batteries inside the machine, the others being Kill-E-Crank-E, Sweeney Todd and The General, which also used lead acid batteries.
• Despite having four team members in Series 8, only three members of Team DisConstructor appeared in their official team photo.
• In DisConstructor's appearance in Series 8, its name was misspelt as 'DisContructor'.
• In DisConstructor's Series 7 appearance, its battle featured three newcomers and one veteran, and in its Series 8 appearance, its battle featured three veterans and one newcomer.
• Both of DisConstructor's victorious Series 8 Group Battle opponents would go on to reach the Grand Final of that series.
• All of the robots to have beaten DisConstructor would lose to the eventual champion at some point in each of its corresponding series.
• In both of DisConstructor's first-round melees, it was the first robot to be eliminated from the battle.
• DisConstructor was one of a select number of robots to directly damage Refbot.
  • DisConstructor was the only one of the three not to fight Tornado or appear in the same episode as it.

External Links

• DisConstructor on the Robot Wars website
• Team DisConstructor - Official Facebook page