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"Impact was a thwackbot with a tail axe inspired by UK heavyweight Stinger with a little bit of Diotoir mixed in too – I put fur on the tail and covered the body in a white, synthetic, sheep-like material that came out of an old bedspread!"
— Jeroen van Lieverloo

Impact was a robot that competed in Dutch Robot Wars, reaching the second round before being torn apart by Twister and Matilda. It was the second robot built by Team Tie-Rip, following on from X-Bot in the previous series.

Design[]

"Back to the design of Impact. Because I wanted to build something a bit more complicated than a 2-wheel thwackbot, I got the idea to use 3 Bosches with the third one 90 degrees rotated to the other two with a custom omniwheel design. The idea behind this was to give the robot some extra speed whilst turning. I built a prototype for it but dropped the idea because I did not know how to make the omniwheel strong enough to survive in the warzone."
— Jeroen van Lieverloo
Impact

The destroyed remains of Impact

Impact was a two-wheeled invertible thwackbot with a large static rear hammer for a weapon, which it could attack with by spinning on the spot. The hammer was covered in orange fur, and the team wore matching orange vests. The team were good sports, and had no qualms about their robot's fur being set on fire; going as far as to deliberately drive over the flame pit to make it happen. The front wedges of Impact were detached from the body as protection from spinners, but Impact was still destroyed by a spinner in its loss.

"So I liked the concept of the thwackbot but the speed I got from the wheelchair motors was way too slow. It was time to get serious on the drive; we needed some Bosches! Jeroen Van Der Loo (who was still building Tough as Nails back then) designed some gearboxes and was willing to build them for me. Those were some professional parts that I got! Also there was a new version of the speed controllers available that were able to handle 100 amps! I also got some nice new batteries (yes, we were still running on sealed lead acid back then) and, with all of my savings spent, it was time to get building!"
— Jeroen van Lieverloo

The Team[]

Main article: Team Tie-Rip

Impact was entered into Dutch Series 1 by Team Tie-Rip, who had previously competed in the previous series with X-Bot. The team captain was Jeroen van Lieverloo, who also competed in the same series with √3², and would later compete in Series 7-10 of the UK series under various different teams, including his own captaincy for Robot Wars: World Series where he entered his own robot THE BASH. For Dutch Series 2, Jeroen van Lieverloo welcomed Christian Werner and Gregory Cathalina (future captain of Team Health & Safety in the modern beetleweight circuit) onto Impact's team.

Qualification[]

"It was an electric axe bot with two claws in the front to hold the opponent so that you can get that good hit. The motor was a BIG DC motor of unknown origin. To power it I had 3x30ah Hawker batteries. Combined with the motor, these components alone easily weighed 50kg, so I had little left for armour and a frame."
— Jeroen van Lieverloo describes Impact 2
Dutch roboteers at qualifiers

Jeroen van Lieverloo at the Series 7 qualifiers

Impact 2 2004

Impact 2 at a Dutch event in 2004 without its axe

After Impact qualified directly for Dutch Series 2, the team intended to enter UK Series 7 with an improved version of the machine named Impact 2, armed with an electric axe in combination with vertical grabbing claws. It travelled to the Series 7 qualifiers in the same van as PulverizeR, Gravity and Tough as Nails, but Jeroen van Lieverloo ultimately decided not to compete in any qualifier battles with Impact 2, as he had already been offered a space on Gravity's team for the same series, and felt that Impact 2 was not of a high enough standard to compete.

"After having a look around at the other robots, I decided to leave Impact 2 in the back of the van. It would have been cannon fodder, and would probably not even have survived its qualifying match. WJ had already offered me a spot on his team with Alex, and so history was written."
— Jeroen van Lieverloo on taking Impact 2 to the United Kingdom, and withdrawing from the qualifiers

Robot History[]

Series 2[]

"Impact’s first opponent was Beaver Bot, a big shell spinner. It was an easy match. Impact got in a few hits and the link of the opponent popped out. Not to say there wasn’t any damage to us but mostly it was fine. We also made sure the tail got set on fire by driving over the flame pit!"
— Jeroen van Lieverloo
Impact Beaverbot

Impact backs into Beaverbot with its tail

BeaverbotvsImpact2

Impact pushes Beaverbot towards the pit

Impact's first battle was against newcomer, Beaverbot. It stood up to Beaverbot's spinning attacks well, and then drove it into a wall to silence its weapon, not taking any damage from the full-body spinner due to Impact's wedges being ahead of its main body. Beaverbot's aerial had come off, so it was immobile. To celebrate, Impact set its hammer on fire using the flame jet, and then pushed the immobile Beaverbot into the pit.

"The second fight not so much fun. Twister was a hammery, spinny thing, and before the fight I asked what kind of motor they used for their weapon. They lied and told me it was a wheelchair motor so I was confident that it would not spin up very quickly. I had not seen their first fight!"
— Jeroen van Lieverloo
TwistervsImpact

Twister smashes into Impact

TwistervsImpact2

Dead Metal cuts into Impact

In the next round, Impact met Twister, another newcomer. It hit Twister with its hammer, and Twister skipped into the air but stayed upright. It came in on the attack head-on, and Twister's blade ripped off one of its prongs. Twister turned and struck Impact again, smashing off its front panels. Impact's hammer caught fire again, and Twister obliterated the last pieces of Impact's front. Impact was no longer moving, so Refbot counted it out. Impact was placed on the floor flipper (with the team chanting "flip, flip, flip" along with the crowd). After Impact was flipped, Matilda came in and inflicted more damage, tearing off its base, its electronics box, and one of its drive motors. Dead Metal dragged it over the flame pit and left it to burn.

"Guess what? It wasn’t a wheelchair motor! What happened next was very expensive. After Impact got in several hits, they managed to hit me right on my link and out it popped. I suddenly knew how Beaver Bot felt! So there I was immobile and out came Matilda who attacked my robot several times. Looking back on it, I think she went too far. In that single fight I lost 1 speed controller, 1 gearbox, 2 Bosches and 2 batteries. All of that damage was caused by the house robot, not the opponent. I also lost the frame of the robot but that was built way too weak anyways."
— Jeroen van Lieverloo

Results[]

IMPACT - RESULTS
Series 2
Dutch Championship
Heats, Semi-Final
Heat B, Round 1 vs. Beaverbot Won
Heat B, Semi-Final vs. Twister Lost
Pit Tables

Impact in the pits

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 1
  • Losses: 1

Series Record[]

Dutch Series[]

Dutch Series Impact Series Record
Series 1 Entered with X-Bot
Series 2 Heat, Round 2
Entered with √3²

UK Series[]

Series Impact 2 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 Withdrew from qualifiers
Entered with Gravity
Series 8 Entered with Tough as Nails
Not selected with Gravity
Series 9 Entered with Cobra
Series 10 World Series with THE BASH

Outside Robot Wars[]

Prior to competing on television, a wooden prototype of Impact debuted at Dutch Robot Games 2001 on the live circuit. However, Impact suffered from frequency issues, and the spare receiver crystals available to Team Tie-Rip would not work in Impact's setup, so it did not fight at the event. However, this allowed Jeroen van Lieverloo to meet British roboteers such as Andrew Marchant for the first time.

Impact 2 competed very briefly at two events, one in 2003 in Tillburg and another in 2004 in Rucphen, Holland, still mostly unarmoured and without its axe weapon. First competing and losing against Tough As Nails in Tillburg, then competing in a match with PulverizeR which it lost, as well as a demo where it showcased the crushing capabilities of its claws.

Deep Impact

The scoop of Deep Impact

After Impact 2 failed to qualify for Series 7, Jeroen van Lieverloo planned a successor named Deep Impact, and built a broad scoop for it, although the robot did not compete at any events.

Trivia[]

Navigation[]

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