Jellyfish

Jellyfish
Participation Information
UK Series	9
Team Information
Team	Team Die Gracefully Robotics
Team Members	Dave Lawrie Gemma Lawrie Tim Lawrie (VT only) Rory Mangles (Round 2 only) Alex Shakespeare (Round 2 only)
From	Antrim, Northern Ireland
Associated Robots	Nuts (Dave Lawrie)
Robot Statistics
Weight	85-95kg
Dimensions	170 x 150 x 17cm
Power	Lead acid batteries (24v)
Drive	2x E30-400-G AmpFlow motors
Weapons	Horizontal clamp
Statistics correct as of its most recent show/competition appearance, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

"Though Jellyfish is a relatively lightweight robot made from simple materials not usually associated with robot combat, it proved effective at grabbing and clamping its opponents in combat."

— Robot Wars: Build Your Own Robot

Jellyfish was a robot which competed in Series 9 of Robot Wars, built by Dave Lawrie who competed in the previous series as part of Team Nuts. After initially falling in the first round, it was reinstated following the withdrawal of Rapid, and collected a victory over Sabretooth, despite not qualifying for the Heat Final.

Design

"Big, bad, and ready to sting!"

— Robot Wars: The Official Handbook

Jellyfish's official photo

Jellyfish was armoured in HDPE plastic, and sports a comical design, featuring googly eyes and colourful spots. The design is loosely based on a jellyfish, hence the name. Its weapon was a horizontal clamp, partially inspired by that of BattleBots middleweight Huggy Bear, also adhering to the restrictions of the team's available parts, which included a power source of sealed lead acid batteries, making Jellyfish the joint-final robot to compete on the show with lead acid batteries. Jellyfish ran on a two-wheel drive system, but has a high ground clearance at the rear. Depending on its setup, Jellyfish weighs between 85-95kg.

Before building Jellyfish, Dave Lawrie, as shared on his team's Facebook page, prepared a checklist of requirements for his robot, with the goal of making it simple, inexpensive, and good for TV. Jellyfish met these requirements, having been constructed using readily available parts.

The Team

Main article: Team Nuts

Jellyfish with its team

Jellyfish was entered into Series 9 by Team Die Gracefully Robotics, captained by Dave Lawrie, who had previously competed in Series 8 with Nuts. In the first round, Dave Lawrie was joined only by his wife Gemma, although his brother Tim was also part of the team in their VT, despite being unable to attend filming.

During the second round, Dave Lawrie was rejoined by his former teammates from Series 8, Rory Mangles and Alex Shakespeare, after their robot Nuts 2 had already been eliminated. Ahead of Series 10, Dave Lawrie welcomed Craig Croucher onto his team, alongside podcast creator Sam Elliott, but the team would ultimately not appear in the series.

Qualification

Jellyfish applied for Series 9 through online applications, having entered the build process before the applications went live, and it was selected to compete in the series. Ahead of Series 10, Dave Lawrie upgraded his robot with the help of his new teammates, and named the robot Jellyfish and Ice Cream, but the team were not selected to compete in the series.

Robot History

Series 9

"A group of jellyfish is called a smack. We're coming to Robot Wars to lay the smack down!"

— Dave Lawrie

Jellyfish competed in Heat 1, fighting Nuts 2, Rapid and Terrorhurtz in its Group Battle. However, despite encountering no issues in testing prior to the battle, Dave Lawrie quickly noticed that Jellyfish was suffering from radio interference issues in the arena, and proved challenging to drive.

"Upon "activate!", Jelly barely responded to my transmitter. Sometimes he drove without input, sometimes he caught my signal, sometimes he stopped completely. Add in the 3 other machines trying to write us off and it simply became a battle of survival."

— Dave Lawrie explains Jellyfish's control problems

Jellyfish is thrown by Rapid

When the battle began, it was immediately scooped under and thrown against the wall by Rapid, before being collected by Terrorhurtz. Jellyfish lingered close to the wall as Rapid pushed it over the Flame Pit, with Terrorhurtz getting underneath and axing it close to the Arena Tyre.

"Come on, Jelly!"

— Gemma Lawrie as Jellyfish is attacked by Terrorhurtz

Jellyfish is pushed into the corner by Rapid

Again, Rapid got underneath and pushed Jellyfish around the arena and into Terrorhurtz, before flipping it again. Jellyfish withstood an axe blow from Terrorhurtz as it escaped the empty CPZ, before attacking two of Nuts 2's minibots. It was then pushed into another CPZ and flipped over by Rapid once again, where it lost an eye and was left unable to freely drive inverted. After some time, Jellyfish was counted out, and initially eliminated alongside Nuts 2.

"I have no problems losing fights or being knocked out by superior machines but I'd rather go home in many pieces than get picked off because I couldn't drive properly. Such is life, I guess. No excuses, the best machines progressed."

— Dave Lawrie

Terrorhurtz axes Jellyfish

However, following Rapid's withdrawal due to damage sustained in its battle against Aftershock, Jellyfish was reinstated to take its place in the Head-to-Head stage, as a result of it outperforming Nuts 2 in the aforementioned Group Battle. With Rory Mangles and Alex Shakespeare from Team Nuts joining the team in the pits and control room, and two protective plates attached to its top panel, Jellyfish faced Terrorhurtz again for its first Head-to-Head battle. In the opening seconds, it embraced Terrorhurtz as the latter rammed and axed it, losing its eyes and protective plates in the process, before being steered round and slammed into the wall.

Nick Lynch: "Oh no, he's not dead already, is he?"

John Reid: "One more hit."

— Team Hurtz notice Jellyfish’s immobility

Jellyfish lays immobile and in pieces

These attacks immobilised Jellyfish almost immediately, which was counted out as Terrorhurtz axed it one more time. Jellyfish scored no points as a result of this defeat, and sustained damage to its speed controller as well as having the magnets in one drive motor shattered by the force of Terrorhurtz's axe.

"I can’t even find where the axe actually hit it. So, we'll have to do a diagnostic."

— Dave Lawrie assesses the damage done to Jellyfish

Jellyfish, assisted by Team Nuts, needed to find the damage caused by Terrorhurtz, which was not immediately obvious. Once this repair was made by installing a spare speed controller offered by Team RPD, Jellyfish was ready to battle Sabretooth in its second - and last - Head-to-Head.

"What it transpired had actually happened was Terrorhurtz hit us so hard that one of the chips popped off on the speed controller circuit board. That speed controller in turn was also providing power to the receiver, so John just hit a sweet spot! The removable link didn't even come out! Fascinating."

— Dave Lawrie

Jellyfish required a knock-out victory in order to equalise Sabretooth and Terrorhurtz on points, and have a chance of securing a place in the Heat Final.

Dara Ó Briain: "Do you have a plan?"

Dave Lawrie: "Yeah."

Dara Ó Briain: "What are you going to do?"

Dave Lawrie: "I'm gonna beat 'im."

— Dave Lawrie explains his tactics against Sabretooth

Jellyfish 'hugs' Sabretooth...

...and pushes it around the arena

At the start, Jellyfish grabbed Sabretooth and pushed it around the arena, using its clamp to prevent Sabretooth from driving away effectively before Sabretooth hit its side with its drum.

"And we know that Jellyfish would love to give it [Sabretooth] a big hug. Is there going to be a Jellyfish sting in the tail of Robot Wars?"

— Jonathan Pearce as Jellyfish assails Sabretooth

Sabretooth drives over Jellyfish

Jellyfish momentarily launched Sabretooth off its wheels as the latter drove up one of its sides, before steering it towards Sir Killalot's CPZ. Sabretooth escaped by driving over Jellyfish's top, with Jellyfish again pursuing Sabretooth as it got caught on the pit panel. After a brief hesitation, Jellyfish clamped Sabretooth again, spinning it around in circles and steering it close to the Flame Pit.

"That's it! Jelly's having his cuddle!"

— Gemma Lawrie as Jellyfish grabs Sabretooth again

Jellyfish pushes Sabretooth towards the flame pit

Sir Killalot comes to separate Jellyfish and Sabretooth

Again, Sabretooth escaped by using its drum to launch itself on top of Jellyfish, but got stuck on one of its rear poles as Jellyfish pushed it back onto the pit panel. Both robots became stuck on the pit as a result, with Sir Killalot coming out of his CPZ to separate them as they struggled to drive free. Eventually, both Jellyfish and Sabretooth got stuck together again and moved no further as 'cease' was called, and the battle went to a Judges' decision. The Judges voted 2 to 1 in favour of Jellyfish, awarding it two points and fourth place on the Head-to-Head leaderboard. As a result, Jellyfish did not score enough points to progress to the Heat Final, and was therefore eliminated from Series 9.

"I won a fight on Robot Wars. I am super proud of this fact and seeing my 2 points up on that board was life-affirming but it is certainly not something to gloat about. I managed to beat Sabretooth after the Aftershock damage had already taken it's toll. I was lucky and I'm sure the fight would have been a whole heap of different had both robots been at their finest, but particularly theirs."

— Dave Lawrie

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 1
• Losses: 2

Series Record

• Jellyfish's drawn design
• Jellyfish pushes a tyre in testing
• Jellyfish enters the arena during Series 9
• Jellyfish approaches the arena

1/4

Series	Jellyfish Series Record
Series 1-7	Did not enter
Series 8	Entered with Nuts
Series 9	Heat Round 2, Fourth Place
Series 10	Not selected

NOTE: Craig Croucher was part of the intended Series 10 team, after previously competing in the Series 8 pilot with Tanto, as a member of Team Immersion. Croucher was not selected to compete in Series 9 with Neutron, as a member of Team Nebula.

Outside Robot Wars

Two-Headed Death Flamingo

Following Jellyfish and Ice Cream's unsuccessful application for Series 10, Dave Lawrie sold its components and decided to retire his former team, Die Gracefully Robotics, from robot combat. He since formed a new team with Sam Elliott and Craig Croucher, who co-built Two-Headed Death Flamingo, a two-wheeled robot built on a budget of £1000. For more information on Two-Headed Death Flamingo, refer to Team Nuts.

Shark Setrakian

Dave Lawrie competed in the 2019 series of BuggleBots with Shark Setrakian, a shark-themed robot with multiple weapons. After getting caught on the arena floor, Shark Setrakian was destroyed in its first fight against Wajoo, before having two of its wheels torn off against Phoenix in the losers melee, eliminating it from the competition.

Sam Elliott is the creator of the YouTube podcast series RoboCast, which regularly interviewed Robot Wars teams on the subject of the reboot episodes. For more information on Craig Croucher's robots, see Neutron.

Trivia

• The mascot on the team's shirts is a cartoon jellyfish called Bloop, accompanied by a social media slogan #OneMachineGoesBloop.
• Prior to Robot Wars, both Dave and Gemma had competed on the BBC game show Total Wipeout, where they first met.
• Jellyfish is the second robot in the main competition to place fourth in the Head-to-Heads while still having won a battle; the first being PP3D in Series 8. However, it was the only robot to do so upon being reinstated.
  • This also made Jellyfish the only robot within Series 9 to place fourth in the second round despite winning a battle.
• Although Jellyfish and Ice Cream did not qualify for Series 10, footage from its application video was used in a trailer for the series.
• Jellyfish and Ms Nightshade were the final robots to compete on Robot Wars using lead acid batteries for their power source.
• Jellyfish was one of four robots to win their last Head-to-Head battle before being eliminated from that stage in series which used the round-robin format. The others were Terrorhurtz, TR2 and Eruption.
• Jellyfish was the only robot in Heat 1 of Series 9 not to appear in another episode or series.

External Links

• Die Gracefully Robotics Facebook page (defunct)
• Jellyfish on the Robot Wars website
• Two-Headed Death Flamingo Facebook page