Changes: M.R. Speed Squared

Revision as of 16:25, 16 March 2017

"At work, we try to avoid fatalities, but at Robot Wars, that's the mission!"

— Peter Forsey, cardiologist and team captain

M.R. Speed Squared, pronounced "Mr Speed Squared", is a heavyweight robot, built by Team Forsey, who entered Series 8-9 of Robot Wars. It reached the Head to Head stage after convincingly winning its Group Battle, but was eliminated after failing to score enough points to progress to the Heat Final.

The name M.R. Speed Squared is derived from the equation that calculates the power of the spinning rim, mass x radius² = speed, or S = mr².

Team Forsey had also previously competed in the original series of Robot Wars with Trouble 'n' Strife, which took part in Series 5, and Revenge of Trouble & Strife, which competed in Series 6-7 and the second series of Robot Wars Extreme.

Design

Mss — M.R. Speed Squared as it appeared in Series 8 before its armour was removed

The team decided to forego the flipper of previous iteration Revenge of Trouble & Strife on M.R. Speed Squared to allow the robot to be invertible.

Mssteam — M.R. Speed Squared with Team Forsey in Series 8

The robot was armed with an angled full-body spinning steel rim. The 22kg rim was capable of spinning at a force of 80 kilajoules (1000 RPM during the build process), creating high amounts of kinetic energy on impact. The rim was interchangeable, so the team could pick the most appropriate blade depending on its opponents. Its armour consisted of rubber-mounted 3mm aluminium over a 3mm steel frame. However, the team were forced to remove part of this armour as it pushed the robot over the weight limit, leaving one side vulnerable to overhead attacks, and the robot was slow at 8mph. M.R. Speed Squared's bearings were also unstable, which meant that the robot would often lose the use of its weapon once the bearings were broken.

Mrspeedsquared series 9 — M.R. Speed Squared as it appears in Series 9

Mrspeedsquared-team series 9 — M.R. Speed Squared with Team Forsey in Series 9

A brand-new M.R. Speed Squared returned in Series 9, sporting a much lower profile. Although its spinning rim now spins at 900rpm, it now weighs 35kg, and the robot's speed was more than doubled. The rim is made from 10mm HARDOX with two 10cm tool steel teeth. This version also addressed the issue with the robot's bearings, and swapped the metal bearings for rubber tyres, improving the reliability of the weapon. However, the robot is still exposed to overhead attacks.

Robot History

Series 8

M.R. Speed Squared appeared in Episode 2, and faced three newcomers to the main heavyweight competition, Chimera, Draven and Foxic. Due to the robot being overweight, Team Forsey had to remove the armour on the bottom of the machine, leaving its internals exposed. When they entered the arena, the exposed internals were visible to all, as M.R. Speed Squared had entered the arena inverted.

Angela Scanlon: "What's the ideal opponent for you?"

Peter Forsey: "Something made of a composite material like kevlar, something like that machine over there in our heat actually!"

— Early intentions to target Draven

Chimera first hit — Ripping a tyre from Chimera

MR Draven — M.R. Speed Squared rips armour from Draven

M.R. Speed Squared spent the first few seconds getting their spinning rim up to full speed, and once they had, it immediately targeted Chimera, and punctured one of its tyres, tearing it loose, the second hit removing the tyre completely. With Foxic and Draven remaining, M.R. Speed Squared chose to target Draven next, sending it spinning away with a blow, ripping kevlar from its body. Although Draven was attacking the nearly lifeless Foxic, M.R. Speed Squared landed another blow on Draven, immobilising it. M.R. Speed Squared had qualified for the head-to-head round with Foxic, although it was later realised that the robot had lost some weapon bearing motors in the process.

Mr speed squared vs thor 2 — M.R. Speed Squared receives a huge punch

Mr speed squared vs thor floor flipper — The underbelly is exposed by the floor flipper

Mr speed squared vs thor 3 — M.R. Speed Squared's exposed parts are left vulnerable

Mr speed squared vs thor pit — M.R. Speed Squared drives into the pit

M.R. Speed Squared's first opponent in the head-to-heads was Thor. Proving this to be a regular tactic, M.R. Speed Squared avoided Thor in the opening moments to get its spinner up to speed, although it was slammed into the pit release button, halting its progress. The team's efforts to run away saw M.R. Speed Squared slammed into the arena wall, over the flame pit, and into Dead Metal's claws, where Thor punched a dent into the aluminium armour, and slammed it into a wall again. M.R. Speed Squared seemed to have lost the ability to spin its weapon, and an axe blow from Thor put a huge gash in M.R. Speed Squared. The spinning rim eventually started working again, but Thor's anti-spinner wedge protected itself. Both robots drove over the floor flipper, which threw both robots, leaving M.R. Speed Squared's unarmoured underbelly exposed. Although M.R. Speed Squared's spinner protected it at first, a strong blow disabled it for the rest of the match. The spinning rim was hammered by Thor, before the exposed internals were punished by Thor. Either by accident, or to protect the robot's internals, M.R. Speed Squared drove straight into the pit, awarding themselves a loss.

MRSS Pit Release — M.R. Speed Squared activates the pit

Drawn against Foxic again, M.R. Speed Squared implemented its usual tactic of running away to get the rim up to speed - although in this match, the rim had broken, so M.R. Speed Squared spent the entire match fleeing from Foxic, which was in turn focused on attacking the House Robots. Finding something to do, M.R. Speed Squared pressed the pit release button, before continuing to keep its distance. M.R. Speed Squared launched a gentle final attack of driving into Foxic, but was lifted in return, and cease was called on an uneventful match. The Judges ruled, on a 2-1 split decision, that M.R. Speed Squared had won the match, on the basis of not driving into danger, awarding them two points. Professor Noel Sharkey deemed this the worst fight he had seen in Robot Wars, calling it complete rubbish.

MR Speed Squared vs Foxic — The only danger M.R. Speed Squared suffered

"Bit of an anti-climax really, we'd spent a lot of time fixing the disc, hoping to get a big bang on Foxic. Unfortunately in the arena it didn't spin up, we don't know why, everything else was fine, we got the Judges' decision, but it didn't feel very glorious, really."

— Peter Forsey

Shockwave vs MR Speed Squared — M.R. Speed Squared is lifted onto the wall

On two points, M.R. Speed Squared had the opportunity to qualify for the Heat Final, if they could defeat Shockwave. Rather than flee, M.R. Speed Squared drove in circles to maximise the speed of its rim, although Shockwave was mostly unharmed, and pushed M.R. Speed Squared into Sir Killalot and Dead Metal, which cut through the chassis. When M.R. Speed Squared attacked Shockwave, it buckled its opponents scoop and knocked a drive chain loose, but then M.R. Speed Squared was lifted against the arena wall by Shockwave, where it started to smoke, and was pushed towards Sir Killalot again.

"Team captain Peter works in a hospital theatre as a cardiologist, plenty of heart in M.R. Speed Squared, but it's about to be arrested, it would seem, by Shockwave!"

— Jonathan Pearce

Shockwave lift — M.R. Speed Squared is held aloft

MRSS pitted — M.R. Speed Squared is eventually pitted

M.R. Speed Squared was not being given chances to spin up its rim, and was overturned by Shockwave, once again exposing its vulnerable internals. Rammed into the wall, M.R. Speed Squared was held above the arena floor, and then driven right onto the lip of the pit. Although both robots had nearly fallen into the pit, it was Shockwave that achieved the finishing blow, and M.R. Speed Squared was pushed into the pit, eliminating it from the competition.

"M.R. Speed Squared into the square-shaped trap!"

— Jonathan Pearce

Series 9

M.R. Speed Squared will compete in Episode 3, once again facing its infamous opponent Foxic, alongside newcomers Expulsion, and the new robot from Team 13, Heavy Metal.

Results

M.R. SPEED SQUARED - RESULTS
Series 8
Series 8 - UK Championship Round 2, Third Place
Episode 2, Group Battle	vs. Chimera, Draven, Foxic	Qualified
Episode 2, Head-to-Heads	vs. Thor	Lost via KO (0 points)
Episode 2, Head-to-Heads	vs. Foxic	Won via Judges' decision (2 points)
Episode 2, Head-to-Heads	vs. Shockwave	Lost via KO (0 points)
Series 9
Series 9 - UK Championship Unknown
Episode 3, Group Battle	vs. Expulsion, Foxic, Heavy Metal	Unknown

Wins/Losses

Wins: 2
Losses: 2

Series Record

M.R. Speed Squared enters the arena in Series 8
M.R. Speed Squared in the build process
Peter Forsey in the robot's Series 8 introduction
M.R. Speed Squared in the pits

Main Series	M.R. Speed Squared 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	Entered with Trouble 'n' Strife
The Sixth Wars	Entered with Revenge of Trouble & Strife
The Seventh Wars	Entered with Revenge of Trouble & Strife
Series 8	Heat Round 2, Third Place
Series 9	Entered
Series 10	Did not enter
Robot Wars Extreme	Appearances
Series 1	Entered with Revenge of Trouble & Strife
Series 2	Did not enter

Trivia

Erroneously, the robot's name was spelled simply as "MR SPEED SQUARED" on television, while the official website referred to it as "M.R Speed Squared". The correct name is "M.R. Speed Squared", featuring two full stops.

@@ Line 68: / Line 68: @@
 {{Show|Series 9}}
 {{Competition|Series 9 - UK Championship|Unknown}}
-{{Battle|[[Robot Wars: Series 9/Episode 3|Episode 3, Group Battle]]|[[Expulsion]], [[Foxic]], [[M.R. Speed Squared]]|Unknown}}
+{{Battle|[[Robot Wars: Series 9/Episode 3|Episode 3, Group Battle]]|[[Expulsion]], [[Foxic]], [[Heavy Metal]]|Unknown}}
 |}