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"Has plenty of that with its pneumatic flipper bar and ram! The body's aluminium over stainless steel sub-frames, what a print job! What an array of battering ram heads! What, no Judy?"
Jonathan Pearce introduces Mr Punch

Mr Punch (stylised on its statistics board as Mr PUNCH) was a box-shaped robot with a curved top that competed in Series 3 of Robot Wars. The team consisted entirely of students from London's South Bank University, with the robot being initially constructed for an intra-university competition and upgraded significantly for the Robot Wars auditions and filming (featuring 4QD speed controllers taken from one of the other defeated university machines). Despite these upgrades, it failed to help it win its only battle to Judge Shred.

Design[]

MrPunchUnpainted

Mr Punch before being painted

Mr Punch was painted red and featured the name and the character from Punch and Judy. Its weapons were a compressed air pneumatic ram with interchangeable heads, and a boxing glove on a separate pneumatic arm, the latter acting as a srimech. It had two wheelchair motors for the main drive, while the armour was aluminium on the top with a stainless steel chassis.

The Team[]

MrPunchTeam

The team with Mr Punch

Mr Punch was built by a team of students from South Bank University, based in London, having originally formed their team for an intra-university robotics competition. Kieron Kenny was the team captain, joined by Andy Pridmore and Glen Stanning at Series 3 and live events.

Robot History[]

Series 3[]

"A lot of competitors had complained about radio control interference and loss of control, etc. but it wasn't until we got out there and our weapons fired without our controller even being touched that we realised how bad it was - too much electrical/radio equipment. The weapons fired again before we could activate the robot, then when we finally activated our controls had no bearing on what our robot did - could have been someone else driving it for all I could do."
— Driver Andy Pridmore commenting on Mr Punch's lack of control
Mr punch rammed by Judge Shred

Judge Shred rams Mr Punch

Judgeshred vsmrpunch

Judge Shred lifts Mr Punch

Mr Punch was drawn against fellow newcomer Judge Shred in Round 1. In the battle, Mr. Punch suffered from severe radio interference for the first half of the fight, resulting in its weapons operating on their own and rapidly draining the compressed air supply. Judge Shred got underneath Mr Punch, using its claw lifters to lever Mr Punch up. The claws however, were not capable of causing much damage. Judge Shred pushed Mr Punch into Shunt, who penetrated the bodywork several times with his axe.

"We got pushed around an awful lot and when we got pushed into shunt, it put its axe through our casing several times, never once hitting anything vital...shame about the paintjob though..."
— Mr Punch website
Mr Punch axed

Mr Punch is axed by Shunt

Judge Shred dominated the battle for a while, ramming and lifting Mr Punch, until a little over halfway into the fight, when Mr. Punch's control improved and it was able to push Judge Shred around and damage their weapons by pushing them into the arena wall. Towards the end of the battle, Judge Shred's armour began smoking, due to it being over the flame pit for a while. This didn't win the battle for Mr Punch though, and the boxing robot failed to progress on a judges' decision.

"When we finally got radio control - about a minute or two before the end, we gave Judge Shred a run for its money by giving it a few swipes with the spin attack (and one of our riveted side panels came half off - doh! - NO riveting on next years entry) then pushed it across the arena into the side bars, breaking its spike and pneumatic claws in the process...hurrah! There was a little bit of smoke coming off them as well, but before we had a chance to strike again they gave the call to cease fighting and it went to a judges decision, where "Judge Shred" was declared the winner...if only we'd had one more minute."
— Mr Punch website

Results[]

MR PUNCH - RESULTS
Series 3
The Third Wars - UK Championships
Heat, Round 1
Heat K, Round 1 vs. Judge Shred Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 0
  • Losses: 1

Series Record[]

Series Mr Punch Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
The Third Wars Heat, Round 1
The Fourth Wars Did not enter
The Fifth Wars Did not enter
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter

Gallery[]

Outside Robot Wars[]

Mr Punch was initially built for a robotic combat competition held by South Bank University, where Mr Punch was one of four functional competitors. At the time, Mr Punch ran only on windscreen wiper motors, and so the robot was easily pushed around the arena by VenoM.

"As for Mr Punch well, at that time we had laughable windscreen wiper motors (sob, yes it's true, we really believed they'd be good enough) and a toothed belt system. As VenoM pushed us all around the arena like a shopping trolley and our air had run out due to controller problems, we realised why everyone in Robot Wars laughs at windscreen wiper motors - especially in the heavyweight class..."
— Mr Punch website[1]

References[]

External Links[]

Navigation[]

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