Shockwave

For the Police representative in the Forces Special of Robot Wars Extreme, see Shockwave (Extreme 1).

Shockwave
Participation Information
UK Series	8
Robot Wars Live Circuit	2015-16
Team Information
Team	Team Shock
Team Members	Will Thomas Ian Thomas
From	Reading
Robot Statistics
Weight	110kg
Dimensions	110cm x 85cm x 25cm
Top Speed	20mph
Power	Lithium Iron Phosphate (40v)
Drive	2x 4kW fairground ride motors
Weapons	Lifting scoop
Statistics correct as of its most recent show/competition appearance, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

"Shockwave can flip itself continuously using its weapon, which can spin 360 degrees around the robot - meaning it can flip itself out of danger, or even land itself onto opponents. It also has the ability to lift up 200kg in weight, and pull a car with both team members sitting in it."

— The Robot Wars website

Shockwave was a heavyweight robot built by Team Shock, the first of their two entries in the Robot Wars Revival Series.

Competing exclusively in Series 8, it enjoyed a highly competitive performance in its Heat, winning four battles - including its Heat Final against Thor - to reach the overall Grand Final. However, despite maintaining this form in its subsequent Group Battle against Apollo and Carbide, Shockwave took severe damage from the latter's bar spinner, which forced it to withdraw when the melee was stopped partway through. Following this 4-2 run, Shockwave was superseded by vertical spinner Aftershock in Team Shock's future Robot Wars appearances.

Design

"Shockwave is a lifter bot with fully interchangeable weapons, which can be substituted depending on who it will face in the arena. Shockwave’s drive motors are the same as those used on fairground carousel rides, and its wheels are taken from a go-cart."

— The Robot Wars website

Shockwave's HDPE high-impact scoop

Shockwave was a four-wheel driven invertible heavyweight robot, armed with interchangeable lifting scoops. The robot was covered in 4mm of armour plating steel, with 15mm of high density polyethylene plastic. Shockwave's scoop could lift 200kg, and could rotate 360° around the robot, allowing the robot to turn itself over (and self-right, even though this wasn't necessary), which was used as the robot's victory move at the end of its battles. Built from 4mm Weldox, it was designed to withstand blows from spinners. The robot's design was inspired by the pushing power of Tornado, and the lifter of BattleBots competitor Breaker Box.

"Breaker Box did give us some inspiration but we went for a different approach. Shockwave is mainly about the drive power (12kW from the two motors) and with the power to lift another machine clean off the ground. Our lifter is much slower than that of Breaker Box but can lift 200kgs (we tested it by lifting the team)."

— Will Thomas on Reddit

Shockwave with its metal scoop

Shockwave with its metal scoop in the Arena

Shockwave's interchangeable scoops included a solid HARDOX wedged scoop - optimised to get underneath opponents and lift them - and a shovel-like HDPE scoop, intended to absorb impacts and protect the robot from overhead axe blows.

The robot was powered by six Lithium Ion Batteries batteries, driving two 4kW fairground ride motors, and the robot had four go kart wheels with chain reduction. This gave the robot a high top speed of 20mph. The weapon was powered by a stairlift motor, controlled by a Sidewinder ESC and had a gearbox. Like the drive motors, the weapon powered by Lithium Ion batteries, with a final chain reduction and clutch to prevent damage to the gearbox.

"I think with the current arena floor we had a little too much power as we were spinning the wheels. When we tested it on concrete it was much better. We did discuss the option of tyre warmers but for next time we are looking at options for grippier wheels and gearing for more speed."

— Will Thomas on Reddit

The Team

Main article: Team Shock

Shockwave with Team Shock

Shockwave was the first robot entered into Robot Wars by Team Shock, consisting of father-and-son team Will Thomas and Ian Thomas. Team captain Will designed and drove the robot, whilst his father Ian was the main builder, and did the mechanics.

Qualification

Shockwave at the time of applying for Robot Wars in 2016

"We were quite surprised that we got as far as we did considering we only had 5 weeks to build it and about 5 minutes driving practice before the first fight."

— Will Thomas on Reddit, speaking of their success in Series 8

Team Shock applied for Series 8 with Shockwave by sending an online application to Mentorn. The team also applied to enter the series with Manta and Maelstrom, with Shockwave being the choice of the producers, much to the team's surprise. Manta still made a cameo appearance in Shockwave's VT, played before Shockwave's Head to Head battles.

Robot History

Series 8

Marking Team Shock's debut in Robot Wars, Shockwave competed in Heat B of Series 8, where it faced three veterans in its Group Battle - Series 7 returnee DisConstructor, New Blood third-place finisher Thor, and Series 7 Semi-Finalist Tough as Nails.

"During testing, Shockwave, they apparently drove it through a neighbour's fence! This team claim their scoop arm will allow them to climb out of the pit - yeah, we'll have to see about that!"

— Jonathan Pearce

Shockwave pushes DisConstructor into the pit

Shockwave pushes Tough as Nails while in its grip, after Thor falls off

Shockwave wedging under Tough as Nails allowed Thor to attack

When the battle begun, Shockwave did not hesitate before pressing the pit release, having planned to dispose of the threatening spinner DisConstructor early on. The plan succeeded, as Shockwave rammed DisConstructor into the arena wall, which rebounded towards the pit, and Shockwave capitalised by pushing its early fears down. Down to three robots, Shockwave slammed into the back of Thor, which was gripped by Tough as Nails, although this caused Shockwave to slide completely under Thor, into Tough as Nails' grip. Shockwave pushed Tough as Nails into the corner of the arena. Shockwave appeared to try and team up with fellow live circuit competitor Thor, constantly pushing it closer to Tough as Nails' weak spots, or wedging underneath Tough as Nails to put it at a better angle for striking. Thor eventually succeeded in immobilising Tough as Nails, allowing Shockwave to progress with it.

"It was the disc we were really worried about, because we're so exposed with our four-wheel drive, we just said, we've got to go for the disc!"

— Ian Thomas

It was later revealed that Shockwave lost drive to one of its wheels during the melee, but this damage was repaired in time for the next round. In Shockwave's first battle of the head-to-head stage, Foxic was to be its first opponent.

Shockwave overturns Foxic

Shockwave wedges under Foxic with Dead Metal nearby

Shockwave pushes Foxic into the pit

Both robots met in the centre of the arena, but Foxic's wedge was lower, and Shockwave simply drove on top of its opponent. It retreated, pressing the pit release button, then drove back towards Foxic which had briefly stopped moving, and pushed it into Dead Metal. When Foxic began to push Dead Metal across the arena, Shockwave capitalised by slipping underneath its distracted opponent, allowing Dead Metal to push back and cut into Foxic. Shockwave rammed Foxic into the arena wall, turning it over, and when Foxic escaped, raising its scoop, Shockwave could slip underneath and push Foxic into the pit. Shockwave celebrated by turning itself over repeatedly.

Shockwave next fought Thor, its ally from the first round. In preparation, Shockwave applied a new front scoop, intended to deflect Thor's axe, made from a gas pipe outside the team's house.

"Thor can smack this all day long!"

— Will Thomas

Shockwave loses a third of its scoop

The intended purpose of Shockwave's scoop

Shockwave's wheels are attacked

Shockwave pushes Thor into Matilda's flywheel

Shockwave raised its scoop at the beginning of the fight, in order to deflect Thor's axe, though no axe blows were fired until after Shockwave had pressed the pit release button, where Thor turned Shockwave over and pushed it into Dead Metal, which sliced into one of Shockwave's tyres. Shockwave could still drive reasonably well, but a blow from Thor knocked a third of Shockwave's scoop off completely. Shockwave could not breach Thor's ground clearance with this scoop, so it went on the defensive, but Thor pushed it towards Matilda and landed another blow. Shockwave protected itself from some attacks using the scoop, but continued to sustain damage nonetheless, being pushed into the arena wall to lose another third of its scoop. Shockwave pushed Thor broadside, but could not defend itself from Thor bending its lifting mechanism, and attacking its wheel hub. The final piece of Shockwave's bucket was lost simply from a ram, but during this time, Shockwave pushed Thor into Matilda's flywheel, damaging Thor's own wheel guard. Both robots survived to a Judges' decision, but it was scored in favour of Thor.

"For our first fight with Thor our tactics were wrong. The main reason behind swapping to the plastic scoop was to allow for a second layer of top armour to deflect the axe- That bit actually worked as it stopped a direct hit over our batteries. The scoop itself was far too rushed."

— Will Thomas on Reddit

Will Thomas' injury

After the battle with Thor, Team Shock dropped their robot onto Will Thomas's fingers, requiring medical attention in a local A&E, leaving Ian Thomas to repair the robot alone. Will returned to the studio two hours later, ready for their last battle in the second round, against M.R. Speed Squared.

Dara Ó Briain: "Can you drive with two fingers immobilised?"

Will Thomas: "Yeah, the thumbs are OK, that's the main bit!"

— The importance of Will's injury

Shockwave lifts M.R. Speed Squared onto the arena wall

Shockwave holds M.R. Speed Squared aloft

Self-imposed danger from Shockwave

Shockwave pushes M.R. Speed Squared into the pit

Shockwave showed no fear of M.R. Speed Squared, and barged into it, pushing it towards Sir Killalot, pressing the pit release button for a fourth time while it had the chance. Shockwave's tactics were to stop M.R. Speed Squared from accelerating its spinning rim, which it did by pushing the robot relentlessly, and into Dead Metal. When M.R. Speed Squared retaliated, Shockwave lost a drive chain, and sustained damage on its bucket, but Shockwave's response was to lift M.R. Speed Squared onto the arena wall, where smoke emitted from it. Shockwave carried M.R. Speed Squared towards Sir Killalot again, and turned it over near Dead Metal, exposing their unprotected internals. Another lift held their prey completely airborne, while buckling their own scoop. Shockwave almost lost the fight after carrying M.R. Speed Squared towards the pit, but lost grip and almost drove in, but on a second attempt, pitted its opponent, and earned a place in the Heat Final.

In the Heat Final, Shockwave had earned its third encounter with Thor. For this battle, Shockwave returned to its HARDOX lifting wedge, in place of the HDPE bucket used in the previous two fights.

"For our first fight with Thor our tactics were wrong. The main reason behind swapping to the plastic scoop was to allow for a second layer of top armour to deflect the axe- That bit actually worked as it stopped a direct hit over our batteries. The scoop itself was far too rushed."

— Will Thomas on Reddit

Shockwave's knockout blow

Shockwave secures its place in the Grand Final

The first contact between the two robots caused Thor to rebound away from Shockwave, and a push from Shockwave into the arena wall left Thor immobilised in the opening moments. Shockwave pressed the pit release, and then had a simple task of pushing the beaten machine into the pit, which it did very quickly, earning vengeance for the earlier loss.

"What an upset, Shockwave have won! I cannot believe it!"

— Jonathan Pearce

This gave Shockwave a surprise place in the Grand Final.

"We were as surprised as everyone else! We spent ages trying to work out a plan for Thor in the heat final and just decided to hit it as hard as we could. I think even if Thor hadn't died we would have put up a better fight than before."

— Will Thomas on Reddit

In the Grand Final group stages, Shockwave was placed against Apollo and Carbide. Shockwave's plan was to either drive into Carbide's blade to stop it from spinning, or to sacrificially push Apollo into the spinning bar.

"We could be going home in a bin bag!"

— Will Thomas

Shockwave pushes Carbide

Shockwave is immobilised by Carbide

Shockwave's damage proves fatal

In the opening moments of the battle, Shockwave collided with Carbide near a CPZ. Shockwave slipped underneath Carbide, and pushed it into the arena wall, where Carbide's spinning blade rebounded and knocked a panel out of the arena side wall. Shockwave drove away from the scene, but Carbide landed a huge blow to Shockwave before cease was called for safety reasons. The battle was set to be restarted when the arena was repaired, but upon closer inspection it was revealed that Carbide's attack had damaged Shockwave significantly, dislodging one of its tyres and ripping through its armour. The damage was so severe that Shockwave was unable to continue, eliminating it and leaving Apollo and Carbide to progress to the head-to-heads.

"It's always disappointing to lose, but we always knew that Carbide was going to be a fantastic robot to fight, and I reckon they'll go far"

— Will Thomas

Shockwave was repaired to fighting condition before the end of filming, so Team Shock and Team Eruption decided to have a friendly battle in the arena between Shockwave and Eruption to entertain the audience, in a whiteboard battle.

"The producers gave us the chance to organise the fights amongst ourselves, and having been very close friends for many years, ourselves and Team Shock both said we wanted to fight each other in the new TV arena! They had done a fantastic job repairing Shockwave after their fight with Carbide (despite a few pieces of metal missing here and there!), and Eruption and Shockwave were the first robots loaded into the arena."

— Eruption - Robot Wars Facebook page on Shockwave's whiteboard battle

Shockwave's ground clearance proved to be inferior to Eruption's, and it was tossed around the arena. Shockwave managed to retaliate by slipping underneath Eruption to charge it into the arena wall. However, Shockwave's wheels were still weak after the encounter with Carbide, and after it was flipped a few more times by Eruption, a drive chain was lost, leaving Shockwave with only three working wheels. Team Shock encouraged Team Eruption to keep attacking, so Shockwave was thrown out of the arena, and lost the battle, retiring after this fight.

"Despite being immobilised, Will and Ian told us to continue attacking and we drove underneath Shockwave and flipped it out of the arena, giving Eruption the highest number of OOTAs in the new Robot Wars arena! Shockwave was unfortunately irreparable after this and did not fight again, but getting it back in the arena after the Carbide fight was a feat in itself!"

— Eruption - Robot Wars Facebook page on Shockwave's whiteboard battle

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 4
• Losses: 2

NOTE: Whiteboard matches are not included

Outside Robot Wars

Shockwave originally competed in Techno Games 2003 as Joker but lost to Storm Chaser in round one due to its sumo blade not being ready, leaving only the football scoop available.

It was sold to Team Shock in 2015 with its history between Techno Games and 2015 being unknown. The Series 8 version of Shockwave is almost a completely separate machine to the original robot, with only the drive and weapon motors remaining.

Robot Wars Live Events

An unfinished Shockwave

Shockwave only had a limited number of appearances at live events prior to the TV series being filmed, as Team Shock have mostly competed with their more successful robots at the events, Manta and Maelstrom. One of these was against The Steel Avenger during an Autumn 2015 event. It started well by lifting Steel Avenger in the air but Steel Avenger landed an axe blow in, which immobilised Shockwave on one side. A year later, the new Shockwave made an appearance at the Greenwich University event in Autumn 2016, where it defeated Stinger, Halo and The Steel Avenger.

Upon the announcement of Series 8, Shockwave, having been retired from live events, underwent a rebuild specifically in order to participate in the new series.

Series Record

Series	Shockwave Series Record
Series 1-7	Did not enter
Series 8	Grand Final, Round 1 Not selected with Manta and Maelstrom
Series 9	Entered with Aftershock
Series 10	Entered with Aftershock

• NOTE 1: Will Thomas also competed in Battle of the Stars as mentor for Episode 2 third-place finisher Soldier Ant.
• NOTE 2: Will Thomas' students entered Series 10 with Track-tion as part of the Collingwood Carnage team.

Gallery

Team Shock enter the arena

Shockwave's HARDOX wedge

Team Shock hold their HDPE scoop

An unpainted Shockwave during its VT

Trivia

• With non-qualifier Manta being the first, Shockwave is the second robot from Team Shock to share its name with a robot from earlier episodes of Robot Wars, as a robot named Shockwave competed in the Forces Special of Robot Wars Extreme. Coincidentally, the two robots that Team Shock's robots share names with both featured in the first series of Extreme.
• Aside from the participants in the 10 Robot Rumble, Shockwave is one of only six robots to fight at least two past or future domestic champions (Apollo and Carbide) in a single battle. The others to do this are Yeborobo, Tornado, Philipper, Panzer Mk 2 - who all fought in the same Second World Championship Heat - and 13 Black, who fought Chaos 2 and Razer.

External Links

• Shockbots website (Archived)
• Team Shock Robotics Facebook page
• Team Shock UK Facebook page
• Shockwave- Robot Twitter
• Shockwave on the Robot Wars website