- Not to be confused with the US competitor Tricerabot.
Triterobot was Team Mousetrap's entry into Series 3 of Robot Wars. Like Steg-O-Saw-Us, Triterobot was a reserve (although it is not clear who it replaced) and did not receive a televised introduction. It lost its only battle against Evil Weevil.
- "We were eventually called up by the BBC as studio reserves for the competition. This meant heading down to London on the off chance of being selected. [...] To cut a very long story short, we were invited back as main competitors in the second half of the draw"
- — Jason Launchbury, writing after the event
Its name is believed to be a pun on Triceratops, a type of herbivorous dinosaur.
Design
- "Triterobot was designed from the outset for maximum invulnerability. The chassis is bomb proof angle iron which can run either way up. Triangular shape and unique steering are designed to foil attempts to tip over or pin against a wall/house robot. Unfortunately our "gung-ho" approach to weight allowance led to amour that was slightly under par. As we found out to our cost (lots of smoke:-) Cool steering mechanism meant we could maneuver around the arena with the greatest of ease (it worked fine until Evil-Weevil put a spike in the works!)."
- — Team Mousetrap website on Triterobot
Triterobot was a green triangular omni-directional robot, with several smiling faces decorating the corner. It was invertible and was described as having no front, back or sideways, due to separately rotating wheels that shared a common power source from two motorbike starter motors. However, it had a low top speed of just 4 mph. It was armoured in 1.6 mm aluminium and had a mild steel angle chassis. Each corner of the robot had a spike.
- "Weaponry is a bit tame I'm afraid - just 3 spikes bolted onto the corners of the robot... This is a problem because the TV producers will be looking for maximum damage causing potential, to keep the 6+ million viewers happy. So we're not sure if it will be accepted. Unfortunately the robot now weighs 80.5 kg (with aluminium body), so adding a chain saw would be impossible"
- — Team Mousetrap website on the weaponry
Robot History
Series 3
Triterobot starts to smoke
In Round 1 of the Third Wars, Triterobot went up against future Semi-Finalists Evil Weevil. As soon as Activate was called, Triterobot moved quickly towards Evil Weevil and collided with it. After driving into Sergeant Bash's CPZ, Evil Weevil drove onto the Arena Wall and was spiked by Triterabot. Evil Weevil then pushed Triterobot towards Sergeant Bash, who became impaled onto the House Robot by one of its spikes. Then Evil Weevil pushed Triterobot around the Arena floor until reaching Sir Killalot's CPZ. There, Evil Weevil released Triterobot who promptly impaled one of its spikes into Evil Weevil's fibreglass armour and began to smoke copiously. The battle was briefly paused due to the perceived fire hazard, but allowed to continue as the house robots separated the two machines, but Triterobot had lost a lot of its power during the "smokescreen". Evil Weevil then attacked Triterobot and turned it on its side, where neither sets of Triterobot's castors touched the ground. Thus, it was stuck on its side and Evil Weevil pushed the immobile robot towards the pit. Missing the final push by instead driving in a curving arc, the House Robots closed in on Triterobot, however Evil Weevil attacked Shunt to help Triterobot, who were enjoying the punishment being inflicted upon their robot.
Triterobot side-stranded
- "First we were roasted by Sgt Bash's flame-thrower. We then got spiked by "Evil Weevil", this shorted out the supply to one of our main drive motors, creating large amounts of smoke "Shunt" then moved in, punching holes in our body. "Dead metal" then attacked with it's cutting disk. Needless to say, this was all to much for our 1.6mm aluminium body shell. ... Upon taking the shell off, the problem that lead to so much house robot abuse was clear. Our wiring was in a melted mess!"
- — Team Mousetrap website on their loss
Results
| TRITEROBOT - RESULTS | ||
| Series 3 | ||
| The Third Wars - UK Championship Heat, Round 1 | ||
| Heat L, Round 1 | vs. Evil Weevil | Lost |
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 0
- Losses: 1
Series Record
| Main Series | Triterobot Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Did not enter |
| The Third Wars | Heat, Round 1 |
| The Fourth Wars | Entered with Mousetrap |
| The Fifth Wars | Entered with Mousetrap |
| The Sixth Wars | Failed to qualify with Mutant Mousetrap |
| The Seventh Wars | Entered with Black and Blue |
| Series 8 | Did not enter |
| Series 9 | Did not enter |
| Series 10 | Entered with Mousetrap |
| Robot Wars Extreme | Appearances |
| Series 1 | Did not enter |
| Series 2 | Did not enter |
Trivia
- Triterobot was mistakenly spelled Tri-Terra-Bot in both Robot Wars: The Official Robot Guide and Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide.
- After its defeat, Triterobot was taken apart, and the pieces left in Stan Launchbury's garden.