Heavyweight Battlebot!
Combat robotics teaches you how to build optimized, robust, repairable systems. These challenges intensify as you advance into larger weight classes and begin competing against more experienced and stronger competitors. The highest level of combat robotics competition is the television show Battlebots. My 8 teammates and I had the opportunity to compete on the show in 2019. We have competed in every season since.

Season 6 Fight vs Defender

Season 5 Ribbot With Vertical Spinner Installed

Season 6 Fight vs Beta

Season 5 Fight vs Uppercut

Season 6 Fight vs Defender

Season 5 Fight vs Mad Catter

Season 5 Fight vs Black Dragon

Season 5 Fight vs Beta

Season 5 Fight vs Axolotl
2019 Season
Using what we knew from fighting in lower weight classes and seeking advice from veteran teams like Huge, Valkyrie, and Sawblaze. Ribbot has a modular weapon system, giving us the ability to swap them out depending on our opponent, giving us a competitive edge. The first season we went to the event with a 1 lifter module, 2 wedge modules, 1 horizontal spinner, 2 vertical spinner modules and 2 driving chassis. Each module weighed ~110 lb and ~120 lb driving chassis. (~20 lb went into the frog head and legs) Several of us took time off of school to manufacture all of these parts necessary for these assemblies and the additional spares.
Our debut season, we finished with a winning record of 3-2 but did not make it out of the round-robin stage of the competition.

Season 4 Weapon Discs

Season 4 Team Photo

Season 4 Chassis Rails

Season 4 Drive Gearboxes

Season 5 Crate Packed

Season 4 Vertical Module

Custom 200amp Brushed Motor Controller

Season 4 Cast Foam Frog Legs

Season 4 Fight Damage

Season 4 Fight vs Sawblaze

Shattered 45mm Weapon Shaft

Season 4 Fight vs Endgame

Season 4 Horizontal Spinner Module

Season 4 Fight vs Falcon

Season 4 Wedge Module
2020 Season
After competing with the robot in 2019, we took what we learned and improved the robot significantly. We decided to focus our effort on cutting weight and improving the modules we primarily used our debut season: the vertical and horizontal spinners. Switching from casting the frog out of foam to vacuum forming, gave us nearly 20 lb of weight back to allocate elsewhere in the robot. After experiencing a few critical failures in the vertical module (including shattering a 1.75” diameter steel weapon shaft), we redesigned and remanufactured almost every part of the assembly. We modified the horizontal, redoing the transmission. We also became the first battlebots with live telemetry to give us live updates on the status of the robot during fights.
In our second season, we earned a spot in the final tournament and managed to make it to the top 8.

Season 5 Vertical Module Installed

Season 5 Team (excluding Nick Hom)

Drive Testing

Bringing Two Fully Functional Robots Season 5

Season 5 Fight vs Uppercut

Uppercut Fight Damage, Split Wheel Hub

Season 5 Fight vs Beta

Season 5 Fight vs Tracer

Post Uppercut Fight
2021 Season
We knew from the previous season that we could not improve much by staying with the previous seasons’ robot. It was time for an overhaul. We combined the vertical and wedge module into one, allowing us to focus our design efforts there. We redesigned the horizontal module to have the disc farther forward, making it easier to hit opponents. We also changed over all of the weapon power system from brushed motors to IPMs. This change led to us becoming the highest voltage robot to ever compete on the show at over 250v.
This season has yet to fully air, but you can watch it weekly on the Discovery Channel! You can check our current fight record here.

Test Fit of Season 6 Horizontal

Season 6 Team

Season 6 Impactors

New Horizontal Module Installed

Precharge Circuit on Power Switch

New Vertical Module Installed

Undercutter Parts

Undercutter Weapon Shaft

Vertical Spinner Module Test Fit