Scariest Robot

[bkahl]

Both 195's 2014 and 2016 robots have tried to kill me.

In 2014, the robot was halfway through the firing sequence when it was disabled at the end of the match. When I tried to move it even a little bit in an effort to turn it off and put the safety in, the punch mechanism fired. It came about an inch from my nose.

In 2016, I was helping a student place the robot on the ground while @ IRI. We were in a rush and carelessly forgot to put the safety in while moving it. While placing it on the ground, posture had me bent over the center of the bot. The impact of the ground led the robot to fire the catapult, knocking my safety glasses off my face. The corner of my safety glasses cut my eyelid open as they flew off.

I need to be more careful around stored energy....

[Koko Ed]

FRC 340's 2015 robot looked like a black mantis with it's long can grabbing mechanisms. It looks like it wants to swipe an unaware volunteer from the side of the field and devour them alive to show the audience what it's capable of. One time the tether broke loose at Tech Valley and one of the arms got caught in 195 and came precariously close to tearing out some parts of 195's innards.

[cgmv123]

We didn't have any velocity control on this arm (we ran it through a Spike), so when it came down it was rather scary. (One of the many names for that robot was (appropriately) The Rim Reaper.)

[DRow]

Team 620 in 2013. Without a doubt the hardest shooting robot I saw all season. (Full court shooting from bottom right):
https://youtu.be/lqoYS9SxmIo?t=42s


And Team 4084 in 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LGwFCfUN9U

[BotDesigner]

Originally Posted by frcguy

Easily these.

I feel bad for any robot those things were strapped onto.

[Jeremy Germita]

Originally Posted by BotDesigner

I feel bad for any robot those things were strapped onto.

Technically they weren't mechanically strapped to a robot. The configuration in the video is how it would have been placed on the field except 1678's robot would be sitting where the cinder blocks are.

[carpedav000]

The scariest thing I have been a part of in FIRST was testing shooter prototypes for Stronghold. From the terrifying-looking "double barrel" spring-puncher to the time we were manually drawing back the puncher and the rope snapped (this resulted in the puncher rod hitting the ceiling hard enough to tear it). The scariest robot-combat moment I have seen is this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=stSRTk_CAlg

(Another angle)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=avyj5kQ8v0s


The scariest ROBOT I have seen, however, has to be Hellachopper (this thing was disqualified from Battlebots season 2 because it was deemed "too dangerous". It's weapons are either spinning hammers that can reach 8' in diameter while traveling at the speed of sound or "beast mode", which has a 6' diameter, shown in the video below.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_vph7wZEFAc

[Maldridge422]

Originally Posted by DRow

Team 620 in 2013. Without a doubt the hardest shooting robot I saw all season. (Full court shooting from bottom right):
https://youtu.be/lqoYS9SxmIo?t=42s

I saw 620 at the 2013 DC Regional. In one practice match, they misfired straight up and hit the rafters 30-40ft above. In another match, they pushed a blue alliance defender across the entire field and left them stuck on the red alliance's pyramid.

A truly ~~spooktacular~~ robot.

[Connor McBride]

In 2014 we were testing our puncher in our shop, the force was so great that it sheared the connecting bolts and flew forward. I was in front of it. Somehow I managed to escape it's wrath. Now every time I see it in our closet, I get haunting memories.

[TheBoulderite]

Originally Posted by Thayer McCollum

Another robot that was pretty scary was 1619's 2013 robot. You would watch it scale the pyramid and it turned out that scaling by the corner although ingenious was really scary because the whole pyramid would shake every time the bumpers passed a rung.

Yeah, we got nervous every time it climbed up the pyramid. It fell off once during the Colorado quarterfinals from the second rung, and all that was damaged was a bent bolt. We joke that was the only reason our team won the Quality Award that year.

Some of the scariest robots I've ever seen include:

• 1678 in 2015. How on Earth did you all get those can grabbers to be so fast?
• 2122 in 2016. They were scary simply because they would give you a preview of what their next big feature would be at their next regional.
• 195 in 2016. I stand by my argument that they had the most accurate and effective two-ball auto this season.
• 3418 in 2016. See this video.

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by TheBoulderite

• 1678 in 2015. How on Earth did you all get those can grabbers to be so fast?

Equal parts engineering, iteration, and a casual disregard for human safety.

We had to have made at least 10 different iterations over the course of the season.

[sanddrag]

980 in 2003. It was an 18ft telescoping pole that spun around horizontally. It nearly clipped a ref in the head a couple times.

[adciv]

Originally Posted by Maldridge422

I saw 620 at the 2013 DC Regional. In one practice match, they misfired straight up and hit the rafters 30-40ft above.

Thank you! I had been trying to remember who did that for years. That Frisbee BOUNCED off the ceiling.

[Joe Ross]

192 in 1999. Several teams that year had big arms that they used to play defense (see team 45 tip over two robots here*: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0CDop_IwW8). However, 192 was the scariest. They put a gyro on their arm, and used PID control (quite a feat when the processor was a basic stamp 2 programmed in PBASIC, and they had to use analog integration of the gyro). It worked great most of the time, but sometimes when pushing on another robot, there would be integral windup and the arm would start to oscillate over 90 degrees, and would start beating on the robot.

_{*Bonus, you get to see Andy Baker 17 years ago}

[PAR_WIG1350]

About a decade ago, Team 118 made a couple of robots posed a rather visible above-average risk to nearby fingers, etc.. I don't believe either one ever actually caused any serious injury in this manner, but they certainly look scary.
Chainzilla (2005) and Redline (2007)