Six of our students, alongside one robot entered the Robot Wars final at Newcastle College as part of the KMF Young Engineer’s programme. As soon as they arrived the car was tested by the competition officials and readied for the first event. All went to plan until our robot was flipped over by a competitor. In just a few seconds it burst into a torrent of flames and continued to burn fiercely for over a minute. Whilst this was happening the other robots continued to compete; eventually the first session ended with the fire being extinguished and our robot removed in a fireproof container. The whole of the wiring system had been completely gutted along with several electronic components. At this stage it looked like a right off for our team.
Luckily, after further examination it was found that the lithium Ion battery had come loose and had been completely crushed by an actuating arm. This caused the battery to burst into flames. We were fortunate that another competing school had another robot that we could remove the wiring loom and components from. The students along with our sponsors, Compass Complete Solutions, stripped the components and wiring, replaced and tested the Robot for the next round. Having borrowed another battery and secured it to the chassis we were just in time.
The robot and the drivers performed fantastically over the next round culminating in the ‘Alsager Arrows’ coming 6th out of 16 Robots. During the presentations they received a special award called ‘The Spirit of YEOTY’ for displaying outstanding teamwork skills and tenacity in rebuilding the burnt-out robot and competing in the rest of the competition.
We would like to take this opportunity in thanking our sponsors Compass Complete Solutions and KMF who organised the competition for all their help.
