Nursing battles wounds and awaiting repairs, Steggy and Termigator the battle bots are back in Gainesville after a smashing December showing at the National Havoc Robot League World Championships.
The University of Florida’s Gator Robotics team competed in the championship in Norwalk, Connecticut on Dec. 6. About 80 college and non-academic teams competed in three weight classes — 3, 12 and 30 pounds — with up to 30 qualifying bots in each division as determined by performance in regular-season competitions.
A lean, green 12-pound machine equipped with blades and a steel cylinder with teeth called a drum, Steggy pounded its way into the semi-finals, eventually succumbing to Slam Plan the bot from Team HUGE. Slam Plan, incidentally, lost in the finals to Pramheda.
Steggy is driven by Gator Robotics Vice President John Flaacke, a first-year master’s student who, according to the play-by-play broadcast announcer, is known as “Boy Wonder.”
With gnarly teeth and a few surprises in its weighty drum, the 30-pound Termigator made it to the Top 16, where it was bested by Colossal Avian (who then lost to Chonkiv the bot in the quarterfinals).
“Our drums are made out of S7 steel, which has a higher hardness than most weapons people use, so we do more damage to them than they do to us,” said Brooks Silber, Gator Robotics member and first-year master’s student with the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE).