Abrasion was a heavyweight robot built by the United Kingdom's Team Immersion, which applied for BattleBots World Championship V, VI and VII.
The robot was heavily based on the 2019 build of the team's self-titled heavyweight Immersion - a design Abrasion became a more refined version of. Abrasion is armored in 15mm HARDOX steel and 150mm British HDPE around a machined aluminum core. Despite being two-wheel drive, each wheel is powered by two 5hp brushless motors on each side, offering sufficient drive power and redundancy also. Its primary weapon was a front-hinged flipper and an optional hammer saw which could be paired together to form a 'flipper saw', as coined by Team Immersion. This meant that Abrasion was able to comfortably throw 250lb opponents while embedding its discs into the vulnerable undersides.
Team Immersion applied for World Championship V in late 2019, and received confirmation of their acceptance in December that year as part of the original roster for the 2020 season. However, filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the international travel bans imposed as a result, Team Immersion were forced to withdraw from the competition, as were many other international BattleBots teams.
The team reapplied for World Championship VI with a similarly-designed build of Abrasion, however it was originally not accepted and later negotiated only as a reserve. It later withdrew for the second time due to issues concerning UK teams' NIE Visas being turned down by the state department. This was an issue which affected various international competitors ahead of the 2021 season. Even some which were still able to compete were compromised by this, as several European and American members of teams were unaffected but other team members were.
Despite this setback, Abrasion remained in a working state and the applied for a third time ahead of World Championship VII. Even with a multitude of updates - including a new and unique flipper saw weapon system - Abrasion was rejected for a second time due to limited spaces for international competitors.[1]
Outside BattleBots[]
Outside of BattleBots, Team Immersion are an established combat robotics team in the UK live scene. Notably, Adam Hamilton, Emma Jones and Thomas Long entered Vulture into Series 10 of Robot Wars after not being selected for previous series. Team captain Adam Hamilton also competed in the unaired pilot for the show with Tanto, loaned by Team Danby. Vulture was dismantled and sold in 2018.
The team built Immersion for a presumed Series 11 of Robot Wars, but following its cancelation, instead fought with it in various UK live events. Billed at 200lbs, Immersion was relatively light compared to fellow heavyweights, but served as a test bed for electronics that would be used for future iterations - Abrasion included. A second version of Immersion was completed in December 2019 and won the Mechatrons Irish championship in January 2020 and the RoboRiots Irish championship in 2023, held in Dublin, Ireland. This version bore a greater resemblance to Abrasion and served as its prototype, according to team captain Adam Hamilton.[2]
Both versions of Immersion remain active on the UK live circuit as of 2024, with the original incarnation being sold onto and now competing with Team RcRobotics as Leviathan. In June of the same year, Leviathan and Immersion were announced as heavyweight competitors for the inaugural MechMania tour, run in conjunction with Robots Live![3][4]
An upgraded version of Vulture called Bonfire competed in Chinese show This is Fighting Robots, painted red and black for the competition. Team Immersion's Adam Hamilton and Thomas Long were joined by former Robot Wars competitors Gareth Anstee and Andy Russell, the latter of whom attempted to compete in BattleBots with Jäger alongside Ed Hodges, but was unable to travel.
The original basis for Abrasion and Immersion comes from team captain, Adam Hamilton and his 30lb, Amnesia. Featuring the same composite billet construction and the electric front-hinged flipper. Despite entering very few competitions compared to most, Amnesia has a high success rate, becoming the King of Bots UK and Fighting Robots Association International champion in 2018, winning the King of Bots II Opening Battle event and RoboDojo Sportsman Championship in 2019 and more recently, becoming the FightFest 'Battle Of The Isles' champion in 2021 and later the Pro Cup and UK champion in 2022.
Team members Ed Hodges, Brooke Reay, Thomas Long and Isaac Sharp are also established roboteers in their own right, fighting in lower weight class events such as FightFest and Robodojo. Isaac's Euphoria, became the champion of the latter in 2020 then placed 3rd in the FightFest Annihilator and main championship in 2021. Euphoria later entered the RoboRiots Irish featherweight championship in 2023, winning overall. Similarly, Ed's built a destructive tracked undercutter in 2021, named Kakute. It has only competed in one event to date but placed 4th overall. Team Immersion also built a second heavyweight called Ember, which began live as a spare Abrasion. It initially appeared as a static display for RoboNerd in September 2021, an annual event hosted in Wolverhampton, England. It is aesthetically similar to Abrasion, but features a thick paws at the front and a black and red color scheme, hence its name. The robot is owned and captained by Ed Hodges, though it remains part of Team Immersion's fleet of robots.
In late 2023, the team began designing a new heavyweight for European competitions, a full pressure pneumatic flipper named Parma Violence, being a scaled up version of Isaac Sharp's Euphoria.
In June 2024, Abrasion was confirmed to be competing in the heavyweight sportsman event MechMania.[5]
For more on Team Immersion's work outside of BattleBots, see their dedicated page on the Robot Wars Wiki.
See Also[]
Trivia[]
- Team Immersion's name, as well as several robots made by members not necessarily associated with Abrasion, is inspired by the third album from Australian drum and bass group Pendulum.
- Though 'Abrasion' deviates from this theme, the design project began life with the working name, 'Encoder', the name of a song from the Immersion album.
- Away from their own creations, Team Immersion produce design commissions of heavyweight, featherweight and hobbyweight robots. A notable example of this is the BattleBots Proving Ground entry Magnitude.
- Adam Hamilton co-designed the 2021 and 2022 season build of heavyweight Emmanuel Carrillo's Big Dill and the featherweight counterpart, Lil Dill.
- If accepted, Abrasion would have been the lightest World Championship V competitor in the field at 205lbs (93kg) in its main configuration, roughly a pound lighter than Perfect Phoenix.
References[]
- ↑ Correspondence between SFCJack and Team Abrasion member ToastUltimatum in September 2022
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHbumskFpsI
- ↑ https://x.com/Mech_Plus/status/1801298494264619244
- ↑ https://x.com/Mech_Plus/status/1805571653218324517
- ↑ https://x.com/Mech_Plus/status/1805571653218324517
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