Altair was a heavyweight robot designed by Joshua Kong of Impulse Ungineering for BattleBots World Championship III.
It was a two-wheel drive robot armed with a 1.8m long overhead horizontal bar spinner. The body of Altair would have been constructed of billet aluminum, featuring four distinct pockets. The entire robot's frame covered by its overhead bar.
An earlier version of Altair's billet.
Altair was designed around October of 2018. Joshua Kong would cite Apex and DUCK! for inspiration on its design.[1].
The weapon on Altair was directly driven by an Allied Motion frameless motor, and its weapon bar had two teeth on the ends which scoop downwards to hit opponents below the weapon bar. Joshua Kong would drop the project after a few redesigns due to frustration.
Altair's name derives from one of Joshua Kong's previous robots Vega and the anime Re:Creators.
Having previously designed a robot called Category 5, Joshua Kong would later design Jackpot for the same season (unrelated to the Vegas Combat Robotics heavyweight), Project Aegis for World Championship V and Horizon for World Championship VI. Kong withdrew interest in Jackpot and Project Aegis and was initially rejected with Horizon. He would later be accepted with Horizon for World Championship VII, captaining the team.
Trivia[]
- If it had competed, Altair would have held the record for largest bar spinner, both vertical and horizontal, in BattleBots history.