Not to be confused with the middleweight robot built by Busted Nuts Robotics.
Category 5 was a heavyweight robot designed by Joshua Kong of Impulse Ungineering with the intention of competing in BattleBots World Championship III.
Designed in early 2018, Category 5 was a disc-shaped, two-wheel drive robot with the ability to run both ways up. It was Joshua Kong's first heavyweight design which was shared publicly in August 2020, inspired by Hal Rucker's The Ringmaster.[1] The outer circumference of the robot sported a spinning ring with two large, sloped teeth, which Joshua Kong intended to manufacture from a mix of AR500 and spring steel.
The geometry of the teeth could theoretically throw robots into the air if an opponent's armor proved too resilient to damage. Rather than the weapon being gear-driven, however, Category 5 would make use of a large, frameless hub motor to power its outer ring, which made contact with skateboard wheels fixed around the circumference of the chassis. However, Kong conceded that this design choice would have likely resulted in an underwhelming tip speed.
The project was ultimately dropped as Kong looked into alternative designs, which resulted in the development of Jackpot, Project Aegis and Altair. A very similar approach to ring spinner designs was later conceptualized and built by Jerry Serafin called Chronos for the 2019 season, but made use of gears to drive its outer ring.
In 2022, Joshua Kong would captain Horizon as it debuted in World Championship VII, following an unsuccessful application the season prior.