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Not to be confused with the Team LOGICOM middleweight.

Mad Dog is a heavyweight robot built by Kettering Combat Robotics, which applied for BattleBots World Championship VI.

It is a large, black and blue robot with sloped sides armed with a pneumatic flipping arm. The front wedge was originally designed to have a dog face on the front wedge, along with blue LED lights in the dog's eyes - a homage to the mascot of Kettering University, where the team study. The mouth of the dog is placed on the flipper to give the impression that it barks as it flips. For mobility, Mad Dog makes use of swerve drive, a unique feature also seen in Radioactive and more recently, Triple Crown, to translate in different directions without the need to "turn" as with a traditional drive setup.

"We can roll off the front of an opponent if they are pushing us somewhere that we don't want to go. That way we can hopefully get around to their sides and take back control of the fight."
— Team member Howard Bartlett addresses concerns over the robot's swerve drive

The team state Mad Dog measures approximately 4ft in length, as well as 1.5ft wide and 1ft tall. Though plans and initial design work began in October 2019, but progress on the robot was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]

As per a more up-to-date CAD of Mad Dog, it appears to have decorative spines to resemble hair across the 4140 steel top and side armor, as well as paws on the wedges either side of Mad Dog's primary weapon. However, this look was not present in Mad Dog's most recent appearances.

Although the team applied for World Championship VI of BattleBots, they confirmed their rejection via Instagram in July 2021.[2] They stated their intention to reapply with an upgraded Mad Dog for World Championship VII, though it is not known whether they applied for the competition.

"We definitely plan on applying for BattleBots 2022 with a new and improved robot. It’ll be a lot of work... but with some experience under our belts and a love for the competition, we’re up to the task."
— The team announce their plans to reapply next season

Outside BattleBots[]

Mad Dog competed at Robot Ruckus in November 2021, but struggled for mobility in most of its fights. It lost to the 2020 season build of Craig Danby's SlamMow!, Drift King (a repurposed 2018 season HyperShock) and Banana Runt.

References[]

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