Mark Setrakian (born May 7, 1965) is a roboticist and special effects expert who has been present throughout the evolution of BattleBots and the sport of robot combat since the early 1990s.
Now retired from competing, he was responsible for building the Axis robot which displays the Giant Nut on the set of BattleBots.
Alongside Pete Abrahamson, he formed Team Sinister in 1994 and competed in the original US Robot Wars competition that same year, with one of the first recognized combat robots, The Master. He returned for the 1995 Robot Wars event held in London, where The Master became the champion of the UK Open Competition.
Mark Setrakian works on the Axis robot.
However, The Master lost in Round 1 the following year to Tazz, built by Donald Hutson, who still competes today with Lock-Jaw. Both of these events predated any televised robot combat shows, but proved successful in convincing Comedy Central to pick up BattleBots in the US, and BBC to pick up the Robot Wars name for a separate show in the United Kingdom. Setrakian also invited Greg Munson to attend and ultimately compete in these events, which later inspired the creation of BattleBots as a concept.
In 1997, Mark Setrakian built the incredibly unique Snake, which would later enter Season 2.0 of Comedy Central BattleBots in the superheavyweight division. Two years on, he built an equally impressive 480lb stompbot called Mechadon for the Las Vegas 1999 event, and Season 1.0 on Comedy Central. Though largely uncompetitive, both of these robots became incredibly popular among fans of BattleBots for their engineering and abstract approaches to locomotion.
- "I was trying to push BattleBots in a different direction, or a direction that was more than what we had been seeing at (US) Robot Wars."
- — Mark Setrakian speaking in October 2022
With the show's cancelation following Season 5.0, Mark Setrakian continued to work within BattleBots. Notably, he judged the 2009 College Championship, joined by former teammate and future producer and Bot Whisperer, Pete Abrahamson. For the reboot of the show in 2015, Mark Setrakian built Axis - a piece of robotic artwork with five independently articulating claws, which can hold and rotate an object sat upon it.[1] For BattleBots, the Axis robot was used to carry a round disc holding the Giant Nut. For the 2016 season, Mark built a second version of the robot called Axis II, which was also seen in World Championship III and IV.[2] He also returned in front of camera as a guest judge during World Championship III, featuring in two episodes across the season.
With the robot absent from the 2020 season, Mark Setrakian built a third iteration of the Axis robot ahead of World Championship VI, known as Axis III. For this version, he opted to swap out the servo motors to allow for higher weight capacity. Axis III utilized different materials compared to previous builds, though exactly what materials are not specified. Each Axis robot uses specialized software to alter motion parameters and stabilize the claws. It also features a webcam which tracks their motion, to feed necessary information back to the controller. During World Championship VII, Mark Setrakian revealed a new, five-legged walking robot named Stalker. The robot features a flat, pentagonal-shaped body and is capable of walking in any direction.[3] Each leg has multiple points of movement, allowing for maximum articulation and the ability to mimic arachnids and other insects. This was shown off in more detail in an October 2022 upload from the Skorpios team.[4]
Mark Setrakian with Stalker during filming for World Championship VII.
- "Mechadon was designed to be almost a weapon unto itself. This is a little different. This is a platform, and I'm planning on exploring what's possible with this thing."
- — Mark Setrakian compares Stalker to Mechadon
In the video, he outlined his intent to "restart the conversation about walking robots" on the televised show, using Stalker as a demonstrative means to do so. Stalker weighs 77lbs in total and is considered a scaled-down prototype of a robot he wants to introduce to BattleBots in future, seeing 250lbs as an ideal upper limit for the design. Following the conclusion of the season's filming, Mark Setrakian was inducted into the BattleBots Hall of Fame.[5]
Outside BattleBots[]
Mark Setrakian on the set of Robot Combat League in 2013.
Having attended the same high school as Pete Abrahamson and Greg Munson, Mark Setrakian was hired by Marc Thorpe, creator of Robot Wars, at the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic, otherwise known as ILM.
Mark Setrakian has lent his talent towards other robot-themed shows. Most notably, he designed, built and maintained the humanoid robots for Syfy's short-lived Robot Combat League, which was hosted by Chris Jericho in 2013.
His work in animatronics has led him to be credited for a selection of film and other media, including How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Hellboy and popular Netflix exclusive Stranger Things. He also designed and even voiced the Rosenburg alien for the Men in Black film series.[6]
Mark Setrakian has also been credited for other robotic artwork, having programmed the 2013 piece by Jordan Wolfson entitled "Female Figure".
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