Orbitron

Orbitron
Participation Information
Reboot Seasons	World Championship VIII
Live	BattleBots Proving Ground
Other Names	ORBITRON
Team Information
Team	Team Orbitron
Team Members	Steven Szczeszynski Peter Szczeszynski Adham Abji Matthew Ortlieb Tong Zhang Ben McDonnell Bogdan Malynovskyy Ethan Cronier Adam Stokes
From	Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Robot Statistics
Weight	250lbs
Top Speed	30mph
Power	4x 15S 5Ah LiPo batteries
Drive	2x Brushless motors
Weapons	Twin vertical spinners
Statistics correct as of its most recent appearance on the show, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

Orbitron, sometimes stylized as ORBITRON, is a heavyweight robot which competed at BattleBots Proving Ground during the live show, BattleBots: Destruct-A-Thon. The team have also applied for BattleBots World Championship VIII.

It is a four-wheel drive, bi-wedge shaped robot with twin, chain-driven vertical spinners, both weighing 22lbs - one at the front and another at the back. The team describe Orbitron as a "modernized Counter Revolution", with their single-toothed disk spinners looking to cancel out gyroscopic forces in a similar vein to RIPperoni. The team have designed the robot's drive train with speed and power in mind, opting for chain drive and different-sized sprockets to increase torque and acceleration. This gives Orbitron a theoretical top speed of 30mph, according its builders. Protruding from the front and rear of Orbitron are four long, hinged forks which look to feed opponents into either vertical spinner. Orbitron also has a dedicated self-righting mechanism mounted between the spinning disks to right the robot if flipped over. Ahead of their first Proving Ground fight, the team printed one of their disks a neon yellow colour in order to better tell which way Orbitron is facing. According to the team, Orbitron is able to detect its opponent with the use of specialist software and AI which can understand depth, allowing for a degree of autonomy within Orbitron. The team state this technology allows Orbitron to autonomously attack by predicting where an opponent is likely to next move, rather than attacking where the opponent is in the present moment. The team have the ability to manually override the AI, allowing captain Steven Szczeszynski to drive Orbitron if deemed necessary.

Team Orbitron is made up of students from the University of Waterloo, and have prior experience with FIRST Robotics, achieving 1st and 2nd place at the 2019 and 2018 World Championships. They uploaded an application video in mid 2023. For their appearances at BattleBots: Destruct-A-Thon, they were joined by members from Hacksmith Industries. Their YouTube channel, which boasts over 14 million subscribers, uploaded a video documenting the process on September 23, 2023. A video documenting the fight and the problems before and during the fight was uploaded September, 30 2023. Orbitron fought RoboGym Robotics' new horizontal spinner Roundhouse on the weekend of August 26-27, 2023, where it lost on both occasions.

Following these losses, Team Orbitron set about a full rebuild of their robot. New features included TPU plastic sides to better absorb side attacks, as well as shock mounting on their speed controllers. Its new disks weigh 27lbs and can be swapped out or paired with bars weighing 17lbs. Orbitron now also sports magnets on its underside. It signed up for the weekend of March 9-10, 2024, where it twice defeated Proving Ground rookie Disarray to earn its first wins.

BattleBots co-founder Trey Roski confirmed Orbitron's inclusion into World Championship VIII in a March 2024 episode of the Outside of the Box podcast, pending the season being green-lit and its team being able to compete. In the meantime, Orbitron was confirmed to be competing in BattleBots Faceoffs in late 2024.

CAD of Orbitron's 2024 rebuild.

A render of Orbitron with its self-righter raised.

Orbitron V2 hitting an engine in testing.

Orbitron undergoing drive tests.

Orbitron during weapon tests.

Orbitron as designed within the team's simulation.

Early CAD of Orbitron.

Robot History

BattleBots Proving Ground
Orbitron vs. Roundhouse (8/26/2023) Orbitron's first ever BattleBots fight came in BattleBots Proving Ground, where it fought Roundhouse. Orbitron strikes the front of Roundhouse. Orbitron box-rushed Roundhouse with both its disks up to speed as the RoboGym Robotics entry turned to meet it head-on, losing parts of its decorative armor on impact. Roundhouse's flamethrower threatened to toast Orbitron, who continued to buffet against its front. Orbitron suddenly stops working. Just over twenty seconds into the fight, Roundhouse turned to spin up its weapon but left itself vulnerable to Orbitron's disks. The Canadian rookies struck the rear of Roundhouse, tearing away more decorative panels and halting its 50lb weapon again. Orbitron's controller suddenly disconnected and the robot stopped working. "Oh no... come on Orbitron!" — Bil Dwyer as Orbitron stops working Roundhouse strikes Orbitron. Damage to Orbitron, post-fight. Roundhouse took full advantage of this turn of fortune, swiping its opponent's side and causing it to spin away into the corner. Roundhouse continued to strike the defenceless Orbitron before lingering in the blue starting square. A count-out began soon as Orbitron suffered a debut loss by knockout in under ninety seconds.
Orbitron vs. Roundhouse (8/27/2023) Orbitron was scheduled to fight Roundhouse for a second time the following day. Roundhouse strikes Orbitron. Orbitron was once again quick to chase its foe at the start of the match, but between the slippery floor of the Battlebox and Roundhouse's much improved spinner, Orbitron accidentally drifted side-on into the massive horizontal blade. A second hit to the side mangled its side armor and sent it careening into the screws, and as it began to crabwalk away Roundhouse delivered a third powerful shot which launched it back against the screws and caused one of its vertical disks to bounce off the floor. The knockout blow. Now visibly struggling, Orbitron's blue disk began to falter as it tried to inch out of the corner. The Canadian bot gyroed around, turning its gold disk to face Roundhouse, but the American bot simply ripped one of Orbitron's wedges off, launching it at the Lexan so hard it bounced completely across the box afterwards. It followed this with another brutal hit which caused Orbitron to flip over, its still-spinning weapon managing to self-right it. Orbitron is immobile. Orbitron catches fire. This proved to be for naught, however, as smoke and flames began to erupt from Orbitron. It sat in the corner, immobile, as for the second fight straight it was counted out and declared the loser by knockout, ending its debut weekend 0-2.
Orbitron vs. Disarray (3/9/2024) Orbitron's return to the BattleBox came in BattleBots Proving Ground, where it took on Disarray during the March 9-10, 2024 shows. For this fight, it debuted two sets of forks ahead of its front blue disk. Orbitron gets the decisive blow. These proved effective in getting the better of Disarray early on, though the forks quickly came loose. The fight moved to the middle of the arena and as Disarray looked to retaliate, Orbitron charged with its rear disk and flung Disarray over, ripping off its right-front wheel and disabling that side of drive in the process. Orbitron leaves Disarray to be counted out. Although its left-side drive was still functional, Disarray was unable to right itself from its inverted position and Orbitron picked up its first win in this fight by knockout. In a post-fight recap video, it was discovered that Orbitron had warped part of Disarray's AR500 steel drisc weapon.
Orbitron vs. Disarray (3/10/2024) Orbitron fought Proving Ground veteran Disarray for a second time the following day. Ahead of this fight, the team replaced their forks, replaced their bar weapon and bent their self-righting mechanism back into shape. The team also put a greater emphasis on their AI for this second battle. Driving straight at Disarray, Orbitron got its dual disks up to speed and wasted no time ripping its opponent's fin and left-rear tire off. Obitron then led with its forks and drove Disarray into the corner, throwing it upside-down. Orbitron inverts Disarray again. With the main robot's self-righter failing, Shark Bait attempted to distract Orbitron, but suffered a hit which shattered its plastic body. Disarray was nudged back into the action by the paddle hazard, but this only served to tee the Arizona representatives up for one final shot from Orbitron's rear blade. Orbitron goes after Disarray's minibot. As Disarray was counted out, Orbitron again turned its attention to Shark Bait and tore its body off completely before tearing a wheel away. A knockout was declared and Orbitron's second win of the weekend was confirmed.
BattleBots Faceoffs
Orbitron vs. Tombstone Orbitron will return for BattleBots Faceoffs in late 2024, where it is set to take on the returning Tombstone.
Orbitron vs. Valkyrie Orbitron will also take on Valkyrie in its group.
Orbitron vs. HyperShock Another of Orbitron's opponents is scheduled to be HyperShock.

Results

Exhibition Wins/Losses

• Wins: 2
• Losses: 2

Competition	Wins	Losses
BattleBots Proving Ground	Disarray Disarray	Roundhouse Roundhouse
BattleBots Faceoffs	TBD	TBD

Trivia

• Orbitron was originally set to feature a total of eight cameras on the robot itself, which behaved similar to human eyes according to the team. This would build a three-dimensional vision of its environment, but was scrapped in favor of two sets of cameras outside of the BattleBox instead.
• The Orbitron team utilized a simulation run in the Unity engine to test their autonomous code.