It was a four-wheel drive, box-shaped robot with hinged wedgelets on the front, and a 35lb horizontalbar spinner made from 350 maraging steel attached to the left side of the bot.[1] The right side of the bot had a counterweight to balance the heavy bar and supporting structure. Its body was largely made from magnesium with 7075 aluminum also used in its construction.
Sidewinder during World Championship IV hero shots.
The bar spinner proved to be relatively powerful when it worked, beating P1 in its untelevised debut, though the team unknowingly received a faulty batch of Grade 5 titanium from China ahead of the season. This caused the weapon supports to break apart in its second fight against Skorpios. Sidewinder's name and design were inspired by the snake of the same name, as it planned to attack in a similar way in the BattleBox.
Sidewinder entered and was initially accepted for World Championship V with an upgraded design prior to the postponement of filming due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Upgrades to the bot included but were not limited to larger, exposed wheels for improved mobility, a stronger weapon mount, curved forks which were bolted directly to the chassis, twin spikes protruding from the right side, and a brown and blue color scheme with scales on the top panels. However, team captain Josh Coates was unable to attend filming in October 2020, and withdrew from the season.[2]
It is unknown whether Sidewinder applied for World Championship VI, though despite Josh Coates expressing intent to compete again, Sidewinder ultimately would not return.[3]
The team had previously competed in RoboGames 2017 with an equally unique mecanum-wheel driven horizontal spinner named Sluggo, which bore a similar resemblance to Sidewinder. However, due to reliability issues, Sluggo lost both of its fights during the event.
Another version was made, colored green and red and named Angry Frog which fought in the televised Chinese event Clash Bots. It lost a three-way battle with Dark Wolf and Bull Devil, before winning a second three-way battle fighting the latter again, as well as Atomic Bomb.
Sidewinder as Angry Frog during Clash Bots.
Angry Frog battling against Atomic Bomb and Bull Devil.
Sluggo at RoboGames.
Robot History[]
World Championship IV[]
Sidewinder vs. P1
Sidewinder hits P1.
Sidewinder collides with P1 before tearing up the floor.
First up for Sidewinder was in an untelevised match with P1, operated by Brandon Zalinsky. P1 was quicker out of the gate, colliding violently with Sidewinder as it tried to get up to speed and sliding underneath its wedges. Sidewinder was shoved towards the walls, and P1 used its front-hinged lifter to push Sidewinder up onto its back. Thankfully, Sidewinder's body was too long for it to get stacked against the wall, and its blade clipped P1's side as it got back on its wheels. Both bots backed away cautiously, sizing each other up as they went in for another collision. Sidewinder's blade continued to scrape against P1's side, forcing the racecar-themed robot to back away first. However, P1 quickly charged in again, ramming Sidewinder and causing it to pop up in the air, its spinner peeling up part of the floor. As it landed, it became clear that P1 had become trapped underneath the peeled section, and Sidewinder took advantage by striking its rear tire and removing it completely. It then tried to ram P1 free, hoping to continue the battle and make for a more exciting show, but was unsuccessful. As the countdown began, Sidewinder went in for one more attack, lightly scraping its blade along P1's front wedge to create sparks. This attack was also unable to get the lifter bot free from the floor, and so Sidewinder won its debut fight by knockout.
Sidewinder vs. Skorpios
Skorpios drags Sidewinder out into the middle of the arena.
Next for Sidewinder was a match against veteran Skorpios. When the match began, Sidewinder spun up and maneuvered around until it found itself in Skorpios' wedge. As Skorpios lowered its arm and bit into Sidewinder with its disk, Sidewinder's bar ground into Skorpios' wedge before delivering a massive hit that tore a big chunk out of the far left side of Skorpios' wedge. Sidewinder's titanium weapon supports proved to be more brittle than anticipated, and that same hit caused the lower support to snap off, sending the spinning bar flying off with it. With all that was left of the weapon being the upper support and the now loosely hanging weapon belts, Sidewinder trudged on, trying to use its wedgelets to get under Skorpios, but the edges were too rounded to win the ground clearance battle, so they simply bent downwards whenever Sidewinder ran head on. The situation was made worse when its loose weapon belts got caught on the right rear wheel, hindering Sidewinder's maneuverability and allowing Skorpios to attack from the rear, getting a rear panel taken out and exposing its internals, before getting slammed into the wall. After being dragged out and let go, Sidewinder maneuvered around, trying to look for a way to attack, but it was soon out-wedged by Skorpios and took a shaving to the remaining weapon support. Sidewinder soon backed away near a corner to face Skorpios with its wedge, but Skorpios out-wedged it with ease and delivered a shot that caused something inside Sidewinder to emit smoke and greatly hinder its mobility. Severely worn out, Sidewinder continued to try and face Skorpios with its wedge whenever it could, even as it kept getting out wedged and taking a severe battering from Skorpios' disk. Sidewinder was eventually scooped up and slammed into the wall and under the pulverizer, where it took another bite from Skorpios as well as a major pounding from the pulverizer. It was soon let go, but the crippled and weary Sidewinder was unable to escape before taking some more shots from the pulverizer and getting pinned for the taking, allowing Skorpios to scoop it up and take another bite with its disk. Sidewinder tried to escape, but Skorpios soon scooped it up from the side and brought the disk down on the wedgelets, biting apart one of the hinges and throwing the wedgelets completely off after shoving Sidewinder into the wall, leaving more of their electronics exposed and dragging on the ground. Sidewinder was soon let go, but with its last remaining weapon ripped off, it was mostly defenseless. On its last legs, Sidewinder slammed right into Skorpios' front and soon got high-centered on its own weapon belts, allowing Skorpios to scoop it up, causing a dangling LiPo battery from Sidewinder to break off. Sidewinder was then carried around the arena before being pinned against the wall, all the while taking several shots from Skorpios' disk. Sidewinder was soon let out, but the remaining two LiPo batteries dangling by the wires got pulled underneath and ripped right out, incapacitating Sidewinder completely as it rolled to a stop. Sidewinder was counted out, giving Skorpios the win by knockout.
Sidewinder's lower weapon support after the Skorpios fight.
"My titanium arm that held my blade turned out to be brittle. I’ve tossed out the whole batch of gr5 I ordered from China."
— Josh Coates' brief explanation for why Sidewinder's weapon broke after the first major impact
"From Salt Lake City, it's the leader of the Mormon Smack 'n' tackle Choir. A mighty fortress is this bot. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. It's SIDEWINDER!"
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