Triton (Middleweight)

Triton
Participation Information
Unaired Events	Collegiate Championship 2009
Team Information
Team	UCSD Triton Robotix
Team Members	Matt Davis Ronald Truong Allen Jiang Colter Cederlof Ricky Ng Ish Rahimian Travis Rowell Jeanne Wang Daniel Yang Emily Yin
From	San Diego, CA
Associated Robots	Chopper (UCSD)
Robot Statistics
Weight	120lbs
Weapons	Front plow Cutting disk Lifting forks
Statistics correct as of its most recent appearance on the show, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

Not to be confused with the World Championship VII competitor of the same name.

Triton was a middleweight robot which competed in the 2009 BattleBots Collegiate Championship.

Entered by a team of ten undergraduate students from the University of California San Diego - mentored by multiple BattleBots Giant Nut winner Donald Hutson - it was an invertible, two-wheel drive robot with a steel and aluminum chassis, along with two 'modular' front weapon configurations. The latter included a 'defensive' setup with a hinged plow similar in shape to those adopted by various Mutant Robots machines, and an 'offensive' setup with a toothed cutting disk to cause damage to 'less offensive' opponents. At the rear, Triton also featured a set of lifting forks operated by a linear actuator, though these saw little usage in its publicly-released fights.

Triton enjoyed a strong run throughout the 2009 Collegiate Championship, finishing runner-up to eventual champion Falcon with a 3-2 record.

Triton with its team.

Triton with its team, circa 2009.

Donald Hutson mentoring a team member.

Robot History

Collegiate Championship 2009
Triton vs. Chunk Debuting in the second round of the main Collegiate Championship bracket, Triton initially fought Cal Poly representative Chunk, a new vertical spinner from Team Coolrobots' Christian Carlberg. For this, it adopted its 'defensive' plow configuration to withstand blows from Chunk's weapon. Both robots started tentatively, but Triton was eventually able to box Chunk towards the corner and absorb a direct hit to its plow. From that point, Triton became more assertive, driving twice more into the front of Chunk. The second collision incapacitated Chunk's spinner, which was unable to spin up to full speed as Triton pushed it back into the spiked bumper. Triton forces Chunk onto the Screws. The two competitors spent most of the remaining time ramming and pushing each other across the BattleBox, with Triton again gaining the upper hand as it twice forced Chunk sideways into one of the Screw mounts. Chunk briefly got underneath Triton at one point, but its high ground clearance enabled Triton's plow to get underneath and control it more often. During the final moments, Triton pushed Chunk back into the Screws themselves; Chunk was carried over and trapped behind them, awarding Triton an instant knockout win with one second remaining.
Triton vs. Category 5 This put Triton through to the next stage of the main competition, where it faced Andrea Suarez, the University of Miami and their full-body spinner Category 5. It entered the BattleBox in its plow configuration once more, but was initially hesitant to attack Category 5 as it weaved and spun its way out of the red square. In its tentativeness, Triton was spun away when Category 5's shell hit its plow, but it soon recovered to line up an aggressive charge on Category 5. Sparks flew as Triton rammed Category 5, the latter lifted and briefly shaken by the collision. Triton continued to deflect Category 5 upwards a few times, but was again spun round while the commentators noted the lack of action from its secondary lifting forks. In another head-to-head collision, Triton lifted Category 5 up onto one side, causing a small component to drop out from beneath Suarez's machine. Category 5's shell began to slow down drastically as a result, allowing Triton to survive a side-on blow relatively unscathed. Triton proceeded to scoop up and deflect Category 5 several more times, the latter escaping while coming under attack from a nearby Pulverizer. Another head-to-head encounter saw Triton again destabilize and send Category 5 wobbling back towards the Pulverizer; this, in turn, helped disable Category 5's shell entirely. From that point, Triton continued to harry a now-weaponless Category 5, but briefly got caught by an opened Hellraiser. Moments later, while attempting to ram Category 5, it was thrown over by another Hellraiser, leaving it with control issues as a result of the robot being left unbalanced in its inverted position. Triton thrashed itself on the BattleBox floor for a few seconds, before ramming Category 5 upside-down and getting re-righted by the Hellraisers. With both competitors in close range of each other, this enabled Triton to catch Category 5 once as it took damage from the Killsaws, and a few more times as the latter attempted to drive away. Both machines kept ramming each other in the closing moments, though further encounters with the Hellraisers tipped Triton over once again. Triton finished the match by pushing Category 5 into the spiked bumper, and would survive to the first judges' decision of the Collegiate Championship. The judges unanimously ruled in favor of the UCSD entry, with both teams later congratulating each other on an 'awesome fight'.
Triton vs. Falcon Still keeping its place in the main bracket, Triton was next due to face Clint and Jake Ewert of Team Blue Devil, competing for UW-Stout with their drum spinner Falcon. For this fight, a large spike was intended to be welded onto the center of the plow to breach Falcon's ground clearance, in an effort to prevent Triton from being scooped up by Falcon's own wedgelets. Though previewed at the end of the first episode - which included mentions of the draw and Triton Robotix's strategy - very little information is otherwise available on this match as the remaining Collegiate Championship episodes were never publicly released. However, official BattleBots 2009 match records confirm that Falcon would win the match on a Judges' decision, consigning Triton to the Loser's Bracket final.
Triton vs. Category 5 (Loser's Bracket) Triton would thus face Category 5 a second time, and needed to win in order to remain within this late stage of tournament. BattleBots match records confirm that Triton won by knockout in a match lasting one minute and 45 seconds, securing its place in the overall final which was to be another rematch against Falcon.
Triton vs. Falcon BattleBots records confirm that, as in the main bracket, Triton lasted the full three minutes against Falcon, taking the match to the second-consecutive Judges' decision between the pair. However, the Judges once more ruled Falcon the winner, awarding Triton second place in the 2009 Collegiate Championship.

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 3
• Losses: 2

NOTE: Both of Triton's matches against Falcon, plus its rematch against Category 5, were not televised.

Competition	Wins	Losses
Collegiate Championship 2009	Chunk Category 5 Category 5	Falcon Falcon

External Links

• Triton Robotix website (Archived)