Turrets are a type of weapon seen on BattleBots competitors which do not inflict damage on their own, but allow for robots to constantly keep a separate primary weapon pointed in the direction of an opponent. They can also be utilized as a thwacker.
Design & History[]
Inspired by weaponry seen on ships, tanks and fortifications, turrets in robot combat consist of a large 'head' upon which another weapon is mounted. These are typically bidirectional, as was the case with the first known example, Donald Hutson's heavyweight robot, Tazbot. The Mutant Robots machine utilized a turret with a lifting and thwacking arm in each of its appearances, first debuting in the 1996 US Robot Wars event held by Marc Thorpe. With the launch of the UK series of the same name, one of the House Robots named Sergeant Bash featured a flamethrower mounted on a turret. This allows the robot to keep its weapon pointed at its opponent at all times, and can even double up as a self-righting mechanism.
By the time of Long Beach 1999, Tazbot was joined by more robots in the form of Executioner and Minotaur, whose turrets were paired with a chainsaw and hammer respectively. As BattleBots was picked up by Comedy Central, Season 1.0 saw the arrival of Prompt Critical, Pressure Drop and Gammatron using this type of weaponry, with Gammatron in particular having an interchangeable turret with either a hammer or vertical cutting saw, and was the only one to return in future seasons.
For the 2020 season, Chomp was redesigned into a 500lb walker. Amidst its design changes, Chomp's hammer was mounted to a large turret and also featured a flamethrower. A ShowBot version of Tazbot was designed for the live show, BattleBots: Destruct-A-Thon, showcasing a modernized design which kept its turret weaponry.
Notable Competitors[]
| Robot | Seasons | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Chomp | World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters |
 |
| Executioner | Long Beach 1999 |  |
| Gammatron | Season 1.0 Season 2.0 Season 3.0 |
 |
| Minotaur | Las Vegas 1999 |  |
| Pressure Drop | Season 1.0 |  |
| Prompt Critical | Season 1.0 |  |
| Tazbot | Long Beach 1999 Las Vegas 1999 Season 1.0 Season 2.0 Season 3.0 Season 4.0 Season 5.0 |
 |
| Tazbot (ShowBot) | BattleBots: Destruct-A-Thon |  |
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