We always like when a designer does something different. After all, it is easy just to do what everyone else is doing. But to see things a different way is always interesting to us. When you think of a battle bot, you probably think of a robot with wheels or tracks, attacking other robots in an arena. But [Shea Waffles Johns] created Big Cookie, a combat bot with no wheels. Instead, it is a spinning wheel of death that moves relatively slowly. The robot makes up for that by having a mini-robot helper that brings Big Cookie its prey.
With no wheels and motors for locomotion, the robot can focus on armor and weapon force. It certainly looks dangerous spinning on the floor.
We would prefer seeing autonomous robots fighting, but we enjoyed seeing a different design. How did it do? Well, in the video, one match went to Big Cookie, and it lost one match. The chaotic third match wasn’t a good showing for the robot, either. But we have no doubt there will be improvements, and Big Cookie’s record will get better.
There isn’t a lot of detail about the build, but you could probably build something similar just from looking at the idea. Of course, we’ve seen other combat robots without wheels, including one that walks. Maybe we are a bit odd, but we enjoy seeing the post-mortem analysis as much as the actual matches.
