Spinners
From Combat Robot
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General
A spinner is a category of combat robot design.
Spinners derive their name from the motion of their weapons, usually a large hunk of spinning metal. By rotating the weapon at high speeds, it posesses a large amount of Kinetic Energy (KE). This energy is then very quickly transferred to the opponent when the robots collide.
Strategy
The strategy of most spinners is to use KE transfer to send the other robot flying out of control, deform its mechanical structure, and dislodge/damage its internal components. Most spinning weapons have a few large teeth to accomplish this goal. "Sawblade" type weapons are generally ineffective due to the need to hold the piece being sawed.
History
The first effective spinner was James Hyneman's heavyweight "Blendo", which appeared at the 1995 Robot Wars event in San Francisco. Blendo was a full-body spinner powered by an internal combustion engine. The early Robot Wars competitions did not have high protective walls on the arena to shield the audience and operators because none of the early combat robots had been capable of being a danger to those outside the low arena walls. Blendo ripped parts off of it's opponents and flung them across the arena -- this caused great concern. After Blendo's second match, the event organizers asked the team to withdraw in exchange for a co-championship.
Spinners currently hold the top robot rankings in four of the five sub-light weight classes.
Commentary
Spinners can be an effective design. Spinners are favored by spectators for the spectacular displays of damage they can produce. When they lose, it it often because the rebound from their own weapon takes them out of a match.
Some robot builders strongly favor destructive weaponry, and there isn't any weapon more spectacularly destructive than a spinner. See commentary on this subject at: Active Weapon or Not?
Sub-Classifications
Spinners fall into several different classes, based on the orientation and shape of their spinning mass.
- Vertical Spinners have a mass rotating around a horizontal axis to fling opponents upwards or smash them down. The mass is commonly a bar or disk. Example: Nightmare
- Horizontal Spinners have a mass rotating around a vertical axis that tends to fling their opponents sideways. Again, the mass is commonly a bar or disk. Example: Mechavore
- Full Body Spinners (FBS) AKA Shell Spinners are horizontal spinners that rotate their entire armor shell and as much of their internal mass as possible to maximise the stored kinetic energy. Their drivetrain does not spin (unlike thwackbots). The body is commonly shaped either like a squat cylinder 'tuna can' or a dome. Example: Mauler
