On November 12th, 2022, the Kent State University Combat Robotics Team placed 3rd at a Norwalk Havoc Robotics League (NHRL) competition, qualifying for the 2022 Championships in December 2023. The competition, held in Norwalk, Connecticut, is the 6th and final qualifying event of the 2022 season including four different weight classes and over 100 bots. The top 4 bots in each weight class qualify for the 2022 Championships, which was held on December 17th, 2022.
At the competition in November, the team lost in the first round, before fighting back through the elimination bracket to clinch the 3rd place win. The team’s bot, Big-Ish competes in the 12 pound weight class and boasts a vertical spinner as its weapon. The design of the bot was inspired by the bot HUGE, which made its Discovery Channel Battle Bots debut in 2017. At the 2022 season championships in December, the team took two quick losses, one in the first round of regular play, and the second in the first round of the elimination round.
Despite this loss, Combat Robotics team member David Dreyer was still proud of the experience. “Just making it to this event and being able to take part is already an achievement…we still had a great time and learned a lot! We even got our own trading card!” Dreyer also credits his involvement on the team for enhancing his academic experience at Kent State, adding “Things that you only used in a classroom can be applied to real world situations. Not only this but members will get first hand experience with teamwork and leadership”. In addition to competing in NHRL events, members of the Combat Robotics team also recently volunteered at the FIRST Robotics Event hosted at Kent State University.
Big-ish made its NHRL debut in March 2022 after three years of development. At this competition, the team lost to the bot that would eventually win the entire competition. They then rallied through the elimination round to a 5th place finish in their weight class.
For more information about the Combat Robotics team, see https://kent.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/combatrobotics.
For more information about the NHRL, see https://wiki.nhrl.io/wiki/index.php/NHRL.