Tornado (robot) - Construction

Construction

Andrew Marchant had originally planned to build a caterpillar tracked combat robot called Plague in 1999. After relocating to Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, Marchant met fellow Robot Wars enthusiast Dave Gamble. They formed a team and, inspired by Robot Wars series two semi-finalist King Buxton, revised Marchant's design to employ go-kart wheels in a four-wheel drive formation. This redesigned robot was named Tornado, as Gamble is a storm chaser. Bryan Moss joined the team in late 1999 to provide pneumatics assistance for the robot's weapon system. Work began on Tornado's steel chassis in February 2000 and the first iteration of the robot was completed at the end of July 2000, two days before the qualifying rounds for the fourth series of Robot Wars. The robot's initial design was a red box-shaped chassis covered in 6-millimetre (0.24 in) polycarbonate armour, with drive wheels protruding from the top and bottom of the chassis so that Tornado would remain drivable if inverted. Its primary weapon was a piercing spike propelled by a pneumatic ram which, alongside additional static spikes attached to the chassis, was designed to puncture opponents' armour.

From the fifth series of Robot Wars onwards, the weight limit for heavyweight competitors was increased to 100 kilograms (220 lb). In response, Tornado's chassis was increased in length to 0.85 metres (2.8 ft), and tapered so that Tornado's rear wheels would remain in contact with the ground even if its front end was raised by an opponent. Its weapons system was also revised for series five: the pneumatic spike was replaced with an electrically powered 7-kilogram (15 lb) spinning disc. From Robot Wars series six, Tornado retained the spinning disc but it was now mounted in a removable framework. This allowed it to be interchanged with the weapon best suited for each opponent.