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"This may look like an old car tyre - and it is! An old wheel tyre turned inside-out, with a bandsaw blade at the base. They used a plasma jet to cut the components! Six wheelchair motors for the drive; up to five miles an hour. The rotating blade weapon looks like a food mixer!"
Jonathan Pearce introduces Whirling Dervish

Whirling Dervish was a robot which competed in Robot Wars: The Second Wars. In its only televised appearance, it reached the Arena Semi-Final stage of its Heat where it was defeated by eventual series champion Panic Attack.

Design[]

"It's shell was made of an old car tyre with an old bandsaw blade around the bottom. I don't exactly know how they did it but the weights span in one direction and the body span in the other direction, thus minimising centrifugal forces which try to turn your robot."
Oliver Steeples on Whirling Dervish's design[1]
Whirling Dervish

Whirling Dervish in the arena

Whirling Dervish was a two-wheel drive, circular-shaped robot with a bodyshell made out of a car tyre turned inside-out. The shell, also featuring a static bandsaw attached to the base, was designed to rotate independently from the robot's baseplate, which Dave Allsopp explained in Robot Wars Revealed would allow it to free itself if it got stuck in an arena corner. In order to do so, it was placed - along with the robot's electronics - on a centrally-mounted brushless motor sourced from Lynch Motor Company, who also donated Whirling Dervish's 12V batteries, radio receiver and high power relay.[2] This likely made Whirling Dervish the very first Robot Wars competitor known to use brushless motors in any capacity, followed by Mortis upon its rebuild for Series 3.

For weaponry, Whirling Dervish utilised two large 'clubs' attached to spinning chain flails, which Jonathan Pearce likened to a 'food mixer' during the robot's introduction in the main series. The flails, spinning up to 450rpm, were connected to their own motor shaft, enabling them to spin in the opposite direction to that of the shell when the brushless motor was active.[2] The introduction for Whirling Dervish claimed that it used six wheelchair motors for drive, though in actuality two motors provided power to the wheels from either side of its batteries. These gave the machine a top speed of 5mph. The robot's weight of 79.7kg put it just 0.3kg over the original heavyweight limit for the first four UK series.

With all of its internal components rotating, the Whirling Dervish team decided to add lights to the chassis along with the front and rear of the shell's base, helping them to maintain control of their robot. However, the studio lights caused the chassis lights to become almost invisible to them, contributing to Whirling Dervish falling off the see-saw ramp during its Gauntlet run.[2]

Robot History[]

Series 2[]

Whirlingdervishgauntlet

Sir Killalot carries Whirling Dervish

Whirling Dervish headed for the middle route in the Gauntlet and briefly got caught on one of the floor spikes. After getting off, Whirling Dervish veered to the side and crashed into the ramrig, before crabwalking over to the seesaw as the team did not know which way its baseplate was facing. Whirling Dervish veered to the right as it travelled over the ramp, then took a sharp turn to the left and fell off. Whirling Dervish was pinned on the edge of the seesaw and Sir Killalot closed in, using its lance to hook up Whirling Dervish by one of its flails. However, Sir Killalot carried Whirling Dervish over the seesaw and dropped it on its side next to the railing. As the time ticked down, Shunt got a couple of quick axe blows in on Whirling Dervish, which fell onto its back as the time ran out. Because of Sir Killalot, Whirling Dervish travelled 9.5m, enough to qualify to the Trial stage after it finished fourth overall, however Shunt had managed to snap off the welding holding Whirling Dervish's baseplate to its body. Fortunately, the team were able to repair the damage.

Whirlingdervishsumo

Whirling Dervish falls off the sumo platform

Sumo would be the Trial as Whirling Dervish met Shunt once again. It started to spin up its flails in an attempt to deflect Shunt away. Both machines crashed into one another a few times before Whirling Dervish suddenly shot to the edge of the ring and nearly fell off, but quickly escaped. Whirling Dervish's flails began to spin faster, but Shunt kept on the attack, managing to ground the flails to a stop. Shunt pushed Whirling Dervish towards the edge, which tried to gain control to escape again, but instead fell off the platform. Whirling Dervish tallied up a respectable 20.27 seconds, again placing it fourth on the leaderboard and allowing to progress to the Arena stage.

Panic Attack vs Whirling Dervish

Panic Attack flips Whirling Dervish

In the Arena, Whirling Dervish came up against Panic Attack. Whirling Dervish got its flails spinning up fast quickly and Panic Attack manoeuvred around it trying to dodge the flails. Panic Attack went into the PPZ and backed into Whirling Dervish, getting hit in the process. After both machines got away from the PPZ and went to the centre of the arena, they met head on and Panic Attack managed to get its forks underneath Whirling Dervish, rushing it around the arena to try and gain leverage to flip it over. Whirling Dervish caught the arena floor as Panic Attack pushed it and got flipped onto its side. One of the prongs on Panic Attack's forks was still lodged between the base and body of Whirling Dervish, but the Welsh robot managed to free it and Whirling Dervish fell over onto its back. Dead Metal immediately grabbed hold of Whirling Dervish and placed it over the flame pit. Matilda soon joined in and tried to use its chainsaw and Shunt axed Whirling Dervish's underbelly. Shunt got in a few more axe blows while Dead Metal was unable to use its circular saw as the battle ended. With Whirling Dervish immobilised, it was eliminated from The Second Wars.

"The Whirling Dervish team have virtually re-tyred, immobilised."
Jonathan Pearce

At the end of the series, Whirling Dervish was nominated for the Most Original Entry Award but lost to Milly-Ann Bug.

Results[]

WHIRLING DERVISH - RESULTS
Series 2
The Second Wars - UK Championships
Heat, Arena Semi Final
Heat F, Gauntlet 9.5m (4th) Qualified
Heat F, Trial (Sumo) 20.27 seconds (4th) Qualified
Heat F, Arena Semi-Final vs. Panic Attack Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 0
  • Losses: 1

NOTE: Whirling Dervish's successful Gauntlet and Trial runs are not included

Series Record[]

Series Whirling Dervish Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Heat, Arena Semi-Final
The Third Wars Did not enter
The Fourth Wars Did not enter
The Fifth Wars Did not enter
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Whirlingdervish team with peter

Peter Gibson (centre) with the Whirling Dervish team

  • Peter Gibson was originally part of the team, but did not appear with them in any of their events as he was also competing with his own machine, Wheelosaurus. Despite this, he was still listed as a team member on Whirling Dervish's stats board, and appeared alongside it and the team's main members during segments broadcast in Episode 6 of Robot Wars Revealed.
    • Coincidentally, both Whirling Dervish and Wheelosaurus were nominated for the Most Original Entry award.
  • Through the Lynch motor used to rotate its shell and internals, Whirling Dervish is likely the very first Robot Wars competitor known to have used brushless motors for any purpose. Drive and weapon-based applications of brushless motors remained rare in the Classic Series, and it was not until the rebooted Series 8 that their adoption became more widespread.

Honours[]

Nominations

References[]

Navigation[]

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