Amnesia

* 2019 Opening Battle
* KOB 2018 UK

**Amnesia** was a British featherweight robot which competed in the 2018 *King of Bots* UK International Championships. Entered by Adam Hamilton of Team Immersion, it won the inaugural UK competition at Insomnia 63 by defeating Calabash Bros in the final round, having won each of its battles by knockout.

The version of Amnesia which competed in the 2018 UK International Championships, also known as **Amnesia 3**, was the third incarnation of the robot; previous versions had also earned considerable success in FRA-sanctioned featherweight competitions.

Amnesia was one of a number of featherweight robots present for the 2019 Opening Battle, held to promote the upcoming second season of *King of Bots*. Representing the blue team, it fought in one head-to-head battle against fellow *King of Bots* featherweight champion Patchwork. Despite catching the arena floor seams and losing both of its wedgelets to Patchwork's drum spinner, Amnesia would ultimately win the battle by flipping Patchwork against the wall spikes.

## Design

Amnesia is a two-wheel drive robot with a compact, wedge-like profile and a black and blue color scheme. Its weapon consists of an electrically-operated front-hinged flipper, which is used to turn opponents over and self-right whenever the robot is inverted. Two claw-like extensions at the top of the flipper prevent opponents from driving over and off the weapon when it is in use. Amnesia has three interchangeable flippers, which can be fitted to suit different opponents:

* An 'anti-horizontal' flipper with a wide angled wedge, made out of 5mm HARDOX and used to counter opponents with horizontal spinners. The weapon also incorporates internal bracing to prevent the flipper from bending after heavy impacts.
* An 'anti-vertical' flipper, featuring angled armor designed specifically to cut down the teeth of any vertical spinner which makes contact with it. Like the 'anti-horizontal' flipper, this weapon is made out of 5mm HARDOX and incorporates internal bracing. Created in November 2018, after the *King of Bots* UK Championship but prior to the 2019 Opening Battle, where the weapon was used.
* A traditional flipper, using narrower front blade optimised for opponents armed with flippers and wedges.

In addition to the flippers, Amnesia also featured a few non-flipper weapons, one of which was brought along with the robot when it attended the 2018 UK International Championships. The weapon was intended to be used in the event that the flippers were rendered unusable, but ultimately went unused throughout the competition.

Amnesia's chassis is formed of a HARDOX base and rear plate, braced by two machined HDPE billets. An aluminium frame in the centre of the chassis houses the weapon mechanism; the flippers can be mounted to interchangeable hinges or cone wedges which can be bolted directly to the robots' front billets. Amnesia's top armor consists of 3mm HARDOX with an additional 6mm HDPE layer. Amnesia boasts a high top speed, and the ability to drift on its two-wheel brushed drive.

## Robot History

### King of Bots UK 2018

Amnesia’s first battle took place during the second qualification round, where it was expected to fight Strix and Elevate, and was fitted with the anti-horizontal flipper.

However, Elevate withdrew shortly before the battle began, leaving both of the front-hinged flippers to face each other alone. Amnesia and Strix immediately rammed each other head-on, with Amnesia proceeding to slip under and throw Strix off the floor. Seconds later, it pushed Strix sideways and threw it against the railings, although not without accidentally flipping itself over. Amnesia self-righted, and drove underneath Strix a few more times in an attempt to get another flip in. Eventually, Amnesia pushed Strix sideways and flipped it against the wall, leaving its opponent unable to self-right. As Strix was counted out, Amnesia darted across the arena, spun and fired its flipper in celebration, scoring four points with this knockout victory.

Next, Amnesia faced the axe of Nelly the Ellybot and the drum spinner of X-303.

Darting across the closed pit, it was initially bumped by Nelly the Ellybot, before turning round and attempting to attack X-303. A collision with X-303’s drum threw Amnesia over, forcing it to self-right; with one of its wedgelets shorn off, Amnesia dodged an axe blow from Nelly the Ellybot, and proceeded to ram X-303 into the wall. After trying to use its flipper to push X-303 through the gap in the railings and out of the arena, Amnesia was briefly attacked by Nelly the Ellybot, but escaped as X-303 threw the purple machine over. Amnesia rammed X-303 a few more times, only to sustain another hit from its opponent’s drum which threw it on its back against the corner.

Self-righting, it approached Nelly the Ellybot and withstood two blows from the latter’s axe, before reversing over the flame jet and briefly attacking X-303 again. Amnesia got underneath Nelly the Ellybot once, only to dart away and activate the pit. After pushing X-303 into the corner, Amnesia briefly nudged Nelly the Ellybot, only to pursue, push and absorb more blows from X-303. Amnesia, having unsuccessfully attempted to push X-303 into the pit, was briefly pushed by Nelly the Ellybot as the three competitors gathered in the center of the arena. It flicked X-303 away using its flipper, but was soon catapulted across the arena again by X-303’s drum. Amnesia self-righted, and after briefly hesitating, sped across the arena to push X-303 along the far wall. It flipped X-303 over just as the latter was axed and pushed onto its wedge by Nelly the Ellybot, and dodged another axe blow from Nelly the Ellybot itself before pushing and flipping X-303 into the wall again.

These attacks were sufficient to dislodge one of X-303’s drive belts; however, Amnesia sustained a few more axe blows from Nelly the Ellybot, and retreated to the center of the arena again. Amnesia responded by tipping Nelly the Ellybot over, and survived a few more axe blows as it proceeded to thrust and push X-303 across the arena a few times. With X-303 immobilized as a result of its belt issues, Amnesia refocused its attacks on Nelly the Ellybot, lifting the purple machine a few times.

These attacks were enough to leave Nelly the Ellybot immobilized next to X-303, resulting in Amnesia picking up a second knockout win and four more points. During a post-battle interview with Samantha France, Adam Hamilton revealed that X-303’s second hit had dislodged Amnesia’s left wheel, resulting in it only having drive on one side for much of the battle - the wheel had cracked following a heavy landing, causing it to roll freely on its driveshaft and reduce Amnesia's speed across the arena.

In its third and last qualification round, Amnesia faced Hedgebot and The Claw.

Immediately, it drove around and into Hedgebot, before proceeding to flip it over against the wall. With Hedgebot unable to self-right, Amnesia turned its attention towards The Claw, pushing it around and dislodging one of its wheel bearings. It rammed and threw The Claw against the wall, leaving it immobilized beside the pit release button. Amnesia spun round and fired its flipper in celebration, having secured its third consecutive knockout. Having scored a total of twelve points, Amnesia comfortably secured its place in the top 20 with these performances.

In the knockout round, Amnesia fought Take Cover, a sit-and-spin robot with a translational drift system.

Amnesia began by pursuing and deflecting Take Cover into the wall twice. It proceeded to deflect Take Cover several more times across the arena, launching the Bristol machine into the air and damaging one of its hammers. Amnesia briefly paused to press the pit release button, only to push and flip Take Cover into the wall. Having disrupted its opponent’s spinning attack, Amnesia continued to push and deflect Take Cover for some time, eventually flipping it over and shepherding it into a corner. One collision ripped a piece of one of Take Cover’s hammers off; Amnesia continued to slam Take Cover into the walls after this, knocking its opponent off-balance. Eventually, it pinned Take Cover in the corner and stacked it against the wall, leaving Take Cover stranded.

Through to the Round of 12, Amnesia next faced Orpheus, which itself had qualified after winning a losers’ melee.

In the opening moments, it drove around and into Orpheus, before managing to drive underneath the Hemel Hempstead machine from the front. With this, Amnesia rammed and flipped Orpheus against the wall, pressing the pit release button and leaving Orpheus unable to self-right. Amnesia nudged Orpheus off the wall, enabling it to land upside-down on the floor. Seconds later, it pushed Orpheus into the pit, duly picking up another knockout victory and a place in the quarter-finals.

There, Amnesia faced the vertical spinner of Binky.

It started the battle tentatively, initially attempting to drive around the side of Binky as the latter got its weapon up to speed. However, Amnesia instead drove into Binky’s front; Binky’s spinner clipped its wedge, catapulting Amnesia into the air and forcing it to self-right. Amnesia recovered, and continued to drive around the sides of Binky before pushing and flipping it into the wall. Amnesia pursued and rammed Binky again as the Team Eventorizons machine attempted to drive away. It managed to shepherd Binky into the corner, and took advantage of Binky’s stability issues by driving underneath and making contact with its spinner. This attack threw Binky onto its back - forcing it to recoil - and disabled its bar spinner. With Binky unable to self-right, Amnesia drove to the center of the arena and performed its victory manoeuvres just before the battle drew to a close.

In its semi-final, Amnesia faced Rocket, a scaled-down version of *Robot Wars* Series 8 champion Apollo entered by Team Robots Live!

For this battle, it used the narrow-bladed flipper, which it initially used to great effect by driving straight underneath Rocket in the opening seconds. Amnesia drove underneath Rocket again and attempted to flip it against the wall; however, it accidentally threw itself over instead, but self-righted quickly. The two competitors pushed each other around in circles towards and over the flame jet, with Amnesia proceeding to pursue and drive underneath Rocket once more. Eventually, Amnesia pushed and flipped Rocket against the wall, repeating this attack when Rocket self-righted and tried to evade. Rocket struggled to self-right as Amnesia pushed it into the corner, then beside the pit; Amnesia pressed the pit release button before pushing Rocket near the edge.

Amnesia waited as Rocket self-righted and got itself stuck on the descending pit, before attempting to push it in. However, Rocket threw itself into the pit as Amnesia charged in, momentarily resulting in both robots falling in at once. Amnesia pushed itself out of the pit by firing its flipper against Rocket, securing itself another knockout victory and a place in the final.

There, Amnesia faced Chinese competitor Calabash Bros, again with the narrow-bladed flipper. Immediately, it darted across the arena, around the flame jet and towards Calabash Bros, before drifting back and forth to trick Calabash Bros into attacking it. After bumping and circling around Calabash Bros for a few more moments, Amnesia finally got underneath and sent Calabash Bros spinning with a charge. This appeared to leave Calabash Bros stunned; Amnesia proceeded to ram and flip the Chinese vertical spinner into the wall, restoring its opponent’s mobility in the process. After this, the two robots circled around the arena, with Amnesia getting underneath Calabash Bros a few more times before again flipping and slamming it into the wall. This impact immobilized Calabash Bros, leading to it being counted out within seconds. As a result, Amnesia and Adam Hamilton emerged as the 2018 *King of Bots* UK International Champions.

### 2019 Opening Battle

Amnesia was one of eight featherweight robots to appear in the 2019 Opening Battle, competing in one head-to-head battle as part of the blue team. There, it faced Patchwork, a fellow *King of Bots* featherweight champion.

Both robots initially darted from their corners, colliding head-on near the center of the arena; Amnesia was briefly knocked back by Patchwork, but responded by pushing Patchwork towards the red corner. It proceeded to drive into Patchwork’s drum again, getting knocked sideways as a result, and attempted to pursue its silver opponent. However, the wedgelets for Amnesia’s flipper repeatedly caught the seams in the arena floor, causing it to bump and spin around. As a result, Amnesia exposed its side to a charging Patchwork, and was thrown into the air towards the grinders. After a brief hesitation, Amnesia turned and drove into Patchwork again, absorbing two more blows from the latter’s drum and having one of its wedgelets ripped off in the process.

After several seconds, Amnesia slammed into the front of Patchwork once more, losing its other wedgelet, before turning and darting towards the spikes. It withstood another retaliatory slam from Patchwork, which resulted in the Chinese machine being thrown upwards and onto its side. Once Patchwork landed on its wheels, Amnesia attempted to push its opponent back again, sustaining another blow from Patchwork’s drum as it did so. Amnesia gave chase as Patchwork gyro-danced towards the center of the arena, briefly pushing Patchwork from the side. It drove underneath a gyrating Patchwork, before shepherding and pinning Patchwork against one of the spikes. Amnesia proceeded to get underneath, flip and stack Patchwork against the spikes, reversing towards the center of the arena as Patchwork was eliminated via knockout. Amnesia spun and raised its flipper in celebration, securing a win for the blue team.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Amnesia 3 prior to its *King of Bots* UK appearance
* Amnesia during the 2018 UK International Championships
* Amnesia with its *King of Bots* UK trophy
* Amnesia with Adam Hamilton
* Amnesia's statistics board for the 2019 Opening Battle
* Amnesia, following its fight in the 2019 Opening Battle
* Amnesia with the 2019 Opening Battle commentators
* Team Immersion at the 2019 Opening Battle
1/8
* Wins: 9
* Losses: 0

## Outside King of Bots

The original version of Amnesia (**Amnesia 1**) made its debut at the 2016 FRA International Featherweight Championships, finishing fourth overall. Initially built as a simple two-wheel drive rammer with a solid wedge, it was later redesigned with a removable flipper similar to those of its later incarnations, competing at Insomnia 58 in this form. Amnesia’s performances throughout 2016 would see it receive the ‘Featherweight’ and ‘Best Newcomer’ accolades at that year’s FRA Annual Awards.

* Amnesia 2 with its 2017 FRA Featherweight trophy
* All three versions of Amnesia with their accolades
1/2
Amnesia would improve on its debut performance at the 2017 FRA Featherweight International Championships, where the second incarnation (**Amnesia 2**) reached the semi-final stage and finished third overall by defeating Utopia in the play-off. During the same year, the first incarnation also made a televised cameo in Series 10 of *Robot Wars*, appearing in Heat 3 alongside Vulture, Team Immersion’s entry for that series. Both Amnesia 1 and Amnesia 2 incorporated a 'two-stage' flipper, a design feature which was not carried over to Amnesia 3.

* Amnesia at *Robots Live!* Stevenage, September 2018
* Amnesia with its heavyweight counterpart, Immersion
* Amnesia with Explosion
* Amnesia (left) at *Robodojo* in March 2019
1/4
All three incarnations of Amnesia remain in Adam Hamilton's possession, although Amnesia 1 and Amnesia 2 only remain as empty shells as of December 2018. Using the same internals as its predecessors, Amnesia 3 continues to appear at live events in addition to its *King of Bots* UK appearance. After attending the *Robots Live!* event in Stevenage in September 2018, Amnesia subsequently entered the *Robodojo* Autumn Featherweight Championship, sporting the 'anti-vertical' flipper. Competing in the Sportsman division, where no spinners were present, Amnesia continued its winning streak by defeating Boring Wedgebot #7, Mattock and Luna-Tic in three consecutive battles. It reached the final round of the event, but was defeated by Barghest on a Judges' decision. Returning for the March 2019 *Robodojo* event with new steel strips on its wedge, Amnesia won the Sportsman event by going undefeated across all four of its head-to-head fights, and the four-way Grand Final. Amnesia then won a second *Robodojo* event in a row, emerging victorious in the May 2019 sportsman event with back-to-back knockouts against The Tragic Roundabout, Ensign Wedgely Crusher, Piece De Resistance and Comet, before winning the four-way final against Barghest, Midas and Forge Master II. This success carried over to the July 2019 *Robodojo*, where Amnesia defeated Harald, Danger UXB, Mattock and Comet before winning the final over Luna-Tic.

Amnesia 3 was upgraded heavily for the UK Featherweight Championship hosted by *Robodojo* in August 2019, with improvements including a new brushless drive system, and three new wedge layouts, including a set of hinged wedgelets designed to fight drum spinners. Amnesia entered the competition at an immediate disadvantage as it was not permitted to enter its first battle against Blunt Force Trauma 3 due to a minor failsafe issue, and even though it earned four back-to-back knockout victories against Elevate, Revolver, Virus (by default), and Plastic Fantastic, it still finished the group in second place. Nevertheless Amnesia threw Forge Master II out of the arena in the Top 16 to reach the quarter-final, where an unfortunate draw against the eventual champion X-303 ended Team Immersion's run prematurely.

For more information on other robots built by Team Immersion, including Amnesia's heavyweight counterpart **Immersion**, see Bonfire.

## Trivia

* During the 2019 Opening Battle, Amnesia was erroneously referred to as 'Bonfire', the name of Team Immersion's Season 1.5 entry, due to a error made in promotional materials for the event.
	+ On Amnesia's statistics board during the same event, Andy Russell was included on the image of Team Immersion instead of Thomas Long.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3  Correspondence with Adam Hamilton, 15th December 2018.
2. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/teamimmersionrobotics/photos/a.1665438270370986/1724781197770026/?type=3&theater
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFmmxrwzvh0
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Correspondence with Adam Hamilton, 18th January 2019.

## External Links

* Team Immersion - Combat Robots Facebook Page
* Team Immersion on The Builders Database
* King of Bots interview with Adam Hamilton