Bonfire

## Overview

**Bonfire** (Chinese: **篝火**, romanized as **Gōuhuǒ**) was a robot from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom, which competed in the 2018 series *This is Fighting Robots*. It was built by Team Immersion, who designed the robot as an improved successor to their *Robot Wars* entry **Vulture**.

Though initially selected by Green team manager Zheng Shuang, Bonfire was dropped by her before the main competition, ultimately securing its place on Wu Chun's Red team by impressing him during its preliminary group battle. However, a faulty speed controller, coupled with a loose wire for its overhead spinner arm, hampered its performance in the opening Freestyle Combat stage, the former contributing to its immobilization under pressure from Blue. Following its loss, Bonfire became one of three robots to be eliminated from the Red team at the end of the first round.

Team captain Adam Hamilton and Thomas Long are consistent members of Team Immersion, with featherweight roboteer Andy Russell, and the captain of Team. Ablaze Gareth Anstee joining the team for the competition.

The name Bonfire is derived from the UK musicians *Knife Party* and their popular music track *Bonfire*, in line with the team's inspiration by *Pendulum* music, which features some of the key musicians from Knife Party.

## Design

Bonfire uses a wide, two-wheeled design, supported by a broad HARDOX scoop at the front, which can be replaced with a thicker 'anti-spinner' scoop which also protects its mean weapon. This weapon is a 30lb (14kg) single-tooth spinner, referred to as an 'axe head' due to the weapon being mounted on the end of an electrically driven arm. Bonfire initially spins its weapon at the rear of the machine, before firing its arm to bring the weapon onto the top of other robots. This spinner is fast at 260mph, which in combination with the electric arm, generates 20 horsepower of energy. Its drive system boasts 22 horsepower, for a top speed of 19mph.

Bonfire is also able to accommodate interchangeable weaponry, with various CAD renders depicting the robot with a multi-toothed flywheel along with a larger vertical spinner placed in the center. This resulted from the chassis being originally conceptualized for an unbuilt Team Immersion heavyweight, itself originally proposed for a hypothetical future series of the UK show *Robot Wars*. Despite this, Bonfire is a separate build, made from scratch.

"*Introducing Bonfire, built especially for This is Fighting Robots! It’s another take on the complex hammer/spinner weapon, this time packing 14kg of ‘axe head’ spinning at 260mph with 20 horsepower behind it. It is the most complicated and most powerful robot we’ve ever built.*"
— Team Immersion on Facebook
## Robot History

### This is Fighting Robots

Bonfire made a brief appearance during the 'blind selection' process in Episode 1, where it was initially chosen by Zheng Shuang to join her line-up for the Green team. Bonfire was the first robot chosen by Shuang to represent her team, and was also the first robot chosen overall in the competition. While inspecting the machine in the third phase, Shuang questioned Bonfire's use of semi-transparent plastic top armor, noting that it left the machine vulnerable against 'sharp' weapons. This, as later revealed by Adam Hamilton, was an oversight on behalf of Team Immersion, who forgot to place an additional layer of armor beneath the plastic sheeting. This was enough for Shuang to drop Bonfire from the Green team, allowing Team Carbide's vertical spinner Tungsten to be added in its place.

As a result, Bonfire was required to fight in a preliminary group battle in order to impress the team managers and be selected to compete. There, it fought the Mexican Blue Demon, the American Chronos and fellow British entry Sandstorm, captained by fellow *Robot Wars* roboteer Ellis Ware. Bonfire started by briefly driving towards Blue Demon; dodging Sandstorm’s initial charge in the process. It briefly joined its three opponents in the corner of the area before driving away, eventually shepherding Chronos into Sandstorm and being briefly pushed back by the American ring spinner. As it drove away, Bonfire spun round in front of Sandstorm, forcing its British compatriot off the floor and allowing Blue Demon to tear off Sandstorm’s rear panel. At the same time, it thrust its arm down on Sandstorm’s top, although without being able to cause any damage with its inactive spinner. Bonfire continued to battle Sandstorm for a large period of time, breaching its wedge, but a majority of the footage was not aired on television. Eventually, Bonfire got its bar spinner rotating, and used its wedge to breach Sandstorm’s ground clearance as the latter drove up it again. With Sandstorm’s front wheels off the floor, Bonfire proceeded to thrust its spinner down on its opponent’s lifting weapon, while simultaneously pushing it into one of the grinders. This attack impressed Wu Chun, who promptly selected Bonfire to join the Red team. Bonfire tried to hit Sandstorm again, but missed as it was nudged towards the grinders in turn. It pursued Sandstorm across the arena, only for Sandstorm to get underneath, push and throw it into the wall spikes. Sparks few as Bonfire’s spinner hit the wall; Bonfire itself bounced off the bulletproof screen and landed back on its wheels, but the televised edit rendered Bonfire 'immobile' - nevertheless Bonfire was still active and continued fighting. Bonfire then proceeded to strike Blue Demon with its arm as the latter pushed it into the corner. It escaped, and stopped over one of the floor flippers as Sandstorm pushed and tipped Blue Demon into the wall. By bringing its bar spinner into Blue Demon, Bonfire crumbled Blue Demon's weapon frame which crumbled the frame into the path of the Mexican spinner, jamming the weapon. In the final ten seconds of the fight, Bonfire's wires became stuck inside its wheels, briefly disabling the machine, but Bonfire had already been selected by a celebrity, advancing it to the main tournament.

As part of Wu Chun's team, Bonfire was selected in the first Freestyle Combat stage to battle two fellow British entries, Griffin Mk II and Ninja, and the American Blue. However, prior to the battle, Team Immersion realized that the weapon arm of their machine stopped working properly due to a loosened wire. When Wu Chun checked the team on their problem, they were given the option to postpone the fight to the next filming day, but decided to compete anyway.

**Wu Chun**: "*What's wrong with the machine?*"
**Adam Hamilton**: "*Well... we went to test the weapon, and just a little wire popped out.*"
**Wu Chun**: "*If you don't fight, we can still do it tomorrow.*"
**Adam Hamilton**: "*We'll stay in.*"
**Wu Chun**: "*Alright, go for it!*"
— Wu Chun cheers on the handicapped Bonfire
The battle began, and Bonfire first fought Ninja, although it later took a blow to the side of its weapon from Blue. Bonfire was also pushed into the arena saws sideways by Griffin Mk II, which gripped its weapon, but this brought Griffin Mk II's wheels from the floor, allowing it to be dragged by Bonfire. Edited out of the main battle, Bonfire was able to separately slam Blue and Griffin Mk II into the arena wall for large impacts. Blue swung its axe and hit the side of Bonfire's inactive weapon, although Bonfire briefly found its way under Blue. Bonfire edged Blue into the corner of the arena, but sustained a direct blow to its wedge from Blue's hammer. Blue then landed two direct blows onto the top of Bonfire, before briefly overturning itself, but Griffin Mk II abandoned its private battle with Ninja to slam into the back of Bonfire. At this stage, Bonfire had become immobile as a result of its speed controller failing, shorting out the entire robot. Nevertheless, Blue continued to pound the top of Bonfire, denting its weaponry, also forcing Ninja to attack Bonfire in the same fashion, despite Team Immersion confirming their machine's immobility onscreen. When finally left alone, Bonfire was officially rendered immobile.

At the end of the first round, Wu Chun chose to eliminate Bonfire alongside Mr Hippo and Eater, ending its participation in *This is Fighting Robots*.

## Results

 Freestyle Combat Round 1

* Wins: 0
* Losses: 1

*NOTE: Bonfire's preliminary group battle is not considered to be a win or a loss.*