Christian Carlberg

*Note: This page was created as a backup from the original on the BattleBots Wiki.*

>
> "*We're building robots that work reliably under very harsh conditions. That's what industry wants.*"
> — Christian Carlberg, BattleBots: The Official Guide.
>

## BattleBots Information

### Role

* Bot Builder
* Compertitor

### Seasons

* Comedy Central Season 1.0 - 5.0
* BB Pro Championships
* ABC Season 1 - 2
* Discovery Season 6

**Christian Carlberg** *( クリスチャン・カールバーグ Kurisuchan kārubāgu)* is one of BattleBots' most iconic builder and driver, building and driving most of the robots on Team Coolrobots. He built many robots throughout the show's lifespan and even after it, last assisting a group of college students build Chunk for the 2009 BattleBots event in Vallejo, California.

Carlberg returned in to the ABC Reboot series building the successful Overdrive. Out of Carlberg's robots, his most notable (and successful) are Minion, Knee-Breaker and OverKill, both reaching the finals of tournaments (Minion won two championships in its weight class, OverKill claimed runner-up of Season 4.0 with Knee-Breaker claiming runner-up of *Long Beach 1999*.) He also appeared on *Robotica* with Jason Bardis, competing with Mini Inferno with little success. He's the inspired personality for Christian Wolfberg.

## Profile

Originally from Tolland, Conneticut, Carlberg is a mechanical designer for the entertainment industry. He worked in aerospace for about three years before moving to California in 1995 to break into the special effects movie industry. His first movie was Spy Hard, which was followed by the TV movie, Rattled. Over a period of two and a half years, Carlberg worked on *Starship Troopers*, *Mimic*, *Species II*, *Virus* and *Frosty*. He quickly landed a job at an effects house, where he picked up valuable hands-on experience and met some of the people who would later form his robot-building team.

In 1992, Carlberg graduated from Cornell University, School of Mechanical Engineering. He concentrated in robotics and feedback control systems where he managed to include LEGO bricks as part of his senior design project.

Carlberg also discovered robot combat in California and began competing in local tournaments. "When we first started, we weren't doing it to get on TV. There was no such thing. We were doing it because we thought it was the coolest thing around, and we wanted to be part of it."

In 1997, Carlberg got a call from Disney where Dan Danknick told his boss about him and the robots he was building. Disney gave him a job on the spot. He's been working for them ever since.

Carlberg began working for Walt Disney in 1998, designing rides at theme parks. Prior to working in the entertainment industry in 1995, Carlberg worked for three aerospace companies: GE Aerospace, Martin Marietta and Lockheed.

Carlberg continued his education, part time, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he received his Masters Degree in engineering in 1995. Carlberg is 45 years old.

Carlberg still contracts for Disney and other companies, but he's determined to make robot building into his full time job. "I've started to build a team and a small business around it. Were working to pull in sponsorship money, but more importantly we are offering our services to industry. We're using out TV time to get to work, building industrial robots."

Christian was the builder of the arena hazards for the Las Vegas 1999 Battlebots event, taking a two week vacation to create the hazards and build the arena since Peter Lambertson, the actual designer and builder of the arena, was too busy to do it himself.

It may seem strange at first that a sword wielding BattleBot would have anything to do with industrial robotics. "That's not so. The fact is that we're building robots that work reliably under very harsh conditions. That's what industry wants. It also doesn't hurt if your robots look good on TV."

"We've developed techniques for building robots quickly." For Season 4.0 of Comedy Central's BattleBots show, Carlberg shared his bot-building expertise with viewers, taking them through the process of building their own robot in a series of short, easily digestible chunks. "I built a fast, fun, robot, right in front of the camera, in only about five hours."

For Season 4.0, Christian and his team brought five robots to the tournament, each of them unique. "No two robots are alike. I think that's what appeals to people."

14 years later since the classic era of BattleBots ended, Christian decides to return to ABC Season 2 with Overdrive and later on with Mecha Rampage. With the bots preforming admirably throughout each respective season, he later joins Greg Gibson to lead Yeti throughout Discovery Season 4.

He lives in San Luis Obispo, California with his wife, 3 kids, and his bots: OverDrive and Mecha Rampage.

## RobotCombat.com Bio

*Christian (DIGDUG)*

Hi everybody,

Well, it's about time I got more involved on-line.
My name is Christian Carlberg, creator of the lame Buzzcutt and not-so-lame but lamely named Pretty Hate Machine. Although the competition might not happen this year I urge everyone to continue building.
Somehow we'll all get together for some robotic carnage even if we have to compete in a drained pool at the local YMCA.

-C

## Outside of BB

Christian Wolfberg is highly based off of Team Cool Robots' 3 time champion Battlebot builder, Christian Carlberg. Though the both of them share a similar appearance, they portray different personalities. He views Carlberg as his honorary role model. Carlberg's history in robot combat drove Wolfberg to walk down an identical career path in gaining a phD in Mechanical Engineering from Leicester College and design various mechanical products via composite materials for various companies in Zenin. Most of Wolfberg's bots transformed into lycian automatons reflect off of the C2 / Cool Robots with the exception of a replica of Minion used as an unused spybot against enemies across Zenin.

* Christian with Toe - Crusher (BB Season 3.0)
* A high res scan signed by Carlberg himself.
* Christian's Battle Caster profile.
* Christian and Brian holding the Giant Nut.
* Christian with Toe Crusher BB 99.jpgChristian with Toe-Crusher (Bot Bash 99)
* Christian poses with Minion (BB Season 1.0)
* Christian at BB Season 4.0.
* That smile tho....
* The dorkiest looking Carlberg ever.
* Christian gets ready for Overkill vs Battle Rat.
* Christian smiles on a mirror.
* Team Coolrobots with Trey Roski in the background.
* Christian and the team posing with Overkill.
* Minion and Christian featured in a tech magazine.
* Christian with Toe-Crusher.
* Christian with Overkill.
* Christian and the team with Overkill.
* Christian with Minion.
* Christian Carlberg back in 1992.
* Christian and Jason at Robot Wars 1997.
* Ditto...
* Jason and Christian Carlberg at Bot Bash.
* Christian fixes Toe Crusher at Bot Bash 2000.
* Christian and Jason Bardis at Soz Botz 2003.
* Christian holding Dreadnaught for an upcoming LEGO Mindstorms event.
* Jason and Christian during the KCAL news interview.
* Jason and Christian during a photoshoot with Slugger.
* Mike Wrobleski is "Clean Suit Radioactive Man," and Christian is just plain old Satan.
* Christian the buddy & I amongst very heavy machinery.
* Christian kneels in front of the Giant Nut.
* Christian balances in the exterior of OverDrive during ABC Season 2.
* A typical neighbourhood kid turned bot builder.
* An interactive touch table built and designed by Carlberg himself.
* Christian on the cover of a Nuts and Volts magazine.
* Carlberg smiling at an unknown bot event.
* Christian helps out with Chunk.
* Christian and Brian with Dreadnought and Minion.
* Christian and Jason at a friend's wedding.
* Present day Christian and Jason meet up just like the old times.
* Christian's recent FB profile.
1/40
## Trivia

* Aside from robot combat, Carlberg is an avid snowboarder.
* He appeared on the 2013 issue cover of Nuts and Volts magazine where he kickstarted his flashlight project HexBright. It was unfortunately cancelled due to a time crunch and very little fundraising.

## See Also

* Team Coolrobots website
* Team Coolrobots website (Archived)
* Team Coolrobots (RoboGames Wiki)

## References

1. ↑ http://www.robotcombat.com/whoswho.html#DIGDUG