Nuclear Bomb

"*It is born intelligent, man-machine one, there is no rival, it is the essence of human wisdom - the nucleus!*"
— *King of Bots* website (translated from Chinese)

**原子核** (Romanized as **yuán zǐ hé**, translating to **Nucleus** (Mech+ translation) or **Nuclear Bomb**) was a robot from Beijing, China, which competed in the Season 1 of *King of Bots*. Entered by the Real Steel team – led by Wang Chao, CEO of the Beijing Tiejia Steel Fist Company - it lost its Season 1 battle against Greedy Snake on a Judges' decision. Regardless, Nuclear Bomb emerged victorious in a nine-robot rumble held at the end of the series, also winning an unaired Tag Team battle.

Nuclear Bomb was succeeded by Wall Breaker in *This is Fighting Robots*, and The Martian in *King of Bots II*.

## Design

Nuclear Bomb was a two-part clusterbot, the main part of which was an invertible, two-wheel drive robot with a two-tone white and black color scheme. Its main weapon was a set of hydraulic horizontal crushing claws at the front, which were primarily intended to grab and push opponents into the arena hazards. The robot also featured a 20mm titanium wedge at the rear, painted black, intended to be used for pushing and ramming.

The heavyweight segment of Nuclear Bomb also possessed a number of innovative features for the competition. One was a 'bio-exoskeleton system', worn by the robot's operator, which allowed arm and finger movements to translate into its main drive and weapon functions. Another, while not mentioned during Nuclear Bomb's introduction, was an electromagnetic system which allowed the robot to stick to the arena floor when activated. The electromagnets, capable of offering 'over two tons' of downforce, were primarily intended to prevent Nuclear Bomb from being pushed or lifted. While successfully used in this way throughout both of its televised battles, they had the side effect of causing clearance problems on certain arena hazards, such as the floor flippers.

In addition to this weaponry, Nuclear Bomb was accompanied by a white flying drone, which was used to provide Team Real Steel with a top-down view of the arena during battles. According to Wang Chao, the 'visual identity system' onboard the drone could be used to identify opponents' actions within 100 milliseconds, aiding with defensive strategies.

"*We come to King of Bots to show the infinite possibilities of robot combat and bring new robot combat to a new era.*"
— Wang Chao (Mech+ subtitles)

## Robot History

### King of Bots (Season 1)

Nuclear Bomb competed in Episode 1, where it fought fellow Chinese competitor Greedy Snake in the first round.

The main robot immediately turned and reversed over a nearby floor flipper, where it became stuck as a result of its electromagnets being switched on. Nuclear Bomb remained in place as its accompanying drone hovered overhead, though the electromagnets prevented Greedy Snake from being able to get underneath and grab it. Nuclear Bomb remained on the flipper until Greedy Snake pushed it off while trying to grab it; a small lift from Wang Xi's machine was enough for Nuclear Bomb to start moving again.

While driving wedge-first across the arena, Nuclear Bomb eventually stopped driving again near the center of the arena. As before, its electromagnets were effective in preventing Greedy Snake from getting underneath and trying to lift it from the side.

"*My bot couldn't stick into the bottom of the opponent at all. That's why it couldn't do the lifting. I was quite confused then.*"
— Wang Xi of the Greedy Snake team (Mech+ subtitles)

Eventually, the two robots separated; by this point, co-commentators Huang Jian Xiang and Wu Day Wei had felt that Nuclear Bomb had been 'totally on the defensive' throughout, having not used its claws to any effect. Still unable to attack effectively, Nuclear Bomb was eventually rammed, grabbed and thrown onto its back by Greedy Snake, following a front-on charge by the latter.

With its electromagnets no longer in a position to be useful, Wang Chao's machine was subjected to a second 'suplex' attack by Greedy Snake, which turned it back upright. Nuclear Bomb was then rammed into the wall spikes as the match entered its final ten seconds. As a last-ditch effort, it responded by bumping into Greedy Snake twice, while again deploying its electromagnets to deny Greedy Snake one last attempt to lift it. With both robots still mobile, the battle went to a Judges' decision. Based on its more defensive driving throughout, the decision ruled against Nuclear Bomb, eliminating it from the main competition.

Nuclear Bomb also fought in two further battles at the end of the series. The first of which was an unaired Tag Team battle against the American Blue and British multibot The Grubs, where Nuclear Bomb was partnered with Residual Wind. During the battle, Nuclear Bomb's crushers were broken off by Blue, and Residual Wind was also damaged heavily. However, Blue inadvertently immobilized two segments of The Grubs, and as a result, both international robots were counted out, despite Blue still being mobile. Although the producers would later apologize to the international teams, the win by knockout was awarded to Nuclear Bomb and Residual Wind.

"*We teamed up with the grubs and fought the carbide clone and the weird in effective horizontal crusher. We exploded the bar on the spinner and caved in their top. The crusher broke off the other bot pretty quickly. In the process we also accidentally squished a grub and pushed one into the screws. The grubs all died and they started counting us out for some reason? Said we lost in a KO despite the other two bots barely moving and Blue still working fine. Producers apologized after for counting us out.*"
— Team Bots FC on Reddit

With its crushers fully removed, Nuclear Bomb also fought in a nine-robot Rumble, aired during the last episode of Season 1. There, it fought Blue, Crossfire, Dark Knight, Griffin, Ink Thorns, Steel Dragon, The Grubs and Violent Dragon.

    Initially, Nuclear Bomb stayed out of the action, largely remaining close to its starting position as its opponents spread out and attacked each other. It eventually drove to the other side of the arena near the circular saws and was attacked by Blue, with the American machine hammering Nuclear Bomb’s top armor and getting itself beached on top. Nuclear Bomb remained still as an attack from Steel Dragon forced Blue off, and momentarily turned round as Dark Knight pushed Crossfire and Ink Thorns into its right-hand side. Shuffling back and forth, it proceeded to avoid its surviving opponents and the circular saws, before spinning round on the spot twice in the center.

Eventually, Nuclear Bomb pushed the disarmed Crossfire around, and proceeded to push Blue sideways into a now-immobile Chop, The Grubs’ horizontal spinner. Hesitating, it swept Violent Dragon’s detached claw away before driving to the other side of the arena once again, and sat over one of the floor flippers as Blue and Steel Dragon clashed. It maneuvered off the flipper as Dark Knight was left stranded on Griffin’s wing, and helped Steel Dragon push Blue over the floor rods as they raised all three robots off the floor. Nuclear Bomb slipped off the rods almost immediately, and spun round as both of its remaining opponents were left suspended off the floor. As a result, it was declared to have won the Rumble, with Sam Watts of the Grubs team presenting the Real Steel team captain with a piece of Violent Dragon’s head in the post-battle interviews.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 1
* Losses: 1

*NOTE: Nuclear Bomb's unaired Tag Team battle is excluded.*

## Series Record

*NOTE: Team member Zhang Chongbing also entered King of Bots II with his own robot, Giraffe*.

## Outside King of Bots

Before competing with Wall Breaker, the Real Steel team designed **Nuclear Bomb II** with which to enter *This is Fighting Robots*. The new design was armed with a flamethrower in place of the claws, firing out of a large vent in the front of the machine.

## Trivia

* Despite losing its only battle in the main competition, Nuclear Bomb won both of its battles held as side events.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/81q85i/king\_of\_bots\_final\_episode\_discussion\_thread/dv7pslb/
2. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/81dbwe/new\_unclear\_bomb\_ii\_is\_building\_for\_kob/

## External Links

* Nuclear Bomb on the official *King of Bots* website (Chinese)