Claws 2

* S1
* S2

**Claws 2** is a beetleweight combat robot created by Chris Sowry and driven by his daughter Felicity. The robot entered the competition with a strong performance, but lost to SCD in the heat final. It would later fight off in the Rumble-bee to enter the Grand Final. Unfortunately, for the robot itself, it got pushed into the pit by Snappy.

Claws 2 returned for Bugglebots season 2.

## Design

Claws 2 is a direct overall improvement over Claws 1 that was built by the driver Felicity in 2017. Claws 1 was a simple 2 wheel drive pusher with no weapon and not suitable for full combat. Chris (her father) promised to builder her a full combat robot so she could start taking part in Beetle tournaments across the UK and begin her roboteering career. 10mm HDPE was used to build the chassis, a 2mm mild steel wedge was added to aid defence and the addiction of a weapon now meant it was suitable for combat.

A mostly finished Claws 2 was presented to Felicity for her 13th Birthday and she was then able to 'make it her own' with adding the paint scheme. The robot made its fighting debut at Bristol Bot Builders 3 (BBB3) in 2018. It won its first fight as Rev 2 self destructed itself instantly, but the robot failed to work properly after that as the wheel hubs repeatedly failed. It was knocked out in its following fight to K2 and took part in several white board fights towards the end of the event. Despite not performing, the event highlighted several improvements and nerves where settled with the new driver.

With getting ready for Bugglebots, only the weapon and wedge remain from its original build. This allowed the drive wheels to be moved back to enable it to at least move inverted, (as a planned self righting mechanism couldn't be added within the weight limit). lighter aluminium bulkheads mounting the drive motors, sorted the wheel hubs and increased its running voltage to a 4s lipo.

## Robot History

Claws 2 started it's Bugglebots campaign against the Irish spring-powered flipper of Léim. Liem was a good 3minute fight for Claws 2, it showed it could out push other bots and go the distance. It also clamed the nerves of the driver. Liem constantly out drove Claws 2, but the wedge on Claws 2 was its saving grace. Thankfully the spring flipper wasn't working and Claws 2 was able to get several grabs and push Liem at will securing the judges decision.

The fight against Apex BW could have very easily gone very different. Again, its weapon failed to work and Claws 2 was able to push Apex BW very easily and eventually into the pit.

    For the heat final Claws 2 faced meltybrain SCD, Claws 2 box rushed stopping SCD spinning up and after a small hit SCD was spinning on the pit door. Claws 2 tried to capitalise but couldn't get to the pit button before SCD had just moved away. But because the pit failed to open, Claws 2 rammed full speed into the pit button again getting itself stuck under the arena side wall and was counted out. The judges reviewed the footage and asked for a rematch, both teams agreed and they carried on from the two minutes mark, where the pit failed to open. The robots also had to be placed in their starting positions as they should have started when the arena failed. But this would have meant SCD is right next to the pit with Claws 2 right next to the active pit button. Claws 2 and SCD exchanged a few more hits but one threw Claws 2 into the side wall bending the left side aluminium bulkhead and pulled in the side armour jamming up the left wheel. With limited movement across the arena, Claws 2 had no option but to keep its wedge pointed at SCD deflecting any attack until cease called. Claws 2 ultimately lost on a judges decision due to damage taken and entered the 5-way Rumble bee with the other heat final runners up.

Facing three Robot Wars veterans in Drizzle, Maximum Orgedrive and Saw Loser, plus the experienced beetleweight Snappy, Claws 2 did not expect to survive. After a few early exchanges with Saw Looser, Claws 2 kept clear until it was able to gang up with Orgedrive against Snappy then turning on Orgedrive and truly showed its pushing ability and hammered Orgedrive across the arena and into the pit. With Drizzle and Saw Loser counted out and Snappy drive gone on one side, it looked like Claws 2 had done the impossible but in the closing seconds Snappy was able to get under Claws's wedge and a true 'do or die' moment was able to push Claws 2 into the pit with 3 seconds left on the clock.

Officially finishing 7th in the whole competition, Claws 2 also won the 'Best Newcomer' trophy.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 4
* Losses: 5

## Outside of Bugglebots

        Claws 2 first fight was against Rev 2 at BBB3 in 2018. As active was called Claws 2 raced over to Rev 2 who span on the spot and instantly threw its wheels off. Its second fight was against K2, it was a fairly even opening but as the fight went on Claws 2 lost drive on one side and was stuck crabbing across the arena. K2 was able to take advantage and hit Claws 2 into the pit. Out of the main competition, Claws 2 took part in a white board fight where it placed 2nd, despite the wheel hubs failing again almost instantly. Final fight was the Gladiator and again, the wheel hubs failed within seconds and was pushed around in the chaos. It did still effect the fight as Limpet got wedged under Claws 2 immobilising both of them.

Later in 2018 Claws 2 has also appeared at RoboNerd for a brief encounter with Sir-Lance-a-Frog and Survived Mini-Spinny during a side event at RoboDojo.

TEAM Luna have various combat Robots across several weight classes. Their first featherweight Luna-Tic was built in late 2016 and debuted at Extreme Robots Manchester in 2017. It also competed in the World Championships at Insomnia 61 and finished 14th overall. Driving has now been past to Claws 2 driver Felicity as Chris began other builds such as their Heavyweight of the same name and new Featherweight Raving Luna-Tic. The Team also showcase fighting robots and STEM at schools and charity events allowing people to have a go with two purpose built beetles (Claws 1 and Mini Luna-Tic) in their home made pallet arena.

## Trivia

* Dad Chris gets constant stick from fellow roboteers that his daughter Felicity is a better driver than he his. While laughing this off, he challenged her to a 1v1 at the Insomnia 63 championships pitting Luna-Tic (driven by Felicity) against Raving Luna-Tic (driven by Chris). The fight was interesting but ended with Felicity and Luna-Tic (the older machine) taking the win by lifting her dad's robot upside down after Raving Luna-Tic's drive chain fell off.

## External links

* Team Luna on Facebook
* Team Luna on YouTube