Monsoon
Monsoon started life as Tauron Mk3, originally designed to take part in the UK's Robot Wars on BBC2. It was a natural evolution of the design Tom developed through Tauron Mk1 and Mk2, however the BBC decided not to renew Robot Wars. Tauron MK3 fought in several events on the UK live scene, but when a new series of Battlebots was announced in early 2018 Tom applied with this design. The BBC own the rights to the name "Tauron", so the robot was renamed Monsoon, painted blue, and given a new asymmetric weapon bar.
Monsoon competed again in Battlebots 2019. Although externally quite similar, Monsoon Mk2 was completely redesigned internally and ran brushless drive motors.
Monsoon was accepted back onto Battlebots for both 2020 and 2021, but sadly was unable to compete due to Covid. In fact, in 2021 Monsoon was actually shipped across in its crate and was in the pits throughout filming, but sadly, at the very last minute, travel regulations meant that the team were unable to be fly out.
Mk3 is a complete redesign, now featuring (among other upgrades) independently pivoting pods, multiple armour configurations (including a proper setup with wedge for horizontals), fully brushless weapon and drive, and is significantly smaller than previous versions, whilst the entire chassis is twice as thick - and it's well within the weight limit (that's probably a first for Tom).
Missing two years has been hard on all of the team after close to three years of design and fabrication of Monsoon 3, but happily Monsoon is back for 2022 - with a full team!
#raindownthepain.
Drizzle!
Team Monsoon also compete in other weight classes, most notably with Drizzle, a UK beetleweight (max 1.5kg) vertical spinner. To see Drizzle in action look on YouTube for Team Monsoon and Bugglebots.
Battlebots Award
The team were completely surprised and honoured on the last day of filming at Battlebots 2018 to receive the Founders' Award, given by the show's founders Greg and Trey to a team that embodies the spirit of Battlebots. Many thanks them and to all the others involved with the production of the show. To us it’s more than just a TV show - BattleBots promotes STEM subjects in a very unique and exciting way that no other currently broadcast show really does, and we genuinely feel very honoured and privileged to have been a part of it.
Now all we need is a giant nut to go on the bolt...