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This section showcases many of the combat robotics projects I have worked on and been involved with, ranging from the design and building of my own smaller scale robots, to my contributions in our Battle Bots team "Team Shreddit"
Hurt Caboose (3lb)
This is my flagship robot, Hurt Caboose. It is a 3lb version of our 250lb robot Pain Train. It is my longest running design frequently seeing design revisions and improvements to keep up with the rapidly evolving field of competitive 3lb bots. Its best run to date was to the top 8 bots in NHRL Prime Time.
Version 1 (green and red bot above) started as a basic beginner robot for me, running belted weapon between the custom drum and motor. It initially ran dual timing belts before switching to polyurethane v belts. V1 also saw many armor revisions to better protect/counter specific archetypes of weapons such as horizontal disks. Armor packages included a titanium wedge, durable TPU forks/wedgelets, and a TPU plow. Drive motors had seen many revisions from planetary brushed motors, to off the shelf brushless motors, and brushless motors with custom built planetary gearboxes to prevent failure of the carrier plates and planetary gears withing the gearbox, and pinion retention on the motor itself.
Moving to V2 the biggest change was from a belted weapon to a directly driven weapon with the motor being housed inside the drum itself, providing a harder hitting bot many would fear. The weapon change shortened the length of the frame front to back, improving the drive control and sparing weight for the heavier weapon and improved armor package. Despite the major changes, the classic look of V1 carried over, looking sleeker than before. I am still improving upon this bot over time to eventually
Version 1 (green and red bot above) started as a basic beginner robot for me, running belted weapon between the custom drum and motor. It initially ran dual timing belts before switching to polyurethane v belts. V1 also saw many armor revisions to better protect/counter specific archetypes of weapons such as horizontal disks. Armor packages included a titanium wedge, durable TPU forks/wedgelets, and a TPU plow. Drive motors had seen many revisions from planetary brushed motors, to off the shelf brushless motors, and brushless motors with custom built planetary gearboxes to prevent failure of the carrier plates and planetary gears withing the gearbox, and pinion retention on the motor itself.
Moving to V2 the biggest change was from a belted weapon to a directly driven weapon with the motor being housed inside the drum itself, providing a harder hitting bot many would fear. The weapon change shortened the length of the frame front to back, improving the drive control and sparing weight for the heavier weapon and improved armor package. Despite the major changes, the classic look of V1 carried over, looking sleeker than before. I am still improving upon this bot over time to eventually
12lb Bots
These are the two 12lb bots I have worked on, Darkstar and WnB12.
Darkstar's base design (Aerostar) was given to my teammate Tony and I by our friend Zoe of Team Honeycracked as our first entry into the 12lb class. It was fitting as Aerostar (12lb) took inspiration from Tonys 3lb Blackbird, so I took the base design of Aerostar and made some changes to the frame and armor package to make it resemble Blackbird. As Blackbird was an SR-71 themed bot, the path was clear to theme Darkstar (which already shared a resemblance to Aerostar in name) after the rumored successor to the SR-71 Blackbird, the SR-72 Darkstar. We went full-throttle with the theming, giving it a power light that flashed similar to the lights you see on commercial planes in the sky late at night, a livery resembling the colors of the SR-71 with a skunkworks themed custom logo, an armor package matching that of the "Sea Shadow" stealth boat, of course a Honeycracked logo to show the collaboration between us and Honeycracked, and most fun of all, a boot up toon that played the "Top Gun" theme when powering the robot!
WnB 12 (in green and purple) came shortly after Darkstar as a scaled up version of my 3lb multibot WnB. Teammate Alex and I had been wanting to get our feet wet in the 12lb class, and while I may have helped with Darkstar, I was not the driver. I took the experience working with a 12lb bot, and some help from friend Ethan who has 12lb time, to design WnB 12. While they didn't have the best of debut's, WnB 12 taught us a lot about the step up to the 12lb class when it comes to the design choices vs their 3lb counterparts.
Darkstar's base design (Aerostar) was given to my teammate Tony and I by our friend Zoe of Team Honeycracked as our first entry into the 12lb class. It was fitting as Aerostar (12lb) took inspiration from Tonys 3lb Blackbird, so I took the base design of Aerostar and made some changes to the frame and armor package to make it resemble Blackbird. As Blackbird was an SR-71 themed bot, the path was clear to theme Darkstar (which already shared a resemblance to Aerostar in name) after the rumored successor to the SR-71 Blackbird, the SR-72 Darkstar. We went full-throttle with the theming, giving it a power light that flashed similar to the lights you see on commercial planes in the sky late at night, a livery resembling the colors of the SR-71 with a skunkworks themed custom logo, an armor package matching that of the "Sea Shadow" stealth boat, of course a Honeycracked logo to show the collaboration between us and Honeycracked, and most fun of all, a boot up toon that played the "Top Gun" theme when powering the robot!
WnB 12 (in green and purple) came shortly after Darkstar as a scaled up version of my 3lb multibot WnB. Teammate Alex and I had been wanting to get our feet wet in the 12lb class, and while I may have helped with Darkstar, I was not the driver. I took the experience working with a 12lb bot, and some help from friend Ethan who has 12lb time, to design WnB 12. While they didn't have the best of debut's, WnB 12 taught us a lot about the step up to the 12lb class when it comes to the design choices vs their 3lb counterparts.
BattleBots (250lb Televised)
-Pain Train
My entrance into combat robotics was with Team Shreddit where I designed my first combat robot Pain Train. I attended an NHRL event as pit crew for my friend and his 3lb bot Blackbird. Through him I met the captain of Team Shreddit who at the time was the big name at NHRL in its early days. We talked about my skill in CAD and engineering, and I was asked to join the team as their designer. BattleBots was about a month away and I was tasked with designing my first, the teams second, heavyweight that would compete in the show, I got right to work and spent countless hours analyzing their first iteration of the bot and designing the next version with all the improvements needed to make it a contender. In about a week's time I had designed the first of two bots (seen above as the 4 wheel drive bot with white background) to the specs of the captain, thought it ended up being a bit overweight. I quickly revised the design to be 2 wheel drive and this got us within weight and be the final design. We ordered all the steel frame parts, and immediately began building at the NHRL facilities upon their arrival. the build was over a weekend where we welded the frame, battle hardened electronics, function tested the bot in the NHRL 30lb cage, and built our shipping crate from old NHRL 3lb cage floors giving it a unique look and displaying our roots as the NHRL BattleBots Team. Also seen above is the revised 4wd Pain Train made to be within weight, designed after we competed at BattleBots. It was never built as the design was reworked further to become Shreddit Bro 250.
-Shreddit Bro!
This is Shreddit Bro!, our latest heavyweight which participated in BattleBots following the year we competed with Pain Train. This design stemmed from a revised 4wd Pain Train and is the successor to that bot. Shreddit Bro saw many improvements from Pain Train. We strengthened the frame and top plate mounting from weld nuts on the side panels to gussets and rivnuts. Drive and Weapon motors went from being mounted on a single face to being supported on both ends inside of their own "cages". The weapon went from a stacked/welded plate design to a solid 4340 steel drum supported by 3 on either end, powered by serpentine belts and much more powerful 8038 brushless motors (up from the eskate 6384 brushless motors). We also cast our own blue polyurethane wheels which were far more durable than the galvanized rubber wheels we previously ran on Pain Train.
Shreddit Bros major improvements resulted in the best run we have ever had, clearing through the bounty hunter bracket which included wins against previous bounty hunter winners Skorpios, and "most destructive award" holders Valkyrie.
the last three images above show our latest revisions to Shreddit Bro, ready for when the BattleBots is renewed for its next season.
Shreddit Bros major improvements resulted in the best run we have ever had, clearing through the bounty hunter bracket which included wins against previous bounty hunter winners Skorpios, and "most destructive award" holders Valkyrie.
the last three images above show our latest revisions to Shreddit Bro, ready for when the BattleBots is renewed for its next season.
Most Valuable Builder Award
At the March 2025 NHRL event, I received the "Most Valuable Builder" award. It was announced at the end of the night before the finals match, I was at my teammates pit table helping him prep for his match for 1st place in the 12lb bracket.
My other robots
These are a few of my many other one off/less frequently fought designs. Between my flagship bots I like to try out different design archetypes to stretch my design muscles and try out things I haven't before.
In purple and pink is Wake. It is one half of a 2 part multibot with my teammate Alex. I loved the idea of a control bot that could grab, hold, and control the opponent while my teammate came in with his kinetic weapon to deal the damage. Wake was the first design in which I used a shuffling drive as opposed to traditional wheeled drive. aside from wanting to experience designing the more complex shuffler drive system, it was a required design choice as it gave a weight bonus we would need to have extra weight for a better weapon.
The two bots in pelican cases were older versions of "grabber Wake" that we built to gift to schools and their STEM programs as a thank you to our sponsor who aided in the build of our 250lb Shreddit Bro. The kits included everything needed to run the bots such as hardware kits, tools, transmitters and battery chargers. We also added printouts with information on the bots and resources the schools could access to learn more about combat robotics.
In white and gold is Archangel X. This design focused on aesthetics and making what would be a generic looking four wheel drive vert into something more unique. This was a success as the NHRL event it competed in had builders and producers alike complimenting the design and calling it the nicest looking bot at the event!
In grey (and sometimes red) is one of my favorite bots, Trash Panda. It is a raccoon themed robot that took inspiration from my friends robot Red Panda. Red Panda is one of my favorite 3lb robots and upon asking my friend Jaaron if I could make a raccoon themed version he happily said yes. This bot was my way to practice CAD by seeing how closely I could replicate a design with nothing more than images as source material. The end result was a 95% clone of Red Panda with very minor details being slightly off. While Trash Panda with its raccoon pattern is mainly gray, I did make a red version as tribute to Red panda, and even colored the side stripes in Red Panda white for the face stripes and black for the tail stripes.
Last few of the bunch, the shark themed bots, are the 1lb Hammerhead (white tape around body), and its multibot counterpart Shark Attack comprised of a 2lb Hammerhead and 2lb Thresher. Hammerhead, across its 1lb, 2lb and 3lb forms are all horizontal spinners. The weapon blade mimics the head of a hammerhead shark while the body is the fins and tail. Thresher was my first try at a "thagomizer" style design where the undercutter weapon is on the tail end of the bot and is whipped around when engaging in an attack. The wheels are tilted inward towards the front to help with the "tail whip" motion. Its a very different way to drive your robot so I occasionally found myself driving it in reverse like a normal horizontal robot with its weapon out front would be driven.
In purple and pink is Wake. It is one half of a 2 part multibot with my teammate Alex. I loved the idea of a control bot that could grab, hold, and control the opponent while my teammate came in with his kinetic weapon to deal the damage. Wake was the first design in which I used a shuffling drive as opposed to traditional wheeled drive. aside from wanting to experience designing the more complex shuffler drive system, it was a required design choice as it gave a weight bonus we would need to have extra weight for a better weapon.
The two bots in pelican cases were older versions of "grabber Wake" that we built to gift to schools and their STEM programs as a thank you to our sponsor who aided in the build of our 250lb Shreddit Bro. The kits included everything needed to run the bots such as hardware kits, tools, transmitters and battery chargers. We also added printouts with information on the bots and resources the schools could access to learn more about combat robotics.
In white and gold is Archangel X. This design focused on aesthetics and making what would be a generic looking four wheel drive vert into something more unique. This was a success as the NHRL event it competed in had builders and producers alike complimenting the design and calling it the nicest looking bot at the event!
In grey (and sometimes red) is one of my favorite bots, Trash Panda. It is a raccoon themed robot that took inspiration from my friends robot Red Panda. Red Panda is one of my favorite 3lb robots and upon asking my friend Jaaron if I could make a raccoon themed version he happily said yes. This bot was my way to practice CAD by seeing how closely I could replicate a design with nothing more than images as source material. The end result was a 95% clone of Red Panda with very minor details being slightly off. While Trash Panda with its raccoon pattern is mainly gray, I did make a red version as tribute to Red panda, and even colored the side stripes in Red Panda white for the face stripes and black for the tail stripes.
Last few of the bunch, the shark themed bots, are the 1lb Hammerhead (white tape around body), and its multibot counterpart Shark Attack comprised of a 2lb Hammerhead and 2lb Thresher. Hammerhead, across its 1lb, 2lb and 3lb forms are all horizontal spinners. The weapon blade mimics the head of a hammerhead shark while the body is the fins and tail. Thresher was my first try at a "thagomizer" style design where the undercutter weapon is on the tail end of the bot and is whipped around when engaging in an attack. The wheels are tilted inward towards the front to help with the "tail whip" motion. Its a very different way to drive your robot so I occasionally found myself driving it in reverse like a normal horizontal robot with its weapon out front would be driven.