We built a BattleBot. It's terrifying.

We built the 250 lb combat robot Switchback for the latest season of BattleBots (2022) with a team of 11 engineers. With an 80 lb drum spinner on the end of a 180 degree articulating arm, Switchback is full of engineering challenges. And we had only 3 months to get it working…

You can watch the Switchback fights here:

You can follow Team Switchback on Facebook and Instagram:

A huge thanks to all my Switchback teammates:

Greg Needel
Christina Needel
David Yanoshak
Amanda Morrison
Orion DeYoe
Gabby DeYoe
Frank Lima
Phil Luetchford
Parker Holloway
Wolf Thomas
Noah Santoni

Music in this video:

[dropkickdojo]

From my experience at BB my advice to new builders is don’t build your first combat robot trying to do things the “new way” brushless drive is far less reliable (but sometimes necessary due to space constraints). Also the Battlebots floor is really difficult to get good traction on so small, hard, smooth wheels are usually not the best choice if you have a high center of mass. With all that being said, tremendous props to this team and what they accomplished. I’m sure they learned all of those lessons before they even left the event. I love this video and the bot is a really neat concept and I’m sure they’ll be back even better next season!

[joshkarpoff]

Greg is awesome! He had a goal over 20 years ago to work in robotics and he's achieved more than I think even he ever thought possible. He and I (with others) were co-founders of our university's robotics club (MDRC at RIT, go Tigers!). Best of luck Switchback team!

[EvanMJones]

Awesome to see a bunch of REV Robotics people on a channel I like, they're super helpful when it comes to my FIRST teams.

[Pryside]

the vescs getting destroyed is a very common issue, try this: Solder a 50V TVS diode directly onto the pcb. Adding a low ESR cap also helps but that will increase bulk a lot.
The vescs dying usually happen because of voltage spikes, tvs diodes and caps help with that a lot!

[leozendo]

Your esc needs to be be rated 10 times the motor power rating because the way motors are rated is weird. You might need special rc buffered esc because the load is rather unpredictable.

[ernestohernandez]

glad to see more of your videos hope you are doing better thanks for the great videos

[zenmark]

It's so weird to see pre-injury video now; because I kinda noticed something but didn't really think about it until after you said something. I'm really glad you're talking more about the hard to quantify effects of brain injury because I've had a couple different friends experience traumatic brain injuries and have their lives turned upside down just with the symptoms still left after everything was treated and "okay".
I've always loved your work and I'll be sticking around for whatever you wind up doing even if you just want to start doing vlogs about living with the brain you've got. Either way you'd be providing really helpful and relatable information for people to live their lives better.

[minxythemerciless]

When it's spinning at top speed, the steer torque will be impressive. Turning a corner could well flip it over.

[Tictacpanter]

Glad to hear you are on Nebula Scotty! And if anyone needs encouragement to join, I’ve had the Nebula/curiousity package for 2 years now and it’s absolutely worth it.

[CRneu]

MAJOR kudos to the safety mindset on this build!! what a great team to be safe and produce a great product.

[groundcontrolto]

I remember test driving my (small) robot the night before a competition and blowing a MOSFET after few minutes. Early morning the next day to get it replaced and ready. Really enjoying watching this.

[Bananarammaa]

The REV team is so incredible. I only got to interact with them occasionally at FIRST champs, but theyre such a kind group of people!

[noahd]

“Its important to design your robot for the oven that you have”
Im dead 😂

[mrbmp]

"The resistance was infinite so essentially a dead short"
That is 2 completely opposite states of resistance, not remotely the same.
High resistance is the exact opposite of a short.

[shawnfoogle]

Battlebots is my favorite tv show. + its the most real reality show ever
i love robot fights big or small. i just wish it was more popular. its not a sport tho but its a real life video game.

[pistolgrippump]

Awesome to see you again Scotty, been missing your content, hope your recovery is going well and you're feeling better bud, take care
All the best from the UK

[Random_]

Man seeing such a heavy thing spin st 10k rpm is truly terrifying

[bami]

I loved how switchback worked. When I first saw a picture of it I thought it would spin up, move the arm/rotate a bit and just go completely physics.
Instead, it just worked fine. Sure it had some turning issues with the weapon extended since center of gravity, but other than that it worked beautifully and gave some pretty hard hits.

Can't wait to see the improvements next season if you decide to re-enter.

[ValTheVillain]

Yall should look into making a robot for NHRL, its a much more low-key fighting league that doesn't take itself nearly as overly serious as BB does. They also don't regulate what weapons you have so long as they aren't specifically designed for easily disabling other weapons (nets, ropes, emp devices, etc)

[vincentbouchiat]

Glad to see you again in shape ! Keep the good work ! You rock .