Panic Attack (robot)

Article summary

Panic Attack was a robot that competed in the British television show Robot Wars. In Series 2, first broadcast in late 1998, it was just a box with a set of electrically powered lifting forks, powered by a homemade system. It was emblazoned with the image of a spider. The spider was the result of a school competition to come up with a design of something that made you panic. A 12-year-old girl designed the spider. With his prize money from Series 2, Kim built a newer machine. This one had a srimech (self-righting mechanism), a new body shape, and more effective forks, which were capable of completely overturning opposing machines. The top-mounted self-righting mechanism proved to be unreliable, and was eventually removed. Added in Series 4 were a set of side "skirts" to prevent all but the lowest of robots from getting underneath it, as well as sloping sides. The fourth model had improved skirts, and the srimech was updated to a top flipper, which was the favourite with the driver Kim Davies, who stated it was, in his opinion, the best version. Panic Attack was constructed in Cwmbran, Wales. The Series 6 version was flatter, with silver forks and painted gold as opposed to yellow, as the team had run out of yellow paint when the time came to paint it. As a result, this model was unofficially, but universally nicknamed Panic Attack Gold.…

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