In robot combat

Robot combat

Robot combat is a hobby/sport in which two or more custom-built machines use varied methods of destroying or disabling the other. As of today, in most cases these machines are remote-controlled vehicles rather than autonomous robots, although there are exceptions, particularly in the field of...

, a self-righting mechanism or srimech (sometimes spelled as srimec or shrimech) is a device used for re-right a robot should it get flipped. Biohazard of BattleBots

BattleBots

BattleBots is an American company that hosts robot competitions. BattleBots is also the name of the television show created from the competition footage. BattleBots Inc...

, was the first robot to self-right.

American Robot Wars: 1994-'97

Biohazard was the first robot to self-right in combat, (against Vlad the Impaler in the 1996 tournament) however since the match had ended it made no difference to who actually won.
The next year Vlad the Impaler fought Biohazard again, the former used its special pneumatic lifting arm and the robot was able to self-right numerous times, yet it still lost the judge's decision.

UK Robot Wars Series 2-3

A robot called Chaos attempted to self-right for the first time in UK Robot Wars Series 2, however, it was unable to self-right. Later in the series, Cassius righted itself after Sir Killalot flipped Cassius over with his drill in the semi-final pinball trial. Cassius was flipped again in the Grand Final, but it self-righted and flipped Roadblock

Roadblock (robot)

Roadblock was a combat robot that competed on the British television series Robot Wars. Constructed in 1997 by A-level students from Bodmin Community College, the robot was initially called "Road Rage" but was renamed in response to a request from the programme's producers. Both names were derived...

 to win the eliminator. In Series 3, the first rear-hinged flipper on Chaos 2

Chaos 2

Chaos 2 is a combat robot from the UK Television Series Robot Wars, designed and built by self-employed mechanic George Francis, from Ipswich, and operated by Team Chaos. Twice winner of the UK Robot Wars Championship and the only robot with that distinction, it was the first robot to use its...

 enabled it to catapult itself in the air and then land on its wheels.

Weapon srimechs

Flippers (and often axes and hammers) could be used by a robot to self-right in combat; however, most flippers were powered by and therefore had limited durability. Axes could be used as srimechs as well.

List of robots with weapon srimechs

Robots are listed alphabetically. The weapon indicated is the weapon used to self-right

Robot's name	Competing series	Weapon	Notes
Axe-Awe	Series 5, Extreme 1	Axe
Bigger Brother	Series 4-7, Extreme 1-2	Flipper
Cassius	Series 2-3	Flipper	First robot to successfully self-right in UK Robot Wars
Chaos 2 Chaos 2 Chaos 2 is a combat robot from the UK Television Series Robot Wars, designed and built by self-employed mechanic George Francis, from Ipswich, and operated by Team Chaos. Twice winner of the UK Robot Wars Championship and the only robot with that distinction, it was the first robot to use its...	Series 3-6, Extreme 1-2	Flipper	First rear-hinged flipper to catapult the robot back onto its wheels
Dantomkia	Series 6-7, Extreme 2	Flipper
Dominator 2	Series 4-6, Extreme 1-2	Axe
Firestorm	Series 3-7, Extreme 1-2	Flipper
Iron Awe	Series 4	Axe	First robot to successfully self-right with an axe
Killerhurtz	Series 2-4	Axe
Lightning	Series 7, Extreme 2	Flipper	Flipper was side-hinged
Terrorhurtz	Series 5-7, Extreme 2	Axe
Tsunami	Series 7, German Series	Flipper

Other methods of self-righting

Some robots had weapons that couldn't be used for self-righting, so the roboteers used other ideas such as Razer's

Razer (Robot)

Razer is a combat robot that competed on the British television series Robot Wars. It was constructed by Simon Scott and Ian Lewis from Bournemouth; the team later expanded to include webmaster Vincent Blood...

 side wings, Hypno-Disc's

Hypno-Disc

A contestant entry in the Robot Wars TV series, Hypno-Disc was one of the first robots to use the kinetic flywheel weapon — a highly damaging weapon that succeeded in heavily damaging and destroying a great many robots. Hypno-Disc's design, however, was somewhat basic, and its high ground...

 srimech bar and Panic Attack's

Panic Attack (Robot)

Panic Attack was a robot that competed in the British television show Robot Wars. In Series 2, it was just a box, with a set of electrically powered lifting forks, powered by a home made system. It was emblazoned with the image of a spider. The spider was the result of a school competition to come...

top lid. These did not detract from the weapon yet they could easily break if damaged repeatedly

Body shape

A rarer and more difficult type of srimech was the shape of the body. Robots like Mega Morg could roll back onto its wheels if flipped. Despite this ingenuity, there were flaws. It was extremely difficult to get the design perfect and if flipped without enough momentum or flipped from the front or back will leave the robot stranded (side-stranded in the former and back-stranded in the latter).