KRATOS (30lb Combat Robot):
This is the robot built around my axial flux motor, which was also the impetus for its creation. This type of robot is called an “overhead spinner”, where a immense spinning blade extends past the robot in every direction, and the entire chassis of the robot is built into a very flat pancake underneath the blade.
The main advantage of these robots is that the blade composes an overwhelming offense (by virtue of having a very large moment of inertia) and an impenetrable defense (because there is no angle an enemy can approach from without contacting the spinning blade first).
However, this is also the main weakness of this robot, because these advantages only come into play when the blade is spinning quickly. So to minimize this weakness, I set out to create the most powerful motor ever seen in combat robotics, in order to spin the blade up as fast as possible.
For the robot and motor, I won first prize in undergraduate research at the MIT Meche Deflorez Competition in May 2025. Please see the poster I presented about it on the right. →
Additionally, NHRL (the competition series my team attends) created a youtube short which now has almost 5 million views.