History

In September 2008, a group called UCSD Robotix began advertising itself alongside the Human Powered Submarine and Human Powered Vehicle groups on Library Walk, at the University of California, San Diego. The Robotix table consisted of two laptops playing loops of old BattleBots videos. Gaining much interest, a sizable sign-up sheet was filled. Shortly, after, prospective members received an email about the first meeting. To many’s surprise, the groups dedicated mentor was none other than Donald Hutson from Mutant Robots. Having won two seasons of BattleBots, Donald’s experience and enthusiasm brought energy and life to the team.

The first few meetings were interesting, mainly consisting of wild brainstorming sessions, with various members dropping in and out. Eventually, the decision was made to build a 120 lb robot to compete in the collegiate division of the newly revived BattleBots television series.

However, in January 2009, the group took an unexpected turn. The team lead had mysteriously dropped off the team. This led to a falling out to many of Robotix’s members. Fortunately, Matt Davis, previously just a member, decided to take the reigns and become team lead. With the help of Donald, Matt was able to put the group back on track. Throughout the 2009 winter quarter, the team learned SolidWorks and designed multiple robots on the computer.

During the later half of winter quarter, the team settled on a modular design, and set out to build it. Being the club’s first year, many of the members were inexperienced at machine shop work. In addition, the club was relatively unknown, and garnered very little support from the UCSD campus. Thus, much of the robot was inevitably built in garages and Kearny Mesa High School. Barely finishing the robot, the team, now officially named UCSD Triton Robotix, set off to compete in the 2009 BattleBots Championship in April.

Pitted against a plethora of spinners, Triton Robotix’s 2009 robot, named Triton, opted to use its 20+ lb stainless shield for each match. Interestingly enough, many of the robots ended up killing themselves from the shock generated by Triton’s solid shield. UCSD Triton Robotix finished in the competition with its head held high, having done quite successfully for an underdog team.

Through Spring quarter, Triton Robotix worked hard to promote itself to the UCSD student body. With a brand new domain and website, the team was able to quickly share their work with family and friends. In mid-June, a film crew from BattleBots Inc, visited UCSD to interview the team and capture footage of the UCSD campus.

Over the summer, Triton Robotix officially merged back to being a part of ASME UC San Diego, which was now under new management. Having revamped their directive, ASME UC San Diego sought to provide Triton Robotix with better support and awareness.

Later that year, BattleBots announced that the television premiere was canceled, due to CBS College Sport’s inability to sell advertisements.

At the same time, Triton Robotix, with many new members signing on, began work on a new 120 lb combat robot. However, this second year also had a few setbacks. The previous leader became overwhelmed with work, and subsequently dropped from leading the team. Thus, new leadership went to Daniel Yang.