Razors Edge was the very first bot designed and built by RE Combat Robotics President Owen Cokley, with work on the bot starting all the way back in 2017.

A hub-motor driven, 15 lb. drum spinner is far from the easiest design to start with--and the initial CAD of the bot shows the concepts that were toyed with, including 2 and 4 wheel drive, a feeder wedge on the drum, and a ludicrous number of batteries due to a calculation error.

Razors Edge V1 proved itself to be a competitive design, going 6-1 and taking 2nd place at its first event. Overall there were two main takeaways from the event:

• The bolted teeth ripped out of the drum, causing the robot to shake itself to death

• The hub motor eventually broke due to the undersized weapon bearing breaking

Additionally, both of these failures occurred during the final match when going weapon-to-weapon with a beater bar armed robot.

Owen didn't go home empty handed though, and was able to win the Xtremebots "Most Innovative" award for the work on Razors Edge's hub motor.

Disappointed with the performance at the last event, Owen signed the bot up for the 2019 NRL National event a couple of weeks later, and got to work making changes.

In order to fix the issues from the last event, the broken weapon motor was replaced with an Alien Power System 5065 500kv sensored outrunner and a new-stronger mounting system.

With this fix, the bot was near-indestructible at nationals, going 7-2 at the event. The two losses were from a massive hit on the rear of the bot which broke the power switch, and melted every set of batteries that were brought because no-one anticipated fighting 9+ matches with tight turnarounds.

Individual match footage from this event is available on the RE Combat Robotics YouTube Page.

Xtremebots 2019 fall was the first event where team RE Combat Robotics was officially formed, and Owen started running the bot independent of any school sponsorship. For the Event, Razors Edge received an all new frame, as well as a brand new wire EDM cut tool steel drum donated by Triangle Precision Industries.

Additionally, the bot moved to using a custom made power switch, Sidewinder 1/8th ESCs for drive control, a 750kv weapon motor for high speeds, and a large steel plate added to the rear or the bot for additional armor.

Fall 2019 was also the first event where Owen's younger brother, Cale, built his first bot on a team at Centerville High School, and brought Cyclone to the event.

This event, Razors Edge was finally able to stretch its legs and run through an entire event nearly damage free, and take home team RECR's very first 1st place trophy.

Cale and Centerville high school were the only ones able to put up some resistance against the bot's run, with the best fight of the night definitely going to Razors Edge vs Eddie.

This event was also the first time Owen filmed an event recap and uploaded it to the RE Combat Robotics YouTube Page, a trend which the team tries to keep up on and put out a recap video for every event we attend.

For all the matches and full event recap for this version of the bot, check out the recap here.