Horatius was our first robot. His official debut was at the Ohio regional competition on April 26th, 2014, with a second appearance on May 17th, 2014. He received a trim for his second fight.
The idea behind Horatius was to create a robot that was similar to Biohazard, a professional robot built for the old BattleBots show. Its performance was so good we had to jump on something that was similar. This was a great thought at the time, but we realized after that we needed something a little more destructive, as there weren't any obstacles or hazards we could utilize like Biohazard did. This robot was an amazing stepping stone, however, for Team Xenos, as it allowed us to see the competition from a great perspective, as well as get used to the atmosphere.
The name "Horatius" was come about from an old story. Horatius was a Roman soldier that once held an entire army back on a bridge while the rest of the Romans destroyed the bridge. The soldier tactfully defeated enemies until the bridge was destroyed, stopping the army, and saving the Romans. Since the robot was a "passive" robot, meaning it didn't cause damage directly from the weapon, it was thought that the robot worked a lot like Horatius: holding off and defeating enemies tactfully, and single handedly.