The first robot dreamed up was "Vitamin D," which was designed and manufactured at Tiger Enterprises in Southington, CT by team members. 

At that time, Vitamin D had a large beater weapon spanning the front face of the robot. This design proved to be ineffective at damaging opponents for multiple reasons, resulting in a redesign in 2011. Besides the weapon, many other lessons were learned during our first season (which was to be expected).

Although 60 lbs. was a good weight class that balances robot cost, carnage, fun, and transport-ability, the team decided it would be nice to have an ultra-portable robot that could travel to competitions in a briefcase. Enter: "Skim".

This 3 lbs. class robot drastically reduced costs to manufacture, resulting in the design decision to machine the frame from a solid billet of aluminum. However, the physical size presented many challenges mostly revolving around "how do we fit all these components in this tiny robot?" 

Since Skim was of similar design to Vitamin D, Skim's weapon design was also ineffective at damaging opponents. It was also slow due to its undersized motors and transmissions. 

Both Vitamin D and Skim received similar upgrades to install a wedge in front of the weapon (to coax opponents into the churning blades), more-powerful motors for both the weapon and drive, increased battery capacity, and general improvements to increase the robots' resiliency in the arena. 

These upgrades proved successful and both robots were competitive for the 2012 season. But nothing is ever perfect... so even more improvements were identified by the team. Designs were made and some parts were manufactured, but work, college, and family obligations soon took priority for most of the team members, and the team was disbanded in early 2013.

Ten years later, some of the previous team members started itching for combat robotics again, and conversations were started to gauge interest. Much interest was received, so the decision was made to startup the team again.

After much planning, the Milkmen are back! The team is now the “Fighting Milkmen Robotics Club”, a 501(c)(7) non-profit social club headquartered in Southington, Connecticut. 

We are diligently working on our robots and will be attending our first competition in June! You can support us by watching us compete, either in-person or streaming online. Check our Battles page for more information.