BattleBots & ESPN Strike TV Deal

NMajik writes "Although BattleBots has been largely removed from the public eye since episodes stopped airing years ago, a new deal has recently been struck with ESPN to return combat robots to the living room. Episodes will be broadcast as a series on ESPNU and ESPN2 after filmed at the competition in June 2008. This is the first notable progress towards televised combat robotics in years."

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Awesome

[EdIII]

I missed that show. My father and I did not connect on a lot of things, but robots thrashing the crap out of each other was something we could both share....

That and Betelgeuse from the Howard Stern show.

jeez....

[Elsapotk421]

I can get fighting robots, but would it kill you to play rugby espn.

How to improve the show

[IndustrialComplex]

Since I'm happily employed and unlikely to end up as an advisor for the show, I'll throw in a few words of advice for ESPN.

1. Do something about the wedge/flipper bots. There are plenty of methods to deal with them that don't involve a simple ban on the design type. But trust me when I say that BattleBots was being done in by what appeared to be a never ending supply of squat cheese wedges.

Why spend time engineering a novel robot when you could stick a motor and a hydraulic arm into a wedge and have a good chance at winning?

2. Give them a real amount of time to fight. Comedy Central tried to cram the whole tournament into something that was far to short. Let the damned things fight.

2.1: Let the damned things fight. The course doesn't need to be 'extreme' and deadly. Sure, put in a few obstacles but don't turn the course into a third opponent. Nothing like watching a good battle only to see one opponent DQ'd after some goofy piece of scenery flips over for no reason.

Imagine watching a UFC match. The opponents have separated after an amazing show on the mat. They are circling one another, knowing that if they show the other any opening that it will be taken advantage of. This is a fight to go down in history books gentlemen. I haven't seen one like this since... Opps, there goes the trap door. Bob Tartarsky wins.

3. It doesn't need to be the WWF/WWE to be entertaining. No need for over the top announcers that act like 8 yr olds on meth. Keep the commentary on topic and interesting, not loud and idiotic.

4. This one follows number 3. We can get our bikini babes on the internet, you are not SPIKE tv.

5. Give a reasonable stipend to the robots that compete. These things are expensive, but are expected to enter into a fight where their entire investment could be flushed away. The designer of the robot shouldn't have to be a wiz at getting sponsorship. Don't ban sponsorship, but give the anti-social geeks a chance.

6. Consider price caps in addition to weight restrictions. I'd be interested in seeing the $10k robots fight the $10k robots.

Re:not robots

[BabySledge]

True enough..They are not robots. But they could very well be the bodies for robots. This show changed my interests from electronics to robotics and I have been back in school ever since. This show/format could produce a viable sport. As it is the original(American) spawned groups across the nation to form and compete with smaller more affordable (non autonomous(ro)BOTS. There were even a few tries at semi or fully autonomous bot battles. Hopefully it will stick around for a while this time. The USA needs something like this to spur robotics development, because right now we are a long way behind Japan, China, and Korea.

Re:About time!

[kalirion]

The worst part is that only one or two types of bots ever got anywhere. There were some very imaginative and cool designs, but none that could compete with a simple wedge.

Re:How to improve the show

[Chris Burke]

1. Do something about the wedge/flipper bots. There are plenty of methods to deal with them that don't involve a simple ban on the design type. But trust me when I say that BattleBots was being done in by what appeared to be a never ending supply of squat cheese wedges.

I think the best way to deal with it is just for the bots to evolve. There were plenty of wedge-resistant bots showing up in later seasons, and it doesn't necessarily have to dictate the entire design. A lot of bot makers were too into making the kind of bot they wanted to make, without worrying about its vulnerabilities. If your bot is vulnerable to a simple wedge, then that's a pretty big problem.

I do remember some of the stronger flipper bots (Torro was one iirc, there were other designs from the same group in other weight classes) causing major problems, simply because with the power of their hydraulic flipper even wedge-resistant bots that could operate inverted had a hard time after being tossed five feet into the air repeatedly.

2.1: Let the damned things fight. The course doesn't need to be 'extreme' and deadly. Sure, put in a few obstacles but don't turn the course into a third opponent. Nothing like watching a good battle only to see one opponent DQ'd after some goofy piece of scenery flips over for no reason.

I kind of disagree. I think the biggest problem with at least the BattleBots arena was that the hazards weren't potent enough. Those little saws wouldn't do much damage and would only flip over the most top-heavy of bots. The only ones that had a reasonable chance of causing damage were the screws on the edges. So you'd have one bot that was a "control" type of bot, and would essentially be able to cart the other bot around the arena, and hold it over the saws which would do... nothing. Pretty disappointing for what otherwise appeared to be the superior bot/driver combination.

If you want to liken it to UFC, think of it being like a submission hold... except because your opponent is metal, squeezing them in a full nelson while pressing their face into the mat isn't very effective.