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Revenge of the Battle Bots 104

Posted by emmett from the fight-to-the-death dept.
Richard Finney writes "The Village Voice does a good article on 'Battle Bots.'" I've attended a Robot Wars event, and these things are a lot of fun, even if you haven't entered a weapon of mass destruction. Highly recommended.
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Revenge of the Battle Bots More

Revenge of the Battle Bots

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  • Linux vs MS (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How about a Linux powered robot versus a WinCE robot?

    That would be funny!

  • Re:Lego Battlebots (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Its been done, check out these sites. Rules and everything.
    Ronin Special Effects LEGO page [pacbell.net]
    Team Delta LEGO RoboGladiator page [teamdelta.com]
    And there may be more events to come.

  • Mindstorms? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Is there a mindstorm division?
    Should be a good reason to start investing in lego.

  • Battle Bots on Pay-Per-View (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've been seeing advertisements on my cable system (Cox Cable in Fairfax, VA) for the upcoming Battle Bots competition. I believe they are set to air the last week of January. They show some of the "highlights" of the last tourney, and it is definately cool. Whirling saw blades, and big axes mounted to wheels.. its great!

  • Check out Survival Research Labs (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @06:22AM (#1379930)
    If this Battle Bot thing interests, you should check out Survival Research Labs at www.srl.org. These guys are way over the top.
  • One of the builders linked off of the site has a robot with lego's! Check out this setup [coolrobots.com].

  • Yeah, this series has been much better now that all the robots are battering each other right from the first round.

    I like it when hugely expensive robots get beaten by something much cheaper too. It's interetsing to note the patterns: the simple 'flip' machines always seem to do better than the ones that go out to destroy everything. Less entertaining but more successful.

    But my highlight of the series is Philippa Forrester making suggestive comments about "his chopper." The poor chap was so focussed on his robot that he failed to notice.
  • Checked battlebots.com Apparently they consider RF jamming to fall under the category of electricity as a weapon...

    http://www.battlebots.com/rules.html#11.2 [battlebots.com]
  • From the article.

    "largest robot competition in terms of both the number of contestants and the size of the combatants themselves."

    FIRST robots just don't get as massive.
    A couple of battle bot demos actually show them lifting or moving around their 210 pound owner.
  • I was a little confused. It seems foams, liquids and lasers are illegal, as well as electricity. But since the robots are radio controlled, does that exclude jamming on all frequencies but your own, then killing the other bots at your leisure?
  • Okay, we've got the geek quotient to do it -- we just need Andover.net to sponsor the project and a few folks out there to kick in some time. Let's put together our own competitor for the Battle Bot scene!

    I think that if Andover or Slashdot sponsored a FIRST robot, there would be a SHEDLOAD of positive PR.. FIRST is broadcast annually on ESPN, so if the Slashbot won... Damn that would be cool! A Teal and White Robotic Beast... Hey, Rob, Sponsor a FIRST Team... Find a deserving local highschool and pimp ALL over the place!
  • This is probably one of the most useful reasons to support this sort of activity. It can be used as a teaching tool hidden inside a game. Instead of grade-school kids blowing time watching the TV, they could be involved in the mechanics of robotic mechanisms, the physics needed to understand movement and combat, the computer and electronic skills needed to control such a bugger.

    In actuality, the game doesn't contain _hidden_ teaching tools. The students go into the game knowing they're going to learn, and learn they do. There was one FIRST school in California, which before being sponsored by NASA for the FIRST competition was one of those schools where you'd be depressed to walk in the door, there was almost no hope, the average GPA could be counted on less than three fingers, and they were in some serious trouble.

    Then NASA came in and the over 80% of the school was involved with FIRST, and the Average GPA went up almost 3/4 of a point. That is only one true success story, for education, and engineering. There are so many more. This Team also happened to win the Chairman's Award (from FIRST), IIRC, which is the most coveted award of the competition. Literally from zero to hero overnight.
  • I've met Dean on a couple of occasions, myself. He is the recipient of this year's Heinz Award, which was won by Andy Grove (CEO of Intel) in '94. Dean has just recently developed a wheelchair capable of walking up steps and balancing its user, elevated off the ground. Dean is an incredible inventor.

    As for Dr Goldin, He made an incredible speech at the kickoff this year. NASA is sponsoring an unbelievable 118 teams, with a grand total in funding of over 1.6 Million Dollars! You wouldn't happen to be the owner of the famed hat [xoom.com], would you?
  • speaking of helping out, a lot of teams need not only money, but real engineering help both in EE, programming, design, and construction. I was a member of the Gunn High School team (GRT -- we won animation a few years ago, seeded 5th two years ago, and made it at least to the semis last year) and now mentor a team from Berkeley High School which is run entirely by high school students and college mentors.

    I remember Gunn. Your animation was very good for way back when.. I was on Team Blue Lightning a while back (95-98), I did the animation singlehandedly (well, damn close to it) in 96. I went to the Nationals in 96 as well. I am now searching for a team in Rochester, NY. RIT used to sponsor one, but they no longer do.

    the Berkeley team has exactly 0 engineers helping and exactly $0 besides the entrance fee (which NASA is sponsoring). I know there are other teams in this situation, so if you can't help a team with your time, talk to your company and see if they will sponsor a team with money, tools, or by assigning engineers to work with the team. it's an investment in the future -- I know several very talented engineers who lacked direction until this competiton. many teams lack even the most basic tools, liability insurance (I won't pretend this isn't dangerous: a student from Palo Alto High School got his hand caught in a belt sander last year, and several bay area students almost cut off fingers. another good reason to have trained engineers to teach), and a place to work.

    While slashdot is chock-full of engineers and scientists, this isn't exactly the place to go looking for help. Your team needs a grassroots effort, in your hometown. Financial help is great, but what's the point without engineers.. Make a list of all the local engineering/power/telco companies and contact them all and see if any of them would be interested in sponsoring the team, or providing equipment, or even a workplace for your team to build. Remember gracious professionalism (Woodie for President!!!!) and don't give up.
    Good Luck
  • Two of my younger brothers have been involved in the FIRST competition in the last couple of years (THS in FL...Go Terriers!) and it sounds like a really good project. It's too bad that I live too far away to see their competitions. I suppose I could search out some in my area, though

    My 'first' question is - where in FL are your brothers? and what team number are they on? Second is, where are you at? This year there are ten regional events, on the east coast, the west coast and Texas (I'm forgetting a few). So whereever you are, let me know, and I'll tell you where the closest event is to you.
  • however good our animation was the year we won, you should have seen it two years ago, when we got disqualified for sending it in on beta... it got the head of animation a job at Kinetix (sp?).

    Beta schmeta! they disqualified you for that... that's ridiculous. You have my sympathy. You spelled KTX right, btw.

    this isn't exactly the only place I'm looking. however, the bay area is chock-full of teams, and while many are well funded (*cough*gunn*cough*), there are simply not enough companies to go around, not to mention many who think we're insane. it's a lot easier for a company to sponsor a proven winner than a team in less-affluent area, with no track record, and the only engineering expertise coming from first and second-year engineering students. let's just say I'm an opportunist. :)

    It takes an oppotunist to be a team leader. (Pardon me if I'm mistaken, you sound like one.) Our team leader for three years was Dick Gurall (PSNH). The man had vision like there was no tomorrow. We burned him out, though. He left the program in 98, IIRC. In either case. Show these possible sponsors the FIRST webpage, give them as much info as you can, sell it to them. Promise them advertising on the side of your machine if you have to (It's been done for years). Put their name on your team shirts. Remember that not just the big corporate sponsors are important. Joe's Hardware is important, too.
    Whatever the outcome with the finances, I with your team and yourself great success this year.
  • Actually, it's not a school in California. It's Cleveland, Ohio. They were co-sponsored by NASA and TRW. But it is a real story.

    Thanks for the correction. It is one of the greatest 'myths' floating around in FIRST, but we all knew it was true, just not the specifics.
  • I've been trying to get some folks together to do something a bit cheaper: Lego Mindstorm Battlebots. All the parts must be Lego (with the exception of the rubber bands. Many lego sets come with rubber bands, but they'll break and should be able to be replaced), and the winner is the battlebot that can still move under its own power. Battering rams to whack the legs out from under something, scooploaders to try to flip the bot...

    You should look into the FIRST Lego League - This is a mindstorms-based robot competition. Information can be found at the FLL site at http://www.legomindstorms.com/fll/ [legomindstorms.com]. This is geared for younger students, but it still an excellent foundation to build any type of competition from.

  • A _REAL_ Competition. (Score:4)

    by mwarps ( 2650 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @06:47AM (#1379944) Journal
    I've been waiting for the past few days now for something like this to come up. Too bad Rob or Jeff would probably never post it...
    Some of you may or may not have heard of the FIRST Competition. It is a robotics competition which involves High School students, along with their corporate partners, Universities, or what have you. This year's competition was just released on Saturday. FIRST's Competition [usfirst.org] homepage is here. This competition is far superior to almost any other. There will be ten regional events this year, and the National Competition will be in EPCOT Center in Disneyworld, FL. There is no other robotics competition with such spirit or fire behind it as this one. Please check out the Homepage and support the FIRST cause in any way possible. The competition has grown from 28 teams in 1992 to over 380 teams this year. There are teams from all over the USA, Canada, and even a team from Brazil.
    Some of you were wondering about mindstorms... They have a Mindstorms Competition called FIRST Lego League! Check it out here! [legomindstorms.com]
    General Information on FIRST can be found at www.usfirst.org [usfirst.org]
  • Also, see http://home.earthlink. net/~macshack/robotwars/publicity.html [earthlink.net] for "The History of Robot Combat- The 'Nutshell' Version". Quite an interesting read, and a good example for any nerd out there with a good idea to be aware of.
  • I'm not really worried right now. If, on the other hand, someone builds a robot named Largo, THEN I'll be worried.
  • however good our animation was the year we won, you should have seen it two years ago, when we got disqualified for sending it in on beta... it got the head of animation a job at Kinetix (sp?).

    this isn't exactly the only place I'm looking. however, the bay area is chock-full of teams, and while many are well funded (*cough*gunn*cough*), there are simply not enough companies to go around, not to mention many who think we're insane. it's a lot easier for a company to sponsor a proven winner than a team in less-affluent area, with no track record, and the only engineering expertise coming from first and second-year engineering students.

    let's just say I'm an opportunist. :)

    Lea

  • Re:A _REAL_ Competition (helping out) (Score:3)

    by chialea ( 8009 ) <chialea&gmail,com> on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @09:04AM (#1379948) Homepage
    speaking of helping out, a lot of teams need not only money, but real engineering help both in EE, programming, design, and construction. I was a member of the Gunn High School team (GRT -- we won animation a few years ago, seeded 5th two years ago, and made it at least to the semis last year) and now mentor a team from Berkeley High School which is run entirely by high school students and college mentors.

    the Berkeley team has exactly 0 engineers helping and exactly $0 besides the entrance fee (which NASA is sponsoring). I know there are other teams in this situation, so if you can't help a team with your time, talk to your company and see if they will sponsor a team with money, tools, or by assigning engineers to work with the team. it's an investment in the future -- I know several very talented engineers who lacked direction until this competiton. many teams lack even the most basic tools, liability insurance (I won't pretend this isn't dangerous: a student from Palo Alto High School got his hand caught in a belt sander last year, and several bay area students almost cut off fingers. another good reason to have trained engineers to teach), and a place to work.

    if you'd like to help the Berkeley team, contact me at chialea@uclink.berkeley.edu. I can also put you in contact with a team in your area.

    it's very rewarding and exciting work, and the competition is going on right now, so don't delay -- it's 6 weeks of excitement, plus the regional competion, plus the main competiton in Florida, which is braodcast on ESPN2. so, please, sponsor a team.

    Lea
  • Actually, it's not a school in California. It's Cleveland, Ohio. They were co-sponsored by NASA and TRW. But it is a real story.

  • The battlebots are cool, but expensive. I've been trying to get some folks together to do something a bit cheaper: Lego Mindstorm Battlebots. All the parts must be Lego (with the exception of the rubber bands. Many lego sets come with rubber bands, but they'll break and should be able to be replaced), and the winner is the battlebot that can still move under its own power. Battering rams to whack the legs out from under something, scooploaders to try to flip the bot...

    And the great thing is, when your battlebot gets shredded, you can put it back together. :)

    -F
  • And I remember a descendent of Core Wars which was a birds eye view of little tank creatures, which were programmed in a C like language, so there's a prototype of a simulator... Anybody remember what this was called / got a link?

    There's a game for Linux called RealTimeBattle [lysator.liu.se]. It allows you to program in any language (communication via stdin/stdout). It just reached 1.0, with simple standard bots and a nice graphical interface.
    --

    "A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will deserve neither and lose both."

  • The Robot Wars TV series over here in the UK is in it's 3rd or 4th season now. It's interesting to see the brutal darwinian evolution that teams force their robots through between seasons. It's also amusing (if somewhat sadistic) to see university engineers spend £1k+ on a robot only to have it beaten by a £200 robot.
    Last week there was this robot called "Chaos 2" that could travel at 20mph and had a pneumatic ramp that could flip 80kilogramme robots 3 feet into the air!

    Awesome geek entertainment, and the delectable miss Philippa Forrester just makes it a perfect evening.

  • More links... (Score:5)

    by Raphael ( 18701 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @05:47AM (#1379953) Homepage Journal

    Since the article did not contain links to the web sites that have some pictures and movies, here are some of the well-known sites:

    Have fun!
  • The list of forbidden weaponry is a bit ridiculous. There's a group around these parts (the Mad Scientists Club) that has run a "Critter Crunch" for over ten years at the annual MileHiCon and other venues. Their critters (bots) are limited to 20 pounds and a one-foot-cube (before combat start -they're free to expand after that), as much as anything to make it easy to find space for the combats.

    Weaponry on various critters has included harpoons (tethered), flamethrowers, "elephant snot" (a superlubricant gel, used to deny the opponent any traction), strobes, silly-string (not very effective, but entertaining), as well as stuff like saws and forklifts. Highly entertaining. The size and weight constraints demand a lot of ingenuity.
  • I remember reading the rules for these matches and one of the rules says that flying projectile weapons must be tethered. So a gun wouldn't work.

    Still, I see no thrill in the idea of me walking under my I-5 underpass and getting cut off at the knees. That would seriously impede my beer runs while I code!
  • Team Delta Site:
    http://www.teamdelta.com/robots.htm
    Delta's Link list has some good info too:
    http://www.teamdelta.com/misccomm.htm#flinks

    Pay Per View information:
    http://www.ppv.com/frames.asp?page=events&item=j an&content=eventitem.asp&month=jan&shortna me=BATBOTS
  • Yep, I remember this from last year. Discovery channel news ran a blurb about last year's compettition. 10 minute segment and they spent maybe 20 seconds on the self-controlled AI bots, mostly to note they were there, and pretty much jsut bumped intoeach other with long pauses.

    It seems like it's going to take a while before AI bots will have the same actionand excetement as the radio-controlled ones. (aside: if I use two RC racers in a demolition derby, can I call the 'robots' ?)

  • These bots were also discussed in Rock 'em, Sock 'em, Sue 'em [sfweekly.com], a longer article that made the cover of the SF Weekly last September. The focus is on the fights between the original people involved, as well as the bots. It's all very interesting... hope I don't get sued for posting the link!

    JMC

  • A pay per view worth paying for!
  • Awesome geek entertainment, and the delectable miss Philippa Forrester just makes it a perfect evening.

    Right on (although I would prefer to see more of the robots, personally). The BBC version also has added interest in the "House Robots" which lurk in the corners of the arena and then come out to shred the loser, or any robot that gets too close. They also occasionally move in to unjam things if a robot gets stuck

    Every so often a robot is entered which is a realistic challenge for the house robots. I think Chaos 2 last week could handle any single one except Sir Killalot (which is about four feet high and probably weighs twice the weight limit for the competitors).

    The really cool thing about Chaos 2 is that it could use its flipper to right itself. This made it pretty unbeatable.

    Paul.

  • Two of my younger brothers have been involved in the FIRST competition in the last couple of years (THS in FL...Go Terriers!) and it sounds like a really good project. It's too bad that I live too far away to see their competitions. I suppose I could search out some in my area, though.
  • In a way, it reminds me of demolition durbys that I've been to where you take an old beat up car and bash it around til you're the only one who can stil make it go. Then again, robots fighting each other has nothing to do with demolition, because if possible, the robots could simply exploit weaknesses of their opponents and find a way to put it in a position where it can't do anything. Which, of course, calls for not only a very talented and flexible robot (to be able to escape the same situation should it be put in it), but a good team of controllers who can work together seamlessly and think on the fly to make their robot win.

    I wonder how it would go if someone made their own robocop kind of thing.. except i don't know what they'd do for a tethered weapon. 'Course, robocop would also fall over and easily get beaten, but.. oh well......

    How about those Transformers robot things from that old cartoon?
  • what i meant by demolition durby..
    you know.. when a bunch of people with beat up cars run in to each other trying to make the other person's car die.
    until you're the last one with a car that will go
  • Oh great!! This is not what I needed to know. Next thing you hear is that someone figured out how to mount a railgun on one of these things. I have enough trouble with botmatches online. I don't want to have to worry about being sniped from a camping bot hiding under a bridge on I-5.

    Could make the idea of road rage a bit more interesting.
  • Aw man! You got a face shield and goggles?! All I got was the crummy plugs (and still, after the show was over, my ears rang!).

    I went to the "Inconsiderate Experiments" show in Phoenix, AZ (1996) - I had always wanted to see such a performance after watching SRL perform in SF on an episode of Ripley's. The show was the loudest, most smelly, choking, bone-thrumming, crushing, insane experience I have ever had the privilege to see.

    You are dead right about these people being the "toughest bunch of geeks I've ever seen" - dead right!

  • Wait until you see an army of them rocket-jump.

    I'm just waiting for their taunts.
    "Burn baby, burn!"

  • Has anyone checked out SRL? [srl.org]. They have the Flame whistsle [srl.org] Boeing Jet flamethrower and other seriously dangerous stuff.
    Almost all of this stuff is computer controlled and some of it is controlable from the web. Thet are even looking for people.


    Also there is Pumpkin Chunkin [punkinchunkin.com] Delaware's annual "Lets see how far we can launch a pumpkin out of a cannon"


    With all of the problems (and commercial attemps) with robot wars, I think it needs a few years to mature to something that is viable in the long term.

  • I think the funniest bot I ever saw at these competitions(on TV) was the doll riding around on a big wheel. Of course, the champion bot, Biohazard(the platform one) is a work of art.
  • Why do I suddenly envision the creation of a "geek sports"? For some reason I'm picturing ESPN covering Xtreem robot wars.... the advertising -- oh the pain! :)

  • UK robotwars TV series... (Score:3)

    by teraflop user ( 58792 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @06:09AM (#1379970)
    The UK TV series is I believe BBC2's highest rating show. The latest series is duel based and so closer to the spirit of the original event than earlier series (which involved odd events like sumo and tug'o'war). The web page is at www.robotwars.co.uk [robotwars.co.uk].

    Some of this years entrants have been really quite impressive, and might acheive parity with the US creations in the 180lb division. We haven't had any really good walkers yet though.

  • Call me lazy, but can anyone tell me when there will be a Robot War somewhere in the San Francisco area?

  • The first SRL show I saw was at New Langton Arts (a small gallery in San Francisco) about 12 years sgo. To get in you had to sign a waiver and wear ear plugs, goggles, and a face shield.

    Inside they had a big mechanical dinosaur thing that was controlled by an Atari 800, two wrecking balls smashing into each other, and all sorts of destructive fun.

    Going through the exhibit, I climbed up on a catwalk thing that was hydraulically controlled to lurch around and try to dump you off. They also had a carbide cannon just like the one I played with as a kid, except this one was over ten feet long and three feet in diameter! Just as I was getting ready to climb down from the catwalk, the cannon swung around and went off right in my face.

    The blast knocked me on my butt and blew off the face shield and the goggles. Meanwhile, the dinosaur head thing was bashing a hole in the wall into the building next door.

    "Wow," I thought, "Full contact art!"

    Mark Pauline, the founder of SRL, built his own robotic hand after he blew his own hand off when some military fuel exploded in something he was working on. They are the toughest bunch of geeks I've ever seen.
  • How can you talk about the BBC2 series and not at least mention Rex, his first robot Recyclops with the tongue was cool and his robot in the last series fliping out of the way of the house robot was excellent! Also his habit of ignoring the competition and going for the house robots has to worth a mention
  • Okay, we've got the geek quotient to do it -- we just need Andover.net to sponsor the project and a few folks out there to kick in some time. Let's put together our own competitor for the Battle Bot scene!



    count me in! I'm a hardware geek through and through. I didn't see whether they allowed projectile weapons or not though... I would guess no.
    How about something with a ton of ceramic magnets (Like from inside a hard drive) mounted on a couple of thick arms to lock it to its opponent, then a set of sawblades mounted under the body to carve the enemy up... To avoid those damn flippy bots we'd go into the light weight category and mount the body between 2 giant tractor tires so that it was suspended from the ground. Power it with a gocart engine or something similar...
    the hardest part would be to make sure that it could turn the wheels instead of just spinning itself around a lot....
    Heck, I could probably build that with 500$.... >:)

    Kintanon
  • I had a look at the battlebots and robotwars websites. I haven't seen any actual competitions yet but it seems that the winners are always robots that try to immobilize the opponents by a "flipping or tossing" strategy - like the battlebots reigning champion - Biohazard.



    An easy way to combat flippers is to have your Bot not care what side is up or down. Mine would be a large metal ball slung between two big tractor tires. I'd put a cutting device on it, and possibly some big ceramic magnets so it could clamp onto the competition and cut them apart. To avoid side flipping just put convex metal covers over the tires so that it keeps rolling. It would never lose to a flipper, but a smasher might take it down.

    Kintanon
  • I was wait for someone to talk about these guys. They do amazing stuff, far past the battle bots stuff. However, the stuff they do is not really in the same catogory, it's more of a loud, violent work of art, rather than a contest. I think one of the builders was injured by flamable propelant while making some of the robots.

  • The article claims that the BattleBots organization "is already the world's largest robot competition in terms [...] of the number of contestants."

    There's a non-profit educational organization known as FIRST [usfirst.org], For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, which easily outnumbers BattleBots in terms of entrants. Last year, FIRST had 269 teams participating, and this year, the number of registered teams is greater than 350. I was unable to count more than 73 entrants for BattleBots.

    BattleBots, however, targets an audience far broader, as FIRST is only attended by corporation-sponsored high schools. As others have noted, however, the strategy in BattleBots is mind-bogglingly limited, as the only objective is to flip the other guy over. With the FIRST competitions, a varying number of teams contend on the field to collect the most points, with the playing field and scoring methods changing each year... as well as the loopholes! ;-)

    I hope to see more gutsy robot wars in the future- perhaps a fighter's circle where physical violence is allowed, given that the robot is designed and built to certain specs.
  • True. But I've heard three personal reports that claim disabling by simply putting the robot in a compromised position is the only consistently workable strategy.
  • They said both were superior, not by some kind of abstract some of apple and oranges. Clearly, I can address either without fault.
  • nice sig FeeDBaCK

    -----------
  • I've been involved with the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) program for the past four years as a High School student and now I have been helping my former team as an Alum. FIRST was founded by Dean Kamen, a man whom if you don't know you cannot begin to call yourself a real geek. You call Robot Wars and engineering project...no Robot Wars is nothing more then a bunch of testosterone laden guys going out and beating the crap out of their respective robots. FIRST is an engineering challenge you must use whatever materials you are given to design a robot to compete that particular years game. Games have ranged from putting balls in a goal to hanging innertubes on a christmas tree like goal. I know that there as still many out there who will insist that FIRST doesn't deserve any respect it's just a dinky little high school thing. To that I will simply say that over the past to years I have talked twice to the administrator of NASA Dr. Daniel Goldin....who has been in attendance at FIRST competitions and this year's Kickoff workshop.
  • But Cassius and Chaos 2 are flippers, just highly refined flippers who themselves have a defense against flipping. The trend in battle Robot evolution appears to be towards very low slung robots that can't be rammed, flip to attack and have a self righting mechanism - like biohazard.

    Their winning strategy is just to be better at flipping than anyone else and hope they can flip their opponent onto a wall or barricade or into another position where the self righting doesn't work.

    Hopefully, Razer shows another direction and one which will prevail.

    (Razer is SO much cooler looking than most of the boring flipper robots, kind of a evil metallic armadillo with a scorpions sting).
  • I had a look at the battlebots and robotwars websites. I haven't seen any actual competitions yet but it seems that the winners are always robots that try to immobilize the opponents by a "flipping or tossing" strategy - like the battlebots reigning champion - Biohazard.

    (check out the description of battles and see pictures here: http://www.robotbooks.com/biohazard.htm )

    It seems even robots that have some protection against this, i.e. an arm to right themselves or a wheels on both sides, end up getting flipped into some position they can't recover from.

    Do the robots that go for outright blunt destruction ever win? Kind of boring if flipping is the only viable strategy.
  • I need some help purchasing a NFL franchise. I think I can win the Superbowl.

    What are rules with the NFL that would prohibit these things from participating? I would love to see this [villagevoice.com] blitz some 5 million dollar/year QB [nfl.com].
  • Check out
    Team Bakken [teambakken.com], another cool Robot Wars team!
  • I think a Slashdot sponsored robot would be great!

    I've had a couple of ideas for robots that could kill the flippers. One is a pneumatic steel dart firing straigh down from a platform supported by four legs, each of which has an independently controlled wheel on the bottom. Each leg can also be raised and lowered to avoid a flipping paddle. You maneuver the robot of the top of the target, hit the switch, and WHAM! a 10 lb. stainless steel dart is propelled straight through the enemy at 150 mph.

    The other idea is to have two sledgehammers whirling around the top of a low profile robot like helicopter blades. No one could even get close to it without getting bashed. Similar to the Blendo concept, but more destructive.
  • Absolutely! :)
    But don't forget that the word "robot" comes from the slavic "robota", meaning slavelike worker, so the usage can be considered correct in this instance.
    And don't forget, you get more "human interest" angles by having them controlled by RC... interviewers can ask "well, what went wrong there, Stuart" instead of "Well, here's the stack dump after the pneumatic axe smashed through the RAM chips, notice how the return address at offset 0xffe7 is corrupted..."
    Still, I think true robots should have their own league, too - they've been making maze navigator AI's for years now. And I remember a descendent of Core Wars which was a birds eye view of little tank creatures, which were programmed in a C like language, so there's a prototype of a simulator... Anybody remember what this was called / got a link?

    Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.

  • It could start out like Ultimate Fighting, morph to (original) WWF type action, then become like the soap-type plot driven 'proffessional' wrestling...

    what if these things develop true AI?

    Well, based on your example, I don't think we have much to worry about.

    You'd want to keep them away from folding metal chairs, though.


    --

  • I've always thought it would be a good idea to rig some kind of hydralic pump and then put one of those Jaws of Life (capable of 10,000 PSI or whatever) to just snip the competition in half.

    I haven't read the rules thoroughly, but perhaps that is as illegal as generating an EMP to short out the opponents controller. I figure they banned electrical warfare because it just sucks to watch (talk about an anti-climax) but I think the Jaws would be a big crowd pleaser.

    [CHOMP]

    - JoeShmoe

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  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Definition of a robot (Score:3)

    by dod1 ( 93799 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @06:56AM (#1379992)
    I enjoy the programme, Robot Wars, on UK TV, my only worry is the definition of a robot.

    Maybe I have been reading too much Asimov; but I do belive that a remote control toy has very little to do with any normal meaning of the word robot.

    I would be far more interested in genuine robots fighting, a much better test for geeks - as this would involve both hardware and software hacks!
  • Check out http://www.robocup.org [robocup.org] , a robot soccer competition where autonomous robots play team soccer.

  • I've seen this on TV (Score:3)

    by vanguard ( 102038 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @05:46AM (#1379994)
    These things are really great, I've seen them on TV. It blows my mind to see people put a tremendous investment in time and money on the line in a battle that could destroy their bot.

    You can check out the offical site for Battle Bots [battlebots.com] here.

    PS I am not associated with Battle Bots in any way.
  • Well, this almost looks very much like classic arcading... but I could see it becoming a big hit... cub-cars of 2000, get them boyscouts in here drafting up the best, most efficient robot fighters and earn your robotics badge!

    It could start out like Ultimate Fighting, morph to (original) WWF type action, then become like the soap-type plot driven 'proffessional' wrestling... I could just see, which bot has the better looking fem-bot? Get them battling it out outside the battle-arena, while their big hunk-o-metal kicks synthetic butt in the ring... open up the arena, remove the in-house human audience and you've room for who knows what kind of (illegal) moves and special effects...

    Looks interesting... what if these things develop true AI? We're developing T2 again here, people!
    :)


    Aye, there's the rub!
  • It was called "Robot Battle" (funny enuf). I don't have a firm link... I downloaded it from happypuppy.org years back. Wish I still had a copy and some competition...


    --Fesh

  • End of Civilization (Score:3)

    by meckardt ( 113120 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @05:36AM (#1379997) Homepage
    The BattleBots are coming! Soon, one of these techies are going to do such a good job that the bots will not only battle successfully, but will learn how to reproduce! Then, it is obvious that the robots will decide that they don't need man anymore, and start killing everyone.

    Within a year or two, civilization will lie in tatters! Our cityscapes will look like something out of Terminator's future. Escape now, while there is still time!
  • This so far reminds me of the movie "Baseketball" - so even though it's a comedy, maybe there is something to be learned there?

  • That used to be the case with the "first" generation of bots, but it is changing. (Speaking from my not so great knowledge of the BBC's Robot Wars).

    Now a lot of bots are either naturally self righting, can work either way up or have wonderful self righting mechanisms. The original self righting flipper of Cassius [freeserve.co.uk] was a marvel to behold and Chaos 2 [freeserve.co.uk] is even better (their flipper is amazing!).

    So we have the evolution of bots such as Razer [freeserve.co.uk] which are self righting and inflict serious damage, and I do mean serious!.

    This things have to be seen to be believed!

  • Okay, we've got the geek quotient to do it -- we just need Andover.net to sponsor the project and a few folks out there to kick in some time. Let's put together our own competitor for the Battle Bot scene!

    --WhiskeyJack, daydreaming of scimitar-wielding robotic penguins.... :)

  • On Eastern CT Cable TV it will be on Feb 5, but at $15 I haven't yet decided if I will watch
  • It sure makes Mechwarrior seem a little more possible. At this rate we may actually get there.
  • And do you know why I love them? Because I take pictures of the AUDIENCE and use them for my Who's a Dork Today website! Lot's of good fodder here. (My other favorite place is LinuxWorld!)


    ---------
  • I fail to see how this would be funny, considering that the OS is probably the least important design factor in the fitness of a robot in the competition ring. Let us not extend advocacy of a platform to the point of being ridiculous, please.
  • The article specifically states that explosives are not allowed.
  • "no Robot Wars is nothing more then a bunch of testosterone laden guys going out and beating the crap out of their respective robots."

    I think that when you get out of high school you'll see that there is just as much of an engineering challenge in building these fighting robots. In the first place the basic parts aren't given to you in a box...

    And FYI I am a FIRST judge in addition to being a Robot Wars builder, so don't flame me with all that "ooh, you don't know about FIRST" crud. I think FIRST is an excellent project but not at the detriment of all other events.

    If you're in the San Jose regionals this year, I'll see you in the hanger...

    Dan
  • the strategy in BattleBots is mind-bogglingly limited, as the only objective is to flip the other guy over.

    You've clearly never seen the event.

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