Battlebots!
polycounter lvl 10
http://battlebots.com/news/
So Battlebots is making a comeback!
So excited for this, it's been a decade since the last major tv presence, and i was sooo excited for it as a kid.
Now there is no pusher bots, everything needs an active weapon, and electric technology has come in leaps and bounds. This is gonna be AWESOME.
[ame]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnACo3zgI5k[/ame]
So Battlebots is making a comeback!
So excited for this, it's been a decade since the last major tv presence, and i was sooo excited for it as a kid.
Now there is no pusher bots, everything needs an active weapon, and electric technology has come in leaps and bounds. This is gonna be AWESOME.
[ame]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnACo3zgI5k[/ame]
Replies
Witch Doctor and Shaman, is a bot duo even legal?
But we'll see how they go!
I really wish there was a quadruped category. I want to see Boston Dynamic robots duking it out. Maybe in a decade or two.
Well there are rules preventing wedge bots this year, so yeah it will be a lot more interesting. Check out the video i posted in the start.
It's already shaping up to be more interesting with the designs this year.
The bot with the titanium spinning disk. Shiiiiieet.
Maybe I was too young to remember but the construction of these newer bots are pretty awesome.
Oh man that little bit of action footage. Looks incredible!
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3abvqk/we_are_the_creators_of_the_original_battlebots/
Oh man, this lot of bots is just nasty.
Ok, just for posterity. Imma put down my top 3, that i think will place.
Warhead.
Ghost raptor.
Bronco
Full competitor list. http://battlebots.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Badnik96/%28SPOILERS%29_BattleBots_2015_Competitor_Chart
EDIT: Hahaha Jay Leno's bot the Chin Killa is competing!
Was it really? hahaha
Especially for later seasons.
I want to see missiles, drones, and quadruped robots all fight.
I want to see MIT Cheetahs fight to the death. (that might be decades away but I don't care.)
Ohh. Imagine if somebody did a rocket fuel flame thrower. That would be so rad. High powered lasers would be cool though but I see those being banned before explosives.
Imagine putting in F1 budgets into a bot with world class engineers.
Maybe in the multi ton class...like a 50ton tank with a spinning disk on top would be pretty rad.
Perhaps not realistic though, to spend that kind of money on something that will surely get destroyed.
One thing to note though that these bots are the heaviest weight class competition there has been yet. Previously i think heavyweight was 220 pounds/100 kg, now it's 250 pounds/113.5 kg.
Is not disappointing. So much destruction!
Also the last tested feature.
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Wrecks was a sweet idea, but really not a very practical design, it should have dominated plan X if it was actually controllable, which is just a smorgasbord of bad design.
Also why did the nightmare guy never build in a flipping mechanism...
And ICE wave. GODDAMN that was some amazing amounts of destruction. Just decimating the machined parts.
The driving is where it's at. Manouverability >> any sort of weapon you have.
Looking forward to some of the machines. ICE Wave is dominating as far as spinners go so far.
Plan X seems like the worst robot of the competition though, but hell at least they were creative.
Apparently if the show is successful enough the show will be the last rounds of a larger knockout tournament, which should weed out the weaker bots.
Also, i just want to point out how fucking cooler the team Whyachi flipper is, it's a kinetic flipper, meaning that spinning ring can dump energy into the flipper, which is why it could fire so fast. It's an ingenious design, you get a really powerful flipper for a fraction of the weight cost of adding pneumatics.
Wrecks was based upon an ant weight bot that was VERY effective, so it's not like it's not a battle proven design. It just didn't work as well in this weight class.
Take Mechadon for example, that bot was so ineffective, but still is some of the coolest battles to watch because of how crazy the design was.
The presentation: A bit too much reality TV, judges and hosts seem a bit too fake and trying too hard without actually being into it. I'd rather see more details and breakdowns about the bots designs, but instead we get hosts talking about aesthetics and bantering.
FIGHT 1: Icewave vs. Razorback
Loved how the teams were basically silicon valley vs military grade. Kinda a bit of awkwardness and confusion at the end because they were both immobile, but it was still obvious who should of won, it just should of been announced sooner and more cleanly. Lots of sparks and butting heads.
FIGHT 2: Plan X vs. Wrecks
Plan X looks like a horrible design, but maybe being huge and having bars distancing itself from other bots might protect it more and better than armor? Their weapon doesn't seem to do much, they won purely on mobility, which it seems like they have some of the best speed and turning out of any of the bots. Wrecks just had the worse design out of the two, so slow, no mobility, and no way to actually do any damage.
FIGHT 3: Bite Force vs. Warhead
This looked like it was going to be the coolest match, but warhead's primary weapon broke so quickly, Warhead needed a faster turning speed and more mobility as well to even compete. Bite Force's extra traction from the magnets seemed to really keep it on the ground and allow it to really push warhead arround. I'm expecting Warhead will be back.
FIGHT 4: Nightmare vs. Warrior Clan
It really looked like Nightmare was going to win, until it got flipped. I'm surprised the didn't have any sort of flip over strat. It's really hard to tell if Warrior Clan is going to be effective against other bots. But he took a beating, and it wasn't an ideal match to show off multiple bots. It'll be interesting to see how Warrior clan does vs a similar sized bot.
Here is a better battle with the same bot that shows off it's true power.
WARNING: turn the sound off... "let the bodies hit the floor plays"
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Add3r: Over 5 million viewers man, if they keep that up they are sure to get a series 2
And keep in mind the kinetic weapon IS the flipper. It's not a separate mechanism. It uses a special groove in the top of the ring to dump the energy in to the flipping. It's probably the most effectively creative engineering of the entire competition, and it has major benefit over pretty much any other flipper, and that is that it doesn't waste the energy when it has a misfire, meaning it's almost an instant reload, and assuming it doesn't get jammed you don't need to worry about wasting all your pneumatics. If you watch the video i linked, you can see that flipper launching a 220 lbs bot 6 feet in the air. (i actually don't understand why people don't think this is cool as hell?)
The only reason why warrior clan wasn't able to show how effective it really is, is because nightmare has only three small tripod points on the ground, and the more effective strategy is just to flip it over rather than risk hitting that giant spinning disk against their top Armour. Nightmare was probably one of their worst matchups. Nightmare is legendary for how much damage it can output.
Smaller weight classes constantly have competitions everywhere, and the price point for entry is far lower. But by having the big boys have one weight class that has all the prestige, you get all the best builders actually fighting in the same class.
Robot combat never stopped happening, it just wasn't on tv.
If you can't tell i really want to start doing this stuff myself...
Warrior clan is a pretty cool design. I also liked a few other concepts from the intro. Lockjaw, for example (if it works as intended). Or the "walker" thing. Most of these bot designs have something really smart about them intention wise, mileage may vary in practice though.
yeah the first thing I did after watching the episode was try and design my own bot.