Battlebots Starting On Comedy Central Tonight

Hitch writes: " Comedy Central begins broadcasting BattleBots tonight at 10:30 EDT. Tonight's episode: Prelude to Battle - introducing the idea to those unfamiliar. For those who want to take a look early, the BattleBots Web site gives a lot of good info, including RealVideo clips of previous battles. "

Comments

Aha: a loophole

[Captain Pillbug]

There is no restriction on the number of different types of materials that can be used to construct your BattleBot.

I'm going to build my battlebot out of rabid wolverines.

Not a ripoff

[RevRigel]

I'm seeing a lot of posts to the effect that this is a ripoff of Robot Wars UK. It's not. Robot Wars has been around in the US since 1995, but that effort was plagued by legal troubles and general bad blood, and the Robot Wars name got auctioned, I guess to Mentorn (who does Robot Wars UK). Battlebots has been around for a while now, and they've been having competitions for over a year. BotBash exists too, although it's somewhat different. Battlebots exists primarily to fill the void left by Robot Wars's absence in the US, not to imitate Robot Wars UK. They actually take the time to put together events that aren't necessarily always in the same place in the US every few months, which is a Good Thing. Meaning..shows that those of us on this side of the Atlantic can go to, possibly. I've got a few gripes, though, really. The Robot Wars UK people live and breathe stupid jargon. They're basically sports announcers, but really horrible. And also..it's more like Robot boxing, or wrestling, than Robot Wars. If you want to get a few dozen robots, put them out in the woods as separate teams, and let them fight it out, that might be more deserving of the moniker.

This is cool... and some important info

[cr@ckwhore]

I watched this (it should have higher ratings than survivor) and it's very cool! I'm actually considering building one of my own... that desire will probably wear off in a week, but I may as well waste my own cpu cycles thinking about it.

I checked out their website and read the rules. They recommend using PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) transceivers to minimize interference among the many controllers around the competition. There is NOT any rule about hacking the PCM signal of your opponent!! Whadda'ya think? How about a bot that uses some high tech weaponry, rather than saw blades and missles. Let's get smart here...

Anyway, I like this show and I think it should stay around for a while. The website mentioned that 16 more episodes are scheduled for the upcoming tournament in November, somewhere in Las Vegas.

--cr@ckwhore

Didja Miss It? It's on again at...

[CritterNYC]

If ya missed it, don't worry, one of the great things about Comedy Central is how often they rerun the episodes.

The episode will be rerun as follows:

Friday, Aug 25 8:00PM
Saturday, Aug 26 10:00AM
Saturday, Aug 26 5:00PM
Saturday, Aug 26 11:00PM
Sunday, Aug 27 11:30AM

(All times EDT)

BTW - Their Realvideo server is currently /.ed.

A few tips from Robot Wars UK

[Paul Johnson]

I've watched a lot of the Robot Wars programs over here. Here is what I've learned:

• Don't go up against the house robots. Well, I gather that actually there aren't any on Battlebots. This is silly. The house robots were what made RW UK work so well. Everybody loved watching the best competitors go up against a house robot and win! Also when two competitors got stuck together a house robot could move in and unjam things a bit.
• Bet on wedge shaped robots with a flipper on the upper surface. The flipper will invert the opponent, and can also act as a self-righting mechanism.
• Read the rules carefully. One team got disqualified for a saw blade that shattered.
• Saws in general don't work: you need a target that will hold still for a while. By that time you've won anyway.
• Pickaxes that come over the top can be effective, but they need to hit very hard, and often do little more than punch a small hole. They are also surprisingly difficult to aim accurately.
• Tracks and chains often come off in combat. Avoid them. Also any tank-type steering mechanism is a tradeoff between traction and turning ability.
• Car starter motors are cheap and powerful, but tend to burn out. Wheelchair motors are more expensive but have the necessary longevity.
• You need a zero turning circle, high speed and high acceleration, but you also need fine control. Pay attention to your control circuit design.
• After you have built your robot, pick it up and drop it a few times at various angles. Anything that breaks wasn't combat ready.
• Big budgets matter less than ingenuity and good engineering.
• Although deliberate RFI is banned, the studio is a noisy environment. Lots of robots turn out to be uncontrolable once they are in the arena.

Paul.

Re:Robot Wars?

[OrangeTide]

No it is not. BattleBots occurs in the US (last one was in SF, I'm bummed cuz it was sold out by the time I found out about it). American robots tend to be larger and more dangerous, mostly due to the fact that too many americans have tons of money to throw at a hobby. Robot Wars is a great show, but the bots really are rather puny. (even the house robots). Check out some of the various events that are not televised and you'll see some pretty great robots.

Nuts and Voltz magazine has articals from time to time about the results of robotic competitions (usually going over some of the more interesting robots, like a giant snack that can apply 900lbs of force with it's 3 piece jaw).

Back in the early days, when there were no real restrictions. Robots would have thermite, dynamite and even raw sewage to attack opponents with. Unfortunetly few places allow such things anymore, mostly because some of the "old pros" lost fingers

If anyone is interested in thier own robots. Please check out robohoo. It's a great little directory for robotics related things.

Personally I'd be most interested in starting an aquatic robotics competition, but I haven't found enough people to compete with to attempt such a thing.

Be an active viewer, please!

[abischof]

I'm watching this show right now, and it's really cool :). Unfortunately, the networks tend to be kinda stupid in this regard -- all the cool shows like this always seem to go off the air.

So, please write to Comedy Central, or even advertisers, to tell them how much you like the show :). I think that's the only hope we'll have of keeping the show around.

Alex Bischoff
Interested in building a roof over your cubicle?
---

Wonderful!... But still...

[hypergeek]

Warning: Incoherent Mumbling Rant

Purpose: Unknown

I think it's great and all that they're doing such a potentially fun/edgykayshunull program... but still...

Robot Wars had that guy from Red Dwarf!

What's Battlebots got to beat that, huh?

In the words of Scott Evil: "*Cough* *Cough* *Ripoff!*"

Not that I think the show's a bad idea... just that it ought to have something to differentiate it-- y'know... like an Iron Chef bonus round or something (with the chefs made from real iron!)

See, when you take the time and effort to blatantly rip off two cult TV hits, then you're actually doing the viewer a service, by compressing two shows down to a manageable 30 minute time slot, thereby freeing up everybody's time to go play Networked Pong ("what's your Pong ping?")

Then again, I hope they don't recycle too many TV favorites... I mean, if Comedy Central gets real cheap, then we might end up watching a gruesome, lopsided deathmatch as some hulking, firebreathing, multiple-chainsaw-propeller-wielding chrome behemoth Mech's mammoth shadow looms over the cowering, doomed duo of Servo and Crow!

Eep!

Okay, I promise... this is the second-to-last time that I check the Slashdot headlines right after drinking 2 bottles of generic store brand cola! (From now on, just 1 case of Red Bull oughta last me a whole week!)

Mmmm... now bring on the educational robotic violence!....

Survival Research Laboratories

[SydBarrett]

I think Survival Research Laboratories has been doing this kind of stuff longer than anyone( since 1979), except that they do only shows (kinda like a circus). They even have videos for sale. The last time I heard of one of their shows, you had to sign a waiver to see the show in case you got injured by pieces of flying metal or something.

Check it out at:
www.srl.org