Slashdot Mirror
Robot Wars Coming Stateside
aaronhaley writes "Reuters is reporting
that Vicom will be bringing Robot wars stateside to air on several of their networks. Let's hope it's closer to the real thing that BattleBots is." And lets hope they keep the sportscaster crap to a minimum, and give us more mechanical bits.
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"This message is composed of 100% recycled electrons."
ne idea if it's gonna air in canada?
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
It is from TLC and if it's half as cool as the episode of Junkyard wars where they built the dragsters I'll be a happy boy.
Battlebots.....oh, sweet battlebots. So cool. But the announcers! They even have Bill Nye there now! I wanns see kill saws and action, not talking!
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Score 3? For what? Being wrong, at length? - smirkleton
Please. I won't watch BattleBots just because they treat it more like football. It could really use a better focus on the technology.
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Check your local listings!
I don't deny the appeal of watching robots fight each other, but why hasn't the genre progressed beyond that?
There are many constructive tasks that robots could compete at, but instead, producers turn out endless streams of robot battle shows. Maybe the audience demand isn't there, but I haven't even seen a more constructive show tried.
Perhaps I'm expecting too much from television, but the potential in robotics is amazing and it's a shame that isn't demonstrated more in these shows.
"The night is long that never finds the day." -- William Shakespeare
Don't click here
> The company intends to adapt the existing U.K. series for American audiences and will also produce a U.S. version.
does this mean I'm going to have to listen to Joe Nameth argue with Howie Long (or whatever the hell their names are) and make comments like "now what they really need to do to win the game is score some points"? maybe I'll pass.
seanYes, the announcers/sportscasters on Battlebots are annoying. But we have to be reminded sometimes: the whole world isn't the slashdot crowd. Comedy Central/Battlebots/Everyone else involved has to try to appeal to a larger audience, including those people who watch sports with human athletes. I love the techie bits too, but I think Battlebots has a good mix - It could be all talk. At least Battlebots occasionally goes "behind the scenes" to highlight some of the robots. If everyone in the key demographics were /. readers and MIT grads, it wouldn't be an issue. But the real world has people who wanna hear silly anouncers and see things beat eachother, regardless of what the tech specifics.
The Good Reverend
I'm different, just like everybody else.
The 20th century was a century of many things, not least of which was the advancement of robotics. Once battery power became truly feasible on a portable basis, and once machining was perfected on a small enough scale, robots emerged as a dominant mechanism of accomplishing what people either didn't want to do or were not well suited to doing.
There is lots of criticism based on how robotics is demeaning to working class humans, pushing them out of dull but well-paying factory jobs. But far too long overlooked is the plight of the robots themselves.
Most robots don't live the cushy lifestyles their celebrity brethren in Hollywood live. (Bender's cocaine and lubejob habits are well documented, for example.) Most are consigned to living in substandard conditions that we wouldn't inflict on even animals. They give of their sweat and toil until their parts wear out, upon which they are tossed onto the trash heap like soiled tissue or crunchy socks. Robots deserve better.
But at least we can justify such casualties as "necessary" for the advancement of the arts of production and development. How can we possibly justify the glorious outlays of money and robot chattel for mere gladiatorial combat? If you cut robots, do they not grease?
Our culture is descending into a tailspin of debauchery and gluttony where we laugh as sentient robots careen across our screens and disembowel themselves for our amusement. The mighty empire of Rome once stood where we stand, and their defeat at the hands of the Germanic barbarians is well documented. If we do not turn from this dark path, then we might too look down the barrel of a Swiss rifle and say, "Pass the popcorn, you're blocking my view of the set."
And lets hope they keep the sportscaster crap to a minimum, and give us more mechanical bits
Those sportscaster guys are half the fun of the show. Have you never watched Sportscenter on ESPN? The announcers on Battlebots are a great parody of the Sportscenter guys -- that whole thing is obviously toung-in-cheek and it's funny!
-Steve
Didn't PBS show these earlier? Also, there *was* a US robot wars, which is what the UK show is based on. The US robot wars was discontinued due to legal wranglings.
but would you really want a sports caster guy to try to go into the tech side of things? Id rather sit back and laugh at the commentators, when they try to explain whats going on...
...Robosport!
Sponsored by: Killum Weapon Systems!
...am I the only one who remembers this old Maxis gem? =)
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
Oh man. Does this mean we will have a Kids Battle Bots, a generation X battlebots, and a "Super football like coverage" Bottlebots?
Yes, the losers go home in several storage crates, after the flames have been put out that is. Four large "house robots" see to it that any wussy behaviour, hesitation, or 'bot failure is rewarded by, say, being impaled on a robot-wielded drill, grilled over a flame pit, hoisted overhead for all to see and finally dumped into The Pit Of Oblivion in a cloud of smoke.
The taking of prisoners is not permitted.
Vik :v)
I've never understood the draw with these shows. When the robots shoot missles from their fingers and lasers from their eyes, while simultaneously transforming into a tank, I'll watch.
Robot Wars (entering its fifth season) has been rebroadcasted in the United States for many years on scattered PBS stations (including WCNY). Hosted by Craig Charles (best known as Red Dwarf's intergalactic space traveller Lister), the twenty-five minute program (no commercial interruption) is just plain, ungimmicky fun. The format is fairly simple; a series of elimination bouts, mostly involved with running some kind of guantlet. Have no fear, each show culmnates with a no-holds-barred bashing match between the survivors and the house robots. No macho BS, no WWF announcing... Robot Wars is just good British entertainment.
Maybe we're a little slow here in Aus, but the only robot wars we got to ever see were remotely controlled by people.
Robot wars won't really appeal to me until the humans are taken out of the loop. A neural net willing to kill tied to a metal body...now THAT'S entertainment!
Heh, either that, or watching the sportscasters go nuts trying to work out what the robot is thinking...
-Scott
Am I the only one that is a little sick of the remote controlled battle bots, admit it, it would be interesting to see a couple fully autonomous bots going at it, completely independent of any external control. Heck 99% of the fun would be trying to build one of these.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Absolutely fantastic format - much better than anything I've seen on Battlebots since I arrived in the US. Those of you who haven't seen it are in for a real treat.
And I've finally got my multi-system VCR so I can watch the Robot Wars tapes from the end of the last series! Hurray!
--
Dunx
Dunx
Converting caffeine into code since 1982
Stick with it,, if they show season 1 first you might not be impressed. Compared to Battlebots it is tame.
Just wait will you get the newer series, the robots have got very very good.
What if Slashdot.org had it's own TV network?
We could have tech-oriented shows like this rather than entertainment (or edutainment) versions with retarded sportscasters.
Or more realistically, maybe slashdot could have a 2 hour per week slot on an existing network that could be subdivided for whatever shows it wants. Perhaps a mod system could be put in place to decide what airs.
Dream...
The good thing about robot fights is that no one gets hurt- it can satisfy the desire for violence without making us imagine performing acts of violence on other living things. Instead, it makes us want to build fighting robots to fight other robots.
I think that if robot fighting catches on enough, it will begin to displace human fighting in entertainment, and once there are lots of robot fighting shows, we will start to see other shows with robots doing different things, as a reaction by the producers to a saturated market.
-------------------- the list is long. dirac angestung gesept
It's a fun show, better than battlebots in at least these ways:
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see shy jo
The competitors themselves are very much restricted in weapons design, resulting in very wimpy 'bots that seldom do any real damage.
We need the challenges of Robot Wars with the design rules of Battlebots.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
I got too see 2 promo shows and it's not what most people hope it is. More like an "extreme" sport than anything. With lots of flashing lights, courses that look like a 12 year old designed them and a announcer that can go from 0 to annoying in about a second flat. The shows target audence is that same as the WWF or the X-games. Sadly a more toned down version of the show was made but it did not test well. Pitty.
I suspect that it's not universally available - certainly KTEH in San Jose runs it .... but they also run Dr Who, Red Dwarf, .... etc things that are also not covered on the bulk of the PBS network ... and I suspect that now someone's presumeably paying big bucks for the series your local PBS station may not be able to afford to buy it
i greatly prefer battlebots to robotwars for a myriad of reasons.
:\ ).
first being, watching a robot go thru an obstacle course is very, very boring.
second, the 'house robots' on robotwars have an unreasonable advantage, and don't present the same degree of opposition to all contestants. (i.e. it seems that some people get a much harder wallop than others.) and they do actual serious destruction to competitors robots, which stifles innovation (why would i want to invest a great deal of money/time into a robot if their much-too-favored 'house robot' snips and blowtorches and spikes the hell out of it?)
i think the head to head competition as seen in battlebots is the best combination of testing the builders' mechanical prowess AND driving abilities, with just enough arena obstacle to keep them on their toes. it's challenging a driver (or team) to be on both offense and defense simultaneously, while needing to be keenly aware of their environment (to avoid the arena hazards).
the robotwars 'courses' leave hardly enough room to maneuver, and by the time one gets themselves pointed in the right direction, there's already one or several hulking 'house robots' there waiting to take your creation to bits.
that's just my $0.02. oh, and the announcer on robotwars is so annoying i sometimes consider avoiding the program because of him alone. (too bad TLC seems to have found someone even MORE annoying for robotica
www.pixelectric.com
Actually a similar argument was used to justify a kuro5hin poll over who would take over after the US was crushed. Or something similar.
Peace,
Amit
ICQ 77863057
[o]_O
Robot Warz (the british version anyways) isn't exactly what I'd be looking forward to. Sure the host was Lister from Red Dwarf, but obstical courses? Come on!
Let's just admit what we really want: MECHS! (oops, please don't sue, Wizards of the Coast, since that's a copyrighted term and all)
We want MECHS. We want Mechs to do battle, not to do a robot version of American Gladiators (which is exactly what Robot Wars is!)
I'm looking forward to Battlebots 2020, personally. Just imagine what that will be like!
Fuzzy Knights: New RPG Strips Tuesday and Friday!:
http://www.fuzzyknights.com
Anything else you could have robots do would be nowhere near as cool as having them fight. Need proof?
Bob the Angry Flower - The Inner Light
Check it out.
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4-star general in a one-man army.
Hey, what about 'who's line is it anyway'? That didn't..er..um... well you have a point
I like beer.
Uhhh, ohhhh. If they bring this to TV, my toaster may watch it and decide to take out a small country. Just like someone has decided that make believe violence can make kids violence.
Spend quality time with your appliances, people before they see this show and do something they shouldn't.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
Bit of clarification - in actuality the show is about radio controlled fighting machines. The competition is as much about human remote control skill as it is about good 'vehicle' design. Calling it Robot Wars is a bit of a stretch ... perhaps a better name would be "remote control wrestling machines"
Robot wars is more fun (good oldfashioned family :)
fun) than Battle Bots. But don't expect anything
like Scrapheep from it. Robotwars doesn't get
mechanical. At least not on BBC. The bright side
is that they're not pretending it is a sport like
on Battle bots.
Personally I like scrapheep better but I still
enjy watching it. When I saw Battlebots I felt
sorry for America.
Now if they were actual autonomous robots, that would be cool.
TLC's own robot fighting show, "Robitica" is airing tonight (i.e. April 4th). I've been seeing commercials for it every week when I watch Junkyard Wars (one of my favorite things on TV) and it certainly does look interesting... we'll see later tonight though ;p
c a.html
The show's page can be found here: http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/robotica/roboti
I love the Discovery Channel. So much cool crap on it all the time.
Now what's your problem with Lister?
Robot wars will also start on the dutch television station BNN from december onwards. Right now they are broadcasting the english series and looking for dutch contestants.
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
I have to say, at least for anyone living in the bay area, that PBS already has the scoop on MTV. I have been watching it here in the bay for a good many months. Nothing beats seing an overbuilt,destruction inducing "house robot" destroy machine after machine.
I just saw on TechTV, Robot Sumo Wrestling. These are actual robots, constructed from the ground up to push the opponent out of a ring.
The sample robot I saw is the current American champion, it runs on assembler code, which is placed on the machine via an RJ-45 port (I'm not sure if it's ethernet or an RS-232 adapter).
The robots are so powerful, a full-sized man could not push the American champion out of the ring (this was Martin Sargent, a bit skinny, but still a full-sized man). This is achieved (at least in this particular robot) through the use of a vacuum pump, which sucks the robot to smooth flooring. When it needs to move, it rolls along on rubber treads.
I watched Battlebots once, but couldn't stand it. Part of it was the general pointlessness, and part of it was the fact that I couldn't stop thinking of WCW/WWF wrestling.
What we really need is a telecast of the Robot Sumo Wrestling.
A new year calls for a new signature.
"When American producers take a Brtish production and try and change it to suit the American audience, the result ALWAYS sucks. Name one that didn't."
Who Wants to be a Millionaire? comes to mind. But of course it is the *only* one that comes to mind. And mostly because they stole every last detail (I've seen both). Heck, the hosts are even close to the same in that case...
I hope they don't screw with The Weakest Link, though..... Goodbye!
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
THAT was a news item?
For whom? For Ferrets?
Only semi-brain-compromised individuals could actually utilise the pointed to page to inform themselves.
Furrfu!
Brak: What's THAT?
Thundercleese: A light switch.. of TOTAL DEVASTATION!
Archie Bunker
http://robotrights.org
The thing is... The house bots weigh anything from 120kg (264lb) to 300kg (660lb). Contestants are limited to 75kg which has now gone up to 100kg, but still at a disadvantage. There are 4 house robots, and the things are expensive, so the producers tend to cut out all footage of succesful attacks.
"What can you say about the defending robitic materpiece? It's the greatest piece of machinery in the history of the NBA!"
This is something you can't get EVERY week in a television show. It takes a really long time. And when you make something that good, you don't want to just wreck it. Its an academic achievement, after all.
Real robotics just isn't that exciting. Being a member of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems at my college, we're making something that moves on its own and records and responds to Video...THAT'S IT. Its actually not far behind the times, and ahead of the industry as it is.
Its just not a lot of fun to watch remote control cars move around...
Of course, you could just build sophistocated remote control cars and CALL it robotics...or BattleBots.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
The latest season of Robot Wars was pure head to head carnage.
And if you think the house bots have an advantage, you haven't seen Razor taking them on.
~Cederic
OK. I once came across a site that allowed individuals to submit their AI code (that conformed to a given API in several languages) toward robots that would perform in competitions against each other in CG simulated battles.
Unfortunately, I was young and impressionable and programming in VB at the time. Does anything like this still exist?
"Well, I disagree, but the producers of Robot Wars apparently agreed with you. In the first episode of "Robot Wars UK" (the new season) which KLRU showed, was 7 one-on-one duels (with the house robots, of course). :)
Yeah, the last couple of seasons of RW have been duels based, but the first couple of series had a few obstacle/challenge rounds up front, and to be honest they really just got real dull real quick (watching several badly damaged robots crawl around trying to push a football into a net is really not a whole lot of fun).
Although to be fair they also run special challenges like the pinball challenge (run your robot round a huge pinball course & score points) and sumo (push against a house robot) which are pretty neat.
Actually ISTR seeing a series on the making of RW where on one of the production people mentioned that the obstacle course stuff was introduced partially beause they were scared that a contestant might come up with a robot that just walked over everything (including the house robots) and that could have left them with a pretty short series
the announcer on robotwars is so annoying
Well, lister (Craig charles) is alright, but the guy who voice overs the matches is *really* annoying
Not the sportscaster hype but about as bad.
If you love robots and hated that crappy Battlebots (or whatever) then you will love Robot Wars. More Fights, more metal, less chat. We have just started getting your US version over here and what are those announcers on man, talk about spoil it. The Main difference is that in the arena with the two bots are 3 house robots as well, Watch out for Sir Killalot (massive)
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
You obviously haven't seen HypnoDisc, it literally shreaded every robot it came up against, except ChaosII (which won the series). They had to sweap the area clear of dead robot bits!
Robotwars Have evolved since the obstacle course.
IT's Just a big war
If the house robots are more powerfull so what, It gives the contestents more incentive to produce stonger bots, or faster one to get out of trobble
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The computer told me to press any key to continue,I pressed the one looking like this (|) !!OH SH*T!!
Having watched Robot Wars for several series now, they are just introducing Battlebots here.
Having seen some of the more interesting robots (Mechatron) on AVI/MPG's I was looking forward to it. Having seen the first few programs it looks just as bad as Robot Wars...
Robot Wars appears to be aimed at a much younger audience and hence the robots are smaller (the upper weight category is less) and more *annoyingly cute/pathetic*.
They also spend too much time talking about the people and recapping the robot's previous battles. Who gives a crap about this - if it's not technical info or stuff that I haven't seen before I couldn't care less... There are only so many times that you can stand to see a small child humiliate themselves in an interview on national TV (Well, maybe not... >;).
Battlebots has the same problem with the WWF/WCW style commentary. Don't talk - just get on with it. Do they really need to ask if the competitor is ready? Has anyone _ever_ said 'No'? Did they spend months/years preparing for this just to miss the deadline because of a few loose nuts?
The house robots do provide an unfair advantage. Let me build a robot to their weight/weapon specs and we'll see who wins...
Whovever was saying about the wedge shaped robot evolution was correct. It happens in RW too. Along with the flipping arm and the self righting mechanism.
They have recently showed the 'Techno Games' which were an attempt at a robot Olympics. No weapons, just a series of events similar to human Olympics (shot put, long jump, swimming, sprints etc. supposedly there was even a crossbow accuracy event but they never showed it...)
The premise was sound enough but again they aimed it at school kids (this drew out the inevitable toss) and spent far too much time talking about it. I'd rather see one or two well put together shows with lots of action than two weeks worth of inane interviews, even if two of the presenters were cute.
btw Razer kicks ass...
--Do you even know what it's for?--
I think that you will find that you speak the alien language, since you speak English (well try to, over here you speak American). you can't even spell word properly. Like Armour and catalogue. A damn Brit 'in good homour'
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
Methinks you've rather missed the point here. If you and I were Mallory and Irvine contemplating an ascent of Everest, would you say "why would I want to invest a huge amount of money and time if the odds are we'll just freeze to death half way up?"
Behind the shiny brash facade, there's a terribly old-fashioned attitude behind Robot Wars, a blend of the boffin mentality and the corinthian ideal that it's the taking part which counts, and the win is just a bonus. I've seen players laughing their hearts out as their robots get mangled. I've also seen competitors' robots junking the House Robots. Which is always joyous. There have been robots which have won their bout within half a minute and then gone after the house robots just to please the crowd.
Believe me, the house robots are a good thing - they guarantee an entertaining bout even if one competitor robot is a total walkover.
TomV
Living in the UK i'd never seen battlebots and basically found it very amusing the first time I saw it. I couldnt understand why they'd decided to mix american football/boxing/WWF style cheesy presenters with robot fighting.
The robots seemed to be a similar mix of good and bad as you get in UK robot wars though so I can't fault the people doing the fighting.
The worst thing about UK Robot Wars is damned Craig Charles, he irritates the hell out of me (and I used to love Red Dwarf) - he makes me cringe...
no sig.
The commentary on Robot Wars is impossible to understand even if you're English - it's delivered by some football commentator who sounds like he's on an IV caffiene drip.
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There was pussy cat and Razor who were pretty destructive too. I think a lot of people who dont think Robot Wars is very destructive only see one or two of the less interesting episodes and make a judgement on that. For some reason they seem to sometimes pit all the crappest robots against each other so while it may seem fairer what you get is an episode where flimsy robots try to push each other slowly around the ring.
no sig.
Maybe there could be a "friendly fire" section where the robots accidentally attack themselves :-)
no sig.
The builders got the weapon just right on that one. It literally tears it's opponents to bits.
Gimme Gimme Gimme - Karma!
I don't think that's true, just in the last series there have been some serious attacks on the house robots, including one getting totally trashed (i.e. dead). That was fun to watch, but the engineers are supposed to be rebuilding her for the next series.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
BattleBots has just started showing over here in the UK, inbetween RobotWars series'. And it sucks. If the presenters weren't bad enough, the robots are pathetic (not to be rude to our american cousins), weapons virtually non-existant, and you don't even get to see the whole battle! Just some kind of heavily edited "highlights". Waste of time if you ask me.
There was a US team in the last series of RobotWars, they had a reasonable bot, I think it was a BattleBots 'vet, but lets just say they didn't last long. They said they'd be back...we look forward to a repeat
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
The allure of robot wars/battle bots/whatever is not watching them maneuver or negotiate obstacles; it's seeing machines get mashed! Just like with Motor Racing, there is an unwritten rule; audiences will pay to see destruction!
The truth of the matter is that most competitor-built robots are pretty useless and inflict little damage on others robots, therefore, to up the 'destruction quota' Robot Wars has 'House Robots' that will beat up on any robot that breaks or ventures into the wrong area of the arena!
Also, I read a post by someone who thinks watching autonomous robots fight would be fun.
[BZZZT] Wrong.
Having actually built several autonomous robots I can tell you that it would be the most BORING program ever to grace the beloved CRT. why?
1. The sheer difficulty in building a machine that can drive itself is staggering! Car engineers have tried this for decades without success.
2. Once you've got it to maneuver, how does the damn thing know where the opposition are? let alone where the walls and obstacles are! How do you tell the difference between robots and obstacles? Mind-bogglingly difficult.
3. Assuming you got your robot to do the above, you then actually have to have a reasonably destructive weapon in order to win! and use it correctly! How do you test this? You cant just turn on this autonomous, chainsaw weilding maniac in your living room!!!
At the end of all this, you'd have a program that involved lots of huge, hideously complex machines mercilessly attacking the walls, floors, etc. A highlight would be when one actually drove in a straight line before deciding that an object in the distance was actually an enemy and proceeding to kill thin air. Admittedly it might be interesting for Software people to try and analyze the logic beneath their behavior, but for Joe Shmoe it'd be dull, dull, dull.
Asimov would not be impressed.
Jan.
Football Comentator, Its lister from Red Dwarf
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
There was a 'War Of Independence' special not long ago, which pitted four US robots against four UK robots.
:) ), but the US robots were truly, truly crap. They had nothing about them, no decent weapons, no armour. Pitiful.
Naturally, the UK won (reversing that little incident 200-odd years ago
Robot Wars as a competition (not sure if it was actually televised) in the US in 1994.
--
jambo
system.admin.without.a.clue
-- js.
wait 'till they sell you the later series of robot wars. The 'obstacle course' from the beginning is gone, and the whole thing's knockout tournament beginning with a 3-way match at the start. Althought I thought that the course was a good thing 'cos it god rid of 'novelty'(diotor not included) and just plain crap bots that didn't have a chance of getting through.(cybersprout anyone?)
Plenty of people take on the house robots all the time. panic attack IIRC is quite fond of it, ditto razer with that nifty crush attack. I can't remember who, but recently(UK recently that is,) someone almost dismantled mathilda(hypnodisk was it?), a few of the housebots get flipped often enough, and bash has been de-flamed before (cannister knocked off, and tubes severed).
It doesn't necessarily cost a lot to build a bot. 101 is aptly named, costing only one pound and a penny to build, and it's a pretty successful bot too
I *SO* agree with you about the announcer though. I've wanted to garotte him ever since the first episode aired.
and for those who say that we don't have any decent/deadly bots, how about razer and hypnodisk? 1 ton/sqin crushing force was it? I've seen a few battlebots episodes, and there's *far* more innovation and difference in design than the bots on there, which seem to be either a flywheel-esque cutter or a mace/axe design.
Oh, and since I'm ragging on battlebots, what about their arena? No flame, no pit, no flippers, given the chunkiness of the average 'bot design, about the only way to (normally) take another bot out is to shove 'em over those saws.
TBH, although robot wars is also aimed at a mass market, at least they give a (slight) technical nod towards the robots and their construction instead of a cutsey "mom&pop&the kids" video. Is the censorship getting that bad that they can only show "Violence against objects" by showing some sort of well-integrated family unit as well?
I watched 3/4 of one episode of Battle Bots (on ch5 iirc)and the only comment I could make before throwing a kebab at the screen was "WTF"?
:( American TV networks have a habit of raping the genius from UK shows - see Ab Fab, only fools etc.
UK Robot Wars focusses on the *actual* fighting - a half-hour episode usually includes 6 fights plus bonus games. "Battle" "Bots" managed to show 2 fights in 45 mins!!!
I hope when Robot Wars goes to the states it's not sanitised down from being an amateur geek-battle fest into the usual candystat shit the yanks have to put up with. That would completely spoil the whole spirit of the show
Super Awesome Broadband
I think Robot Wars a bit unambitious. I'd like to see a special series commissioned with 3 metre tall robots. Obviously beyond the resources of small groups, they'd be built by multinational corporations. Who wouldn't want to see Sun's, Microsoft's and IBM's behemoths in a ring together?
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I could be wrong but I think that they pay for your robot if they trash it.
The irony is that when the program first started; to try out the format; the program makers asked a few brits to make some robots and then played them off against the robots from the American Battlebots program.
The Americans slaughtered the UK bots.
Looks like the shoe might be on the other foot now though.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"'Robot' is the Czech word for slave. Introduced in the film 'Metropolis'.
Karel Capek (diacritics missing) in theater play "Rossum's Universal Robots". From Czech for "work".
__
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
I saw Robot Wars UK, last week for the first time, it comes on at 10:30 PM EST on our public television station MPT There are no sports casters (yeah!) The host is Craig Charles of whom many of you may know from the UK sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf When I watched the show they went through maybe 6 matches, of course this was on Public Television (no commercials!) and last 30 minutes. The game runs a bit differnet than battlebots, there are 'House' robots in the corners, and if you are pushed or happen to wander into there area you are free game, or if your bot has been incapacitated they will take you out and dump you in the pit, yes there is a pit you fall into. ROBOT WARS UK
The electric yellow has got me by the brain banana
I rather enjoyed watching Robot Wars (not the 'Robot Wars' that I saw being advertised on TLC--I think someone was capitalizing on the name there, at least I hope so) while I was in Scotland last year.
Heck of alot more hardcore damage than what you see on Battlebots, an arena filled with _real_ hazards (flamethrowers anyone?) instead of ones that only get involved when it'll appeal to the crowds, and of course a better commentator.
Give me the show I saw in Scotland and I'd be a happy man. Give me another Battlebots spinoff, and I'll go back to watching anime for my Bot fix.
Grei
Forgot to mention, it comes on Saturday nites.
The electric yellow has got me by the brain banana
This is, indeed, a problem. We were working on the design of a weapon which would inject a two-part, structural chemical foam into other robots to burst them apart, but this is banned by the rules. So is enough flame to do any damage to anything, so are untethered projectiles, so is even water (again, we thought injecting salt water into an opponent could do quite interesting things to its electrics...).
But the most irritating rule of all is that if you do any damage to the house robots, you have to pay for it! I thought Hypno-Disk was being very wussy last year in not attacking the house 'bots, but having read that I understand why. For those who haven't seen it, Hypno-Disk does not send it's opponents home in packing cases. If they can find bits big enough to fit in a shoe box, they're lucky.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
SuperID
Free Database Hosting
I have competed in RobotWars UK for the last 3 years, and have enjoyed most of my time building and competing with other robot builders.
However the production company are quite mean. We fought on a Monday, won our first round battles, and then were told to go home for 3 days until the semi finals. Its not like we were expecting 4 Star accomodation or anything, a B&B would do. The production company wouldn't pay our travel expenses either, and award no prize to the winner other than a small trophy (that has been made by another competitor in the past, as they were too cheap to make one themselves).
As most of you probably know robotwars is different to battlebots. In battlebots if there is a KO the battle stops, everyine goes away with their machine mostly intact. Whereas in RW if your robot is disabled, the house robots come in and beat the crap out of your robot, which weighs less than half what the house robots weigh.
Now the production company are going to film a US robot wars, heres some details from an email received by a US robot builder:-
**Stop Press ** Stop Press ** Stop Press ** Stop Press ** Stop Press **
THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO BE ON ROBOT WARS!
The US ROBOT WARS CHAMPIONSHIP
will take place from June 27 to July 1, 2001 in London, England.
Winners will automatically qualify for the
2001 ROBOT WARS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
to be held on July 1, 2001 in central London
with prize money totaling over $50,000.
The qualifying process for the US Championship will take place throughout the United States over the next few months.
All teams who qualify will be flown to the United Kingdom to take part in the mechanized mother of all wars being recorded exclusively for American Network TV.
We will supply...
* All freight and international flight arrangements. *
* All international travel and hotel costs. *
* A $2000 appearance fee per qualifying robot. *
If you want to be part of the original largest and fastest growing robotic sport in the world, please contact the US Robot Wars Headquarters immediately.
E-mail us NOW at robotwars@bandeira-ent.com.
**PLEASE NOTE**
Your robot MUST be built in accordance with the current
"US ROBOTWARS Rules & Regulations."
If you do not have a copy of these rules, please email us immediately.
It is essential that you build to these rules as they differ from others currently available.
Contact Details:
Email: robotwars@bandeira-ent.com
Web: www.robotwars.com
Technical Inquiries:
Derek: rwusa@delbotsfoxy.demon.co.uk
...Let the Wars begin
We havent even been told when we are required for filming!
I don't get it. On the early series of Robot Wars in Britain, various people (mainly some guy with a long beard) were introduced as being 'the champion of Robot Wars in the US', 'the founder of Robot Wars' and so on. This led me to think that the British Robot Wars was just an adaptation of an American show.
Then I heard some mumblings on Slashdot about how Robot Wars had died / sold out, the original creator had been crushed by the soulless TV networks, et cetera.
Now it seems that Robot Wars is being imported to America from the UK. But is it actually a re-import?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
What you are looking for is called the RoboCup. It is a AI/Robotics research competition where teams of 6 robots (2 defenders, 2 forwards, a goalie and a coach - the last sounds a bit funny) compete against eachother in a game of soccer.
The goal is to beat the real world cup team by 2050.
There are like four leagues (including a sony abio league). I think the big catch is that each team has to deliver a paper on AI/Robotics, on top of designing 6 robots...
You say you want a revolution?
And was much better than battlebots - none of that sportscaster crap. Straight up battles.
I remember watching it on PBS last year, around this time (before battlebots started on Comedy Central). Since I saw Robot Wars first, watching battlebots was a let down just because of the sports casting like environment.
My sig left me for a younger user id.
On Junkyard Wars (on TLC) they aren't always building a robot, but general something constructive/fun. I'm still a bit skeptical as to how their junkyard is always stocked with old Land Rovers that still run....
The obstacle courses were scrapped after the first few series of Robot Wars. That's when I stopped watching - endless robot battles with nothing else are a bit too monotonous.
The house robots are usually much tougher than the competing robots, but they don't have an 'advantage' because they are not part of the competition. Normally they act only when you go around the edge of the arena, or are pushed there. Myself I find the 'perimeter patrol zone' with Killalot and chums much more interesting than Battlebots' rather limp ramps and saws.
Craig Charles _is_ annoying, it's true; but he doesn't talk for very long (unlike the two Battlebots presenters). If you've been watching the first series, with Jeremy Clarkson, be happy that he gets replaced soon.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
But Millionaire was based on The $64000 Question.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
you do any damage to the house robots, you
have to pay for it!
--- What! That is disgraceful, e-mail the BBC and complain, and if you are from the UK, point out your licence fee pays for those robots and you want to see them smashed.
Heh, anyone who has bbc america allready has it, plus, the guy from red dwarf is an announcer.
The first televised version of this was "Robot Wars" in the U.K. Their website mentions that "Robot Wars" is coming to the U.S. soon, but provides no further information. BTW, if you want to argue the merits of U.K. vs. U.S. robots, go to the message board at their site, the debate has been raging for months.
Battlebots is the first U.S. version, seen on Comedy Central in the U.S., The Comedy Channel in Canada, and BB2 in the U.K. Some of the robots from the British series appeared in Battlebots and did rather well. The rules and weight classes differ between the two shows. Battlebots info is here.
Finally, TLC, one of the Discovery channel networks has a series called "Robotica" which starts airing tonight at 9:00 PM E.S.T. It seems to be a hybrid of RobotWars and BattleBots, but there's not much information on the website.
Information about the robots can be found on the Robotwars and Battlebots websites, and many of the robots (or their builders) have their own sites, with more technical info than you can easy digest in one sitting. Take a look at the Suicidal Tendencies site and look at how they machined the individual tractor treads out of aluminium blocks. These people are fanatical!
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www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
Actually, I couldn't be more offended by those incipit male bimbo sports-caster wannabes on Battle Bots.
Anyone who is annoyed with Craig Charles has obviously never watched Red Dwarf... (My personal prejudice, but I CAN'T believe that anyone who has seen RD could not love it.)
+++++++++++++++++++++
The Digital Sorceress
That's sick. It's obviously just a way to make sure that the house robots continue to look tougher than they really are. I hope somoene with deep pockets decides "what the heck" and takes one of them out sometime.
Rich
IIRC, one of the franchise conditions for "Millionaire" explicitly dealt with show appearance, right down to stating that the same set arrangement, music, and so forth, be used.
WMPT (Maryland Public Television, available in Maryland (duh!) and the Washington, DC metro area) has been showing Robot Wars for at least three weeks now. It's on Saturdays at 11pm, between Red Dwarf and Dr. Who. They have a web site at www.mpt.org for more information.
The word 'robot' was invented by a Czech playwrights Karel and Josef Capek and first appeared in Karel's 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). It is derived from the Czech word 'robota', which means "servitude, forced labor".
In the play, humanoid worker robots rise up and destroy their human masters.
Ironically, Josef died as a slave himself, in one of Hitler's concentration camp in 1945. Mercifully, his brother died before the war but not before the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
A few people have mentioned that they would like to seem more autonomous robots in these games. A good first step seems to be the IFI Robotics control system.
This system basically puts a control computer inside the robot, and links to an input/output operator interface using 2 900 Mhz wireless modems. The Control system has 8 outputs, 16 digital inputs and 7 analog inputs. It can be programmed using PBASIC.
The operator interface has standard joystick controller ports, 25 led status lights, and a real-time voltage display.
The whole system costs $1145, which is a lot more than a normal RC control system, but it seems to be a lot more powerful and reliable, too.
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www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
Craig Charles (aka Lister from Red Dwarf) is the host of Robot Wars.
The commentator is Jonathan Pearce, best known for his football (sorry, soccer) commentary on Capital Radio 1548AM and on Channel 5.
Personally, I think his colour commentating adds to the programme (sorry, show). But hey, what would I know? I've only been watching it since it first aired...
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
PBS has shown 2 episodes already here in good old Madison, Wisconsin. It's a WHOLE lot better than BattleBots. I present as comparison:
A moronic skinny Californian with bleached hair, compared to Craig Charles, whom we all know and love from Red Dwarf, in the role of Lister. SMEG!
People from the U.S. compared to those crazy brits. Don't get me wrong, us Americans are okay, but these people have such cool accents!
The judges on Robotwars are old and have really long white beards! Cool!
Instead of just beating the crap out of each other, the robots have to actually manuever and perform tasks too.
No ads! That's right, as it's on PBS, there are not interuptions. That means more time for beating each other into oily pulps!
And the winner is... Robotwars! Especially cause Lister hosts. Vindaloo!
-- Nerds on toast in the new millenium
Will there ever be a post on /. referring to some culture outside the U.S. that doesn't have a xenophobic thread on it?
"Translate their completely foreign language?"
Methinks you perhaps are confused as to who inherited the language from whom. (Hint: it's called English.)
Robot Wars is fine as it is. Leave well enough alone. Isn't enough that you bastardised Tellytubbies?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Personally, I think it is worse than BattleBots, mostly because BattleBots presents more organized competition, I mean they have a bracket for chrissake!
Why do I hate all these show? They still rely on manual control of the robots. Come on, when are we going to let go of the control and use code to drive the robots behavior?
-- Waiting to register as goodlife --
DaveOh great. Now I'm gonna have nightmares involving Greg Proops and Ryan Stiles fighting to the death, while Tony Slattery tries to guess what type of robot each of them are.
Yes! Lister is the greatest. I miss Craig Charles, they don't show Robot Wars on broadcast TV anymore.
Am I the only Dotter that watches TV without a TiVO? C'mon folks, Robotica starts tonight on TLC at 8pm cst. It looks nearly as bad as Battlebots.
- - - If the sun is a star, why can't I see it at night?
From the culture that brought you "Benny Hill" . . .
Q:How many libertarians does it take to stop a Panzer division? A:None. Obviously market forces will take care of it.
First, while we all like to see the little buggers beat each other senseless, I think the additional challenges in Robot Wars is a much better test of the robots, and the people who control them.
Second, where Battlebots does WWF-style bits, Robot Wars goes behind the scenes to survey the damage, and how the teams repair and prepare for the next round.
Third, no stupid WWF imitations.
Fourth, no stupid WWF imitations.
Fifth, Robot Wars seems to have more of a sense of humor and innovation (a robot that looks like Elvis, another made from 19th century baby-carrige wheels - both of which did quite well)
Amen, that would probably be the only example. "All In The Family" was actually better than "Till Death Us Do Part", I think.
- Also Sprach Doktor Merkwurdigliebe
http://www.robotwars.co.uk/
Sorry if this has been mentioned... PBS will be broadcasting the original R Wars soon, they had a sneak preview last Friday. Missed it, but I've seen a couple of commercial plugs and... isn't the host from Red Dwarf??
i believe that this is airing on the Learning Channel tonight at 8(pdt).
t ica/robotic a.html
lots 'o flash so be prepared.
http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/robo
-- Hail Eris
Production problems in Battlebots:
This is a country that specializes in making uneventful, boring activities exciting on TV. Battlebots manages to make a very exciting premise boring and uneventful.
I can't wait for the survivor robots. Imagine, living only off of 12 mb of ram, running W2k pro, and multitasking!!
Nothing compared to his football commentary, tho. Jesus, who thought a screaming imbecile added anything to the experience.
The poor cook he caught the fits
The poor cook he caught the fits
And threw away all of my grits
Those two main announcers piss me off but Bill Nye is cool, man. He actually knows what he's talking about, and he doesn't say much. But those two guys ugh!
__________________
Just a guy with an opinion
I first discovered Battlebots through their website a full year before it came to television. Sometimes during an interview with one of the builders, you can see their trophy cases in the backround. Some of them have half a dozen giant nuts! This competition has paid its dues, and now it's reaping the benefits.
As for the sports commentator crap, it's a small price to pay for the exposure that the tournament has received. After only one season, the battlebox has improved significantly and the scoring system has been completely overhauled. These improvements are certainly the result of televised competition, and if the show stuck to the technical details without the "sportscaster crap," it would still be in PBS exile.
I wish that my inferiority complex were as good as yours.
-RenderHead
Sounds like you are describing the V1 - with a little more size information, I would be able to tell you for sure, but it does sound like the V1, which was an actual pulse jet engine from a WWII German V1 "buzzbomb", but mounted on a radio controlled "cart". The thing is huge (15-20 feet long), with the business end around 3 feet in diameter - did it have a large engine on one end driving what appeared to be a blower? Did the flame shoot out many feet?
Just from your description - that sounds about right? It also sounds like you didn't have any ear protection. I went to the Phoenix show (96?) and even with ear-plugs, the sonic noise was deafening. It is surprising you managed to keep your hearing.
BTW - as far as pulsejets are concerned, they are not pleasant to be around. Last year a small demo was given by Pauline and Co. in a warehouse in South Phoenix (ChemLab), which I helped to set up - a demo of a small (but damn powerful) pulsejet that was going to be used on a hovercraft for a future show (which was supposed to be in Phoenix, but got nixed hardtime by the PFD - thanks, bastards!). Amazingly loud! Mark told us about doing some testing runs on another pulsejet, and being around it running for about 30 minutes. He said he stopped the engine, and felt tingly all over. Soon he felt real bad - basically his nerves (from the vibration waves) had become hyper-sensitive, where the slightest noise or touch caused great pain - he said it was like this for about a week. Not fun...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
The US version of BattleBots has just started showing on British TV also, we've had RobotWars since 1996, compared, BattleBots is fundamentally the same but with a load of grandiose crap added on. I'm sorry, but the boxing style presenter just does my head in.
I was interested to see the British robots competing on BattleBots... they did quite well also, but they've had 5 years practice... how long has BattleBots been about?
Firstly (and most importantly), the robots on RW don't suck. When I was watching BB with my cousing (who is a fanatic of it), I was struck at how much shit Hypnodisk (for those of you who don't watch RW, it was last year's series winner) would have been able to stir up, had he been there. The RW robots are significantly more hardcore, and (for the most part) are much more elegant.
Secondly, the arena/commentators. While I do enjoy the various obstacles of the BB arena (I"m a big fan of the saws that come up from the floor), the RW one is superior. Not only is it much bigger, but less cluttered. And threre's the house robots. In each corner there's a badass robot controlled by the show, that has the right to beat on you if you come into the corner zone (demarcated on the floor). Not only does this look cool, it gives rise to interesting tactical situations: if a weakened robot can force a stronger one into the corner, then he can come back and win. And the commentators don't sound like football players. I also like how each robot gets a little bio and examination of its guts.
All in all, RW is significantly better. If they don't fuck up the translation, you're all in for a treat.
Cue The Sun...
Might be interesting if they're was a generic assembly robot or two or three, and the game was to give it the intelegence (or programming) to win.
Well Archie was a loveable patsy compared with Alf - but in some sense that may have a lot to do with "All in the family's" acceptance and success in the US
Battlebots are like RC cars and planes, they just move according to a some team jockey twiddling joysticks on a radio remote. A REAL Battlebot would be able to seek out and destroy the other unit WITH NOT HANDLER INTERVENTION.
/. competitors could build their own AIs and we could pre-compete the soft models ahead of time against each other. The winning software gets to reside on the real unit and compete with other 'Brainbots'. Go "Team /."!
Yes, this is a serious AI problem involving machive vision, shape recognition, strategy trees etc. - but doable long term. Short term, they should create a special 'brainbot' class (like the weight classes now) that are self managed, ubt give them some assists like an 802.11b - based locator system (mini GPS) in which the units get their own and the opponents actual position in real time. The units would then now where they and the other bot were in respect to the walls and traps and could base their operational rules accordlingly.
A GREAT IDEA: If some enterprising individual wanted to create a reference bot physical platform -THEN create an open source simulator with a good API,
I must admit I didn't like Battlebots when I first saw it, compared to the good ol' Robot Wars. Too much WWF style ranting for one, and not enough bare-bones, to the point tech. Nice to know Robot Wars seems to have received a warm welcome over in the US :)
Any new bot show should include some obstacle course, house bots (used in various ways), battle between the competitors, and if anyone is gonna commentate.. it has to be STEVE IRWIN.. KRIKYE THE BLOODY BOT HIT THE OTHER BOT.. LIKE WHYACK! Mean little booger!
Is the censorship getting that bad that they can only show "Violence against objects" by showing some sort of well-integrated family unit as well?
Doubtful. I was taping Battlebots for my six year old, and noticed there was a condom commercial. I don't really want to explain what those are to him yet... Then there's ads for Conker's BFD and the like. It's on at 10, so it's not really intended for the younger set (although my son wants us to build a bot so he can be like the kid on the Big Brother/Bigger Brother team that has been on both Robot Wars and Battlebots.)
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
They'll also have to weaken the house robots, because otherwise the American entries would just get wasted and the obstacle-course-type rounds will have to be made easier, of course.
Given that (at least) Big/ger Brother and Suicidal Tendencies have been on both shows (and were competent but not outstanding on each), no wonder we call you guys snobs. (And I say this as someone who could play for the English national team and could get a UK passport if I wished.)
The UK has its boffins, the U.S. their "Good ol' Yankee ingenuity." It took the combination to make the P-51 Mustang.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Now that, I'd pay to see!!
Hell, the armed forces might give the winner a big fat contract to build the next generation of remote fighting vehicles.
Cool...
Kotukunui
Battlebots are NOT robots. Their nothing more than RC cars on steroids. Unlike those cool robots that play soccer, I wish that was televised.
Robot Wars boring? Come on! MKBZ, battlebots is the same damn thing over and over and over. Two bots enter, one bot leaves. And the kill saws do all the real damage on that show (unless you've got a spinner involved). I'd love to see Mauler go up against Sir Killalot or Dead Metal. The house robots, as individuals would get their asses whupped on Battlebots
Yeah, the house robots have a definite advantage, but it's the original builders' DESIGNS and BUDGETS that creates that advantage. Let's face it, anyone with enough know-how and money could build a Sir Killalot, but it's too expensive. And the robots that win on Battlebots would get their asses kicked on Robot Wars (can't control well enough, not general enough, etc).
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
... "and in this corner, we have Team /.!" How schweeeeeet it would be!
"...[treat] every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?"
This is as opposed to Battlebots, where the sole challenge is to outlast or disable the opposing robot.
I've seen most of the Robot Wars episodes that PBS has shown over the last two years, and I don't recall any bot with real damaging weapons except the house robots. The rules forbidding hardened steel really cripple Robot Wars weaponry.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
In special recently (televised here at Christmas) Matilda was completely demolished by Razer (iirc) - major cosmetic damage, followed by an internal fire.
:)
So either they didn't know about that rule, or they didn't care...
OK, Brit and long-term Robot Wars fan here.
I _don't_ _like_ Hypnodisc.
Look at most of the robots and they win by incapacitating their opponents somehow or (occasionally) throwing them out of the arena. Hello, Chaos 2.
Hypnodisc, quite openly, set out to _destroy_ their competitors. Not just incapacitate so that it can't work without a few hours work but destroy. As a modelmaker (Meccano - Erector for the Americans here) and general creative person, I don't like the idea of deliberate, needless destruction of creative works.
Hypnodisc have, regularly, reduced their competitors to small parts. In the last series they even destroyed a few batteries. This after the other robot had been clearly defeated and stood no chance of recovery. Yes, I know the whole point is to defeat your opponents in battle, but this is little more than mutilating the corpse.
They are bullies, plain and simple, and I _wish_ they'd change the rules to allow the referees to stop a fight or penalise this form of action.
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!