BattleBots Delayed, Will Go Brains Over Babes

An anonymous reader writes "We got all excited earlier this week about robo-combat returning to TV with ESPN, but now PopMech super geek Erik Sofge talks to the folks at BattleBots and finds out that because of so many early entries, the competition will be delayed until at least November. The reason? Gone are the babes and predictable wedge fights, in are eager engineering students, a crazy ramp arena and lots of new rules. Worth the wait, or do we miss the Comedy Central version?"

Comments

Robots?

[Bitsy Boffin]

Pah. The first (and last) time I watched one of these "battle bots" programmes, I was left thinking "where are the robots". All I saw was (somewhat dangerous) remote controlled toys.

When your battle bot can battle even somewhat autonomously, then I'll watch.

Re:Robots?

[chuckymonkey]

I think that may be the point of using engineering students in this one instead my relatives. By relatives I mean people that even if they don't have a mullet on the outside, they have one on the inside along with a rusted out Camero hidden in the backyard grass. Engineering students are nerds like us and will naturally gravitate towards autonomy, bonus points to the team that makes their robot detect the amount of damage it has taken and start to act like a helpless injured animal to win sympathy from the other team then turn around and viciously destroy them.

Re:Robots?

[Chris Burke]

When your battle bot can battle even somewhat autonomously, then I'll watch.

We're not even close to being able to have an AI that would be able to adapt to a new opponent with a new weapon system or form of motion. We've been able to make decent autonomous robots that operate in a strictly controlled environment where they can be programmed to expect everything that can happen -- e.g. robots that play soccer, now toss a football at one, or make the floor like a mogul ski slope, and see what it does. Heck, a lot of AIs go completely mental when faced with unknown stimulus.

So given the practical realities of AI today, you'd essentially have to get rid of all the engineering and design aspects of the robots, and basically have a standard robot so that you could make the necessary assumptions about what enemies it would face. Not that this kind of thing isn't interesting -- I always loved programming crobots which had only one robot with standard abilities. It's just that practically speaking you have to choose between software engineering and hardware engineering, and at this point I just think unique human-controlled fighting machines is more exciting.

Re:Robots?

[Joe Tie.]

The lack of destruction was the main thing for me as well. Battlebots, the show with no actual battling going on and no actual robots. On comedy central, but also featuring no comedy. The show failed on so many levels.

Well, being a geek...

[Jugalator]

... it's the bots that turn me on, so I'm not sure I understand what the loss would be.

(seriously though, I think focusing on the main content instead of "babes" will give the show much better longevity -- while Kari Byron can be pretty in MythBusters, that's not the main reason to why I watch that show)

First one suffered from faux excitement

[SendBot]

I remember being SO excited for the BB premiere and being totally disappointed at how lame it felt to actually watch it. It was all WWE-style hyperactive and the announcers were just annoying as hell and wouldn't shut up with their inane drivel. I remember one bot had a cheesy head thing mounted on it and they went NUTS when it got knocked off, even though it was just a superficial piece and in no way connected to function of the actual robot.

Sounds like they're taking the right approach this time!

I was really disappointed

[txoof]

I was really disappointed with the Battle Bots on CC. I never could get into the episodes; they all felt really staged and predictable. The winner was always decided quickly and rarely had much trouble ascending through the ranks.

Also, the mayhem was just too limited. I wanted more sparks, more dismembered, twitching robot bits laying on the arena floor.

What I'd really like to see is different divisions, RC controlled robots with killer death-hammers, saws and drills. And another division with AI bots that triumph creatively. It would be cool to see a "survival of the fittest" type competition where the robots competed for resources in the form of tokens or light or something along those lines.

Whatever the new version is, I really don't want to see any more bimbos nor hear any more annoying play-by-play. I want innovation, creativity, sparks and most of all, destruction!

Re:UK Robot Wars

[meringuoid]

To a great extent it was simply not the done thing to completely demolish an opponent's robot. Even if it was shit, it represented a huge investment of effort, and most teams had at least one little kid involved - you don't want to make the geek-in-training cry, now, do you? This may have been encouraged further by the fact that BBC special effects had put together a squad of house robots that were enormously over any legitimate weight limits. If you think you've built a super-tough robot, try your hand against those, eh? Tearing apart a flimsy no-hoper impresses nobody. Slicing Matilda to shreds as part of your victory celebration lets you go down as roboteering legends.

Bad commentators

[the grace of R'hllor]

That's what destroyed BattleBots in comparison to Robot Wars, the wrestling style comments. Highly fake, highly American, and highly annoying.

Why would I want to see some bulky duo of Americans talking about robots fighting, when I could actually watch robots fighting? The commentators are necessary if you want to take something that is essentially dull, and make it exciting, such as American Football (great moments of tactical play interspersing boring, short maneuvering). But in this case... Robots! FIGHTING! Not dull!