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The BBC Announces Robot Wars' Return To TV (bbc.co.uk)

Blacklaw writes: The BBC has announced that Robot Wars, the classic metal-mashing amateur robotics competition, is returning for a new series. They are building an all-new battle arena — following the sale of the original for scrap in 2005. "The new series includes a raft of technological advances since the show first aired over a decade ago, and viewers can expect to see more innovative fighting machines as teams of amateur roboteers battle it out to win the coveted Robot Wars title."

16 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Not my kind of robot war by Crowd+Computing · · Score: 2

    The only Robot Wars I want to see is between gigantic bipedal robots piloted by cute blue-haired girls.

    1. Re:Not my kind of robot war by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 3, Informative

      Pink hair is the best!

  2. Didn't it sort of get bogged down? by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Didn't it get tedious towards the end with all the robots being a sort of wedge with a flipper?

    What I'd like to see is more autonomous bots, rather than what are effectively RC tanks.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Didn't it sort of get bogged down? by Macdude · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The floor should at least be contoured, with hills and valleys. That brings up one of the problems with this type of competition, as long as the arena is fixed, the arena will determine what kind of specific robot is the best.

      I'd like to see various arenas and each bot has to battle in each arena, say each level of a elimination competition is in a different arena and the specific arenas vary by episode.

      Some examples:
      1. Flat metal floor
      1a. Flat metal floor with fixed obstacles.
      1a. Flat metal floor with moving obstacles.
      2. Undulating metal floor.
      2a. Undulating metal floor with fixed obstacles.
      2b. Undulating metal floor with moving obstacles.
      3. Packed earthen floor.
      3a. Packed earthen floor with fixed obstacles.
      3b. Packed earthen floor with moving obstacles.
      4. Undulating metal and packed earth floor combination with fixed obstacles.
      4a. Undulating metal and packed earth floor combination with fixed obstacles.
      4b. Undulating metal and packed earth floor combination with moving obstacles.

      --
      "Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
    2. Re:Didn't it sort of get bogged down? by dbc · · Score: 2

      Well, autonomous fighting robots have been tried. It isn't very interesting to watch. At. All. Three minutes of watching two robots try to find each other is just not gripping. I work with autonomous robots a lot. Watching autonomous robots attack a 1-on-zero challenge course is something that is usually only interesting to other builders of autonomous robots, because the action is so freaking slow and the robots look feeble-minded. Only another builder can appreciate how difficult it is to make a robot do what appears to the non-initiated to be a very simple task.

      There are autonomous sumo-bots. Google for some video. Other than pushing an opponent out of the ring, they aren't weaponized. Those typically move quite fast, so there is action. Occasionally, you get some un-intended action -- I saw a sumo-bot erupt into a pretty spectacular lithium battery fire once. But I don't think you could make a TV show out of sumo-bots.

      I'm currently working on a Robo-Magellan bot. I can't imagine wanting to subject that much work to intentional damage. It's freaking hard enough to keep it all working in the first place without someone applying kinetic rage to your electronics.

    3. Re:Didn't it sort of get bogged down? by IWantMoreSpamPlease · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There was a series long time ago called "Robotica" that had for their host one of the Zappa offspring.
      They had just that, all kinds of obstacles, so really low to the ground bots often were hung up. It forced designers to really think about what they were doing.
      Best show of the bunch IMO.

      --
      So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
  3. Matilda ! by Punko · · Score: 2

    Hopefully, they bring the house robots back, as they provided a lot of character to the show

    --
    If only we could fall into a woman's arms without falling into her hands
  4. Re:Battlebots rip-off by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Informative

    Uh, Robot Wars first aired in the UK in 1998, two years before Battlebots first aired in the US.

    Robot Wars also has the non-broadcast event history behind it dating back to 1994.

  5. Junkyard Wars by GreenEnvy22 · · Score: 2

    Now we just need Junkyard wars to return and I can relive my youth!

    1. Re:Junkyard Wars by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2

      Or more commonly known as Scrapheap Challenge over here in the UK - another show exported to the US (yup, we had it first) :)

  6. Quadcopters by rlp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd like to see them include quadcopter vs quadcopter battles.

    --
    [Insert pithy quote here]
  7. Re:Battlebots rip-off by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nah the Brits love to rip off 'merica.
    Cricket is a cheap ripoff of Baseball.
    Dr. Who is a cheap ripoff of Star Trek
    They even double down by making a Red Dwarf a cheap ripoff of Voyager.
    The Office is a cheap ripoff of The Office
    And British football vs Football.

    Facts just get in the way of a closed world view.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  8. Re:Battlebots rip-off by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2

    Dont forget House of Cards.

  9. Re:Drone Wars ? by Rei · · Score: 2

    Letting drones compete would be a nice twist. I'm not sure how one could fairly handle letting drones compete with non-drones, though - seems like an either-or situation. Unless... hmm...

    Other: Uneven floors and obstacles would be good, and could be varied, even with their own weather - a boulder-strewn badlands, a rainy forest, a post-apocalyptic hellscape, an icy barrens in a blizzard, etc. Maybe get rid of some of their old constraints, such as no fire-based or fluid weapons (although their arena would need be able to be able to handle it). Fire would not just be aesthetically pleasing but open up brand new optimization constraints on defensive techniques, and fluids like adhesives, solvents/corrosives or lubricants could also lead to rather interesting battles. Ranged weapons would be nice, within limits of course. Maybe simply replace the prohibition on ranged weapons to "no weapons that make use of an explosive charge" so that you don't just get a bunch of people mounting handguns to RC cars... maybe also set a maximum projectile velocity and/or kinetic energy too. Hmm, you know, if you allowed some degree of ranged weapons and had a realistic ceiling height, you might be able to fairly compete drones with non-drones. Otherwise you can still use weapons on a tether, but that's a lot harder.

    --
    He's the sort of person who would sell the Red Cross to Dracula.
  10. Re:Battlebots rip-off by symes · · Score: 2

    Don't get me started on that faker Shakespeare - he made his name rewriting Hollywood scripts

  11. Re:So record and watch later by dpidcoe · · Score: 2

    They could make the fillers a lot less junkey though. It's a show about engineering and destruction, not human interest stories where they praise a retarded design because it was built by a pink haired girl or whatever.

    Get some of the bot builders to talk about what they built.
    Get some people (possible even two people, I hear there's a pair that might have recently been made available after a certain network canceled a certain show) to test some of the design elements in a controlled environment (e.g. "can this spinning hammer with hardened steel spike used by robot X punch through the half inch low carbon 1040 steel robot Y is armored with?" or "how long will this torch need to be applied to this chassy design before it heats up enough to damage components?").
    Do some sponsored material from soildworks/mouser/autocad/mcmaster/etc. talking about cool stuff their products are used for besides designing robots.
    Get some of the builders to show off other skills tangential to the robot (I notice that ability to drive it well seems almost as important as design).
    Hell, I bet a 3d printing agency could make out like a bandit if they bought commercial time to be a series of tutorials on how to prep a 3d model for 3d printing and made partially started models of all the bots available on their website.