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Robots Battle to the Death!

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the aibo-scored-dead-last dept.

spiffy1 writes "BattleBots, a fighting tournament between remote-controlled robots, took place this weekend at Long Beach, California. Contestants built robots which were pit against other robots in the same weight class (Kilobot, Megabot, and Gigabot), and tried to disable their opponent by ramming them, cutting them, or tossing them around in a DEADLY ARENA filled with ROTATING BLADES and NASTY SPIKES! The big winner in both the "Gigabot Duel" and the "Best Engineering" categories was "BioHazard" - a wide flat thing with a massive flipping arm. Check out the zdnet article and some pictures and videos at ZDTV. "

26 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is sweet by cpt+kangarooski · · Score: 2

    So my phased plasma pulse-laser (in the 40 watt range) wouldn't be okay either. Damn!

    --
    -- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
  2. Re:This would be much more exciting if... by ElJefe · · Score: 3

    Anyone know of a less restricted tournament?

    Yes, I believe it's called "The LA Freeway system".

    -ElJefe

  3. Re:hmm....Nuclear weapons by jd · · Score: 2

    Only if you throw it at the opponent, cause damage through heat or EMP, or irradiate the judges.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  4. Re:Any Incapacitations? by jd · · Score: 2

    Probably one of the funniest robot decapitations wasn't at this event, but in the first-ever robot table-tennis championship, where one contestant sliced itself in half with a guilotine-style "bat".

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  5. Re:What scares me... by PurpleBob · · Score: 2

    Next time on Celebrity DeathMatch... Mars Sojourner vs. a Cuisinart.
    --

    --
    Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
  6. What a joke by joq · · Score: 2

    First they had Extreme Fighting. Which was banned. Now they have the same version only its catered to bots. Someone call those bots a lawyer. Violence will never diminish if people continously create these petty "sports"
    Besides what exactly is the purpose of this? To see who has the best bot? Please this is going a bit too far.

    --

    Want Root?
  7. Re:hmm....Nuclear weapons by jd · · Score: 2

    The judges (if any survive) may rule it as using heat as a weapon. On the other hand, if you use it to take out the floor, and the opposing robot crashes into a crater, you aren't breaking any rules, as you aren't projecting anything at the opposing robot.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  8. Re:hmm....Nuclear weapons by Jburkholder · · Score: 2

    >Maybe you could hijack that satelite with the giant ballon when it flys by earth tonight.

    I thought the giant baloon was collecting anti-matter?

    Is Cassinni the space probe powered by plutonim that is doing a sling-shot flyby the one you're maybe thingking of?

  9. Re:Weapons of choice? by John+Campbell · · Score: 4

    Do you want to be the guy who has to debug a large, armed autonomous vehicle?

    "I think we're OW! having a prob OW! lem with the OW! tracking system OW! again..."

  10. BattleBots "history" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2
    Some of you have posted about "seeing this event before." This is not entirely true...

    Robot Wars took place up in SF from 94-97 (I think...). Some guy organized it with the help and funding of a larger corporation. Of course, once the thing got large and profitable, the large company attempted to steal the rights from the guy. He wasn't exactly pleased.

    Bring in some lawyers, and Robot Wars doesn't happen in 1998. I was building a robot for the event, and was a bit annoyed.

    Anyhow, now the company owns the "Robot Wars" name and "BattleBots" is a clone started by friends of the original Robot Wars guy (as the guy can't compete with Robot Wars for a certain number of years).

    I went to all four sessions this year, and have a few comments...

    • Match length: 5 minutes is too long. It got rather boring watching two toasters with wheels running into each other with discharged batteries. I can only think of three or four matches where the duration was entertaining.
    • Audience decision: Many of the competitors felt the audience just cheered for the "cooler" robot, or the robot driven by the 11-year-old (ugh). They were given no specific directions to judge by (damage, control, design, etc...). The GigaBot (heavyweight... whatever) championship was given to Biohazard, even though the competitor, Kill-o-hertz, was just as, if not more aggressive and damaging. But the announcer said Biohazard was the "returning champion" (which is odd considering that this was the first year of BattleBots, he was referring to Robot Wars) which obviously biased the crowd. I was ticked off... Kill-o-hertz was new, better driven, and had a better strategy.
    • The announcer. If you were there, you'll know what I mean. Former American Gladiators should not be MC's.
    • Pit access. One of the nice things about Robot Wars was that one could stroll around the exterior and look at the robots close-up. The Pit at BattleBots was a very controlled area, allowing no better views of the robots from when they're in the ring (BattleBox ... whatever). I ended up getting a pass, but better views would be nice for everyone else.

    Phew. That's my first post on /.

    --
    chahast at pangaea dot dhs dot org

  11. Re:dorks by Eponymous,+Showered · · Score: 2

    Except when cool is an adverb that modifies fighting instead of an adjective that modifies robots, i.e. "fighting is cool" or "fighting using robots is cool" in which case the singular form of the verb, is would be correct.

    I'll leave it to someone else to determine who the dorks actually are.

  12. Re:Autonomous Robots by jd · · Score: 2
    I don't see why it should cost so much. You wouldn't need anything much more complex than the computer controls used in a micromouse. Salvage an old Z80 or 6502 motherboard and use the parallel port to turn on/off the various motors.

    Shouldn't be that much work, and would probably cost less than $150 for everything. Even if you were to up the processor power to a 386 or a 486, you're probably talking less than $200 for the complete kit.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  13. Weapons of choice? by bloosqr · · Score: 2

    There must be some rules governing what sort of weapons the robots can have right? i.e. can you send a em pulse to disable the circuitry (hopefully shielding yours)? Can you attach a submachine gun and just spray in circles? Grenades? Glue guns?

    -avi

    1. Re:Weapons of choice? by cswiii · · Score: 3

      Rules can be found on this page.

    2. Re:Weapons of choice? by Stonehand · · Score: 2

      Check the contest rules: Section 11, "Weapon Types". So, no flamethrower "bots", lasers (of > 5mW), untethered projectiles (although -- the rules would seem to imply harpoons are allowed...).

      Hmmmm. This would have been far, far spiffier if they were actually autonomous, rather than large, armed remote-control vehicles.

      --
      Only the dead have seen the end of war.
    3. Re:Weapons of choice? by jd · · Score: 2
      Electricity's not allowed as a weapon, sorry.

      Neat idea, though.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  14. Survival Research Laboratories by cmeyer · · Score: 2

    SRL has been doing this kind of stuff for years. I was fortunate to catch their Seattle show in the late 80's. Truly awesome: diesel pulse jet flame throwing carnival clown, 20 foot tall tesla coil, a robot that moved around by screwing giant auger bits horizontally against the ground...

  15. Not robots by mattdm · · Score: 2
    This is cool and all, but these are radio-controlled toys. It'd be ever so much cooler if they were really self-controlled.

    --

  16. RealTimeBattle! by washort · · Score: 2

    YOU, TOO, can get in on this exciting new field in the privacy of your own home! Download RealTimeBattle and begin programming your own software robots for battle!

    There's a competition scheduled for September 11, so start writing an entry! Compete for bragging rights and proof and language advocacy!

    or, maybe not... I'm writing an entry in Haskell, the ultimate language... you might as well not bother. :-)
    (just kidding)

  17. Re:Survival Research Laboratories, Seemen, etc. by Jamie+Zawinski · · Score: 2
    SRL is cool (I've seen them many times) but the thing they are sorely lacking is a sense of pacing. They build these really cool machines, but watching their shows, the experience one mostly has is monotony. It's not unusual to spend half an hour in the middle of the show wondering whether the show is over now, before some machine starts tearing some new machine apart.

    Sadly, the SFPD seem to be on SRL's mailing lists these days, so they don't get away with much any more. For the last few years, the Fire Marshall has tended to show up before the show has even gotten underway.

    If you like SRL, you might also like Seemen: here's an announcement for one of their recent shows: news:344de302.1085384@news.concentric.net.

    Some like-minded links are over at Laughing Squid.

  18. Re:What scares me... by SparkyUK · · Score: 2

    Get a grip.

    Why should the military care about some enthusiasts creating armour-plated remote control cars with pickaxes, hydraulic rams, spikes and aerosol flamethrowers as weapons?

    The next genius of Weapons of mass destruction? I don't think so. The next genuius of NASA rovers maybe.

    There's a stunning career waiting for you as a conspiracy theorist.

    - SparkyUK.

  19. Old stuff by jd · · Score: 2
    Not only have robot wars been around a long time, they're not even the coolest robotic systems going. Remote-controlled, indeed!!!

    From the micromouse, to robot table-tennis, through to robot soccer, there are plenty of robot tournaments that require the robot to have a basic AI system and be capable of making it's own decisions without outside intervention.

    How can some human-operated hammer compare to aware (albeit in a limited sense) robots, capable of playing competitions under their own brainpower?

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  20. Re:What scares me... by konstant · · Score: 2

    Now hold on, I don't think the military had anything to do with planning this competition, but if you don't think they're interested then I'm not the one who's deluded.

    What better way to counteract ground troops than a phalanx of flame-throwing, machine-gun mounted, automated tanklets?

    And unless NASA is interested in a way to "flip" or roast chunks of inoffensive sandstone, I don't think they'll be getting much out of this.

    -konstant

    --
    -konstant
    Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
  21. SI by Pasc · · Score: 2
    I hope they're using those SI prefixes correctly.

    If not, maybe be call them kibobot, mebobot, and gibobot. You don't wanna confuse people, right?

  22. dorks by jackmott · · Score: 4

    "eh, weve had this in the BBC for years, this isnt news"

    "I played with robots BEFORE they were cool, these are just posers"

    "We did this in my preschool with blindfolds on"

    SHUT UP!
    fighting robots is cool.

    --
    -I go to Rice, so figure out my email address
  23. Needs Autonomous category by binarybits · · Score: 2

    Right now all the robots are remote controlled. There should be a category for autonomous AI robots. The controller would have only three buttons: attack, move, and stop. This would lead to less emphasis on big blades and harpoons and more on nimble robots that could outsmart their competition. Of course this would require considerably more expertise and more complex rules, since you could probably confuse such a robot pretty easily.