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.
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I'm constantly amazed at the lengths people go to in the states to avoid offending people.
Wouldnt it be better to let people know the true extent of peoples e-desires rather than filtering them out for fear of suprising some prudes?
Jan.
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.