What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Battle robots

I'm working on an antweight(1lb) battle robot. Larger battle robots can be seen on various T.V. series such as Battlebots, Robot Wars, and Robotica. Sadly, most of these series have been canceled. The only one still on the air is Robot Wars, which airs re-runs occaisionally on tech TV. It is slowly being phased out. Smaller, local tournaments are still in existance in many places, mainly in the U.S. and U.K. I'll be entering the robot I'm working on in 2 competitions this fall. Is anyone on the forum a fan of robotic combat? Has anyone built a robot?
 
Before it became a big thing on TV and stuff, I went to a couple of these yearly competitions around the States... It's been so long, though... I can't even remember which tournament it was! I want to say Robot Wars, but I think that's just a TV show, and this definitely wasn't TV. I always wanted to compete, but never had the time or money. When I was very little, my godfather would buy those robot kits, like the ones made by OWI, and then put them together and give them to me. Later, when I started to learn about electronics and programming in middle school, I hacked those old kits. I never had much success, though, beyond exchanging sensors between the chassis and simple things like that.
Now that I'm a comp. sci. major I really want to take some time to tinker - and I could get credit for it! It's cool to hear that there's still interest in amatuer robotics, now that the fad is dying down. What kind of hardware are you using? Are you going remote or autonomous? What's your strategy? (If it's not a secret.) Battling isn't so much my thing anymore - I'm really more interested in self-replicating machines, cooperative autonomy and automatic programming - but it certainly is at the center of innovation in the field. The thought of military automatons just kind of scares me, especially with the recent advances in bipedal locomotion at Sony and Honda, and all the other new whizbangs that they're coming out with. Sometimes I think I should put robots on hold and build myself a microwave gun.
~Joe
 
Joe, that reminds me:

"Robots will be patrolling Japan's streets, offices, shopping malls and other public places for the safety of the people. Guardrobo D1 is equipped with a camera and sensors to detect any signs of trouble. It will then alert the human guards via radio with camera footage of possible troubles. This is one of the technological advancement vital to the aging population of Japan, where 1 in 5 Japanese are over 65 years old."

Be very afraid

It's started.

lol
 
Aaaagh! Makes sense though - they've been talking about robot nurses for Japan's elderly for the past decade. So much for moving to Japan...
You know Sony has a remote-controlled homonid robot with a built-in wireless video camera and dextrous hands. They're yet to release it to the public for fear they'll be used to kill. Happy happy happy.
~Joe
 
Seedjar, do you remember any of the robots you saw at the tournament? If the tournament was between 1994-1997 and was in California than it was a robot wars tournament. This was before the British company Mentorn got the name and liscensing and turned it into a televised tournament in the U.K.
Some famous robots from those early days of U.S. robot wars were Blendo, The Master, Ramfire, Spiny Norman, DoAll, South Bay Mauler, Vlad the Impaler, Terminal FrenZy, Wedge of Doom, TazBot, Hercules, The Snake, and LaMachine.

Do you remember any of them?
 
Totally, I definitely remember Blendo and The Wedge. LaMachine seems familiar too, but I can't place the name...
Did that team ever finish the Snake? I remember talking to the guys who built Agrippa, and they said they were working on an articulated snake chassis but didn't think it would ever be tourney-worthy. I sure would have liked to have seen that in action.
~Joe
 
BioHazard is/was a cool one from BattleBots!I think it was a heavy weight bot.



Jerry
 
Mark Setrakian built the snake, not the agrippa team.
The agrippa team may have been working on one though.
In 1997 Mark Setrakian unveiled the snake, 20 something foot slithering collossus with a massive drill on the front. It never battled though. It was only for demonstration. Do you remember Mark Setrakian? He was the guy with the long hair who built all of the really bizzare robots like Mechadon, the giant walking spidery thing, and the master, a robot with all of its components inside the giant wheels. Was blendo disqualified for being to dangerous the year you attended? Blendo inspired future, fully enclosed battle arenas.
 
I seem to remember the Mechadon, or something like it... a very tall six legged thing that attacked by crushing with the legs, if I'm thinking of the right one. I'm sorry I missed the Snake; that one I would have definitely remembered. I don't think I met Mark, but I do remember people talking about a robot with all of its hardware in the wheels, so he must've been around. Did he make that one that was a sort of rolling cylinder that dragged around a big hammer? I liked that one.
I think the Blendo thing happened before I got in; we got in town late the first time we went and only saw the finals. Was Blendo the one that looked like an upside-down colander, or the one with a hooked helicopter-rotor kind of weapon on top and a chassis kind of like the Wedge (but flat on top?) I was maybe 13 at the time so both trips kind of blur together; I seem to remember all of the arenas being caged off.
~Joe
 
  • #10
Blendo was the upside down collander. The cylinder hammer robot you are thinking of is Spirit of Frank, built by Kua Patten. What year was this?
 
Back
Top