UPDATE: Unfortunately the episodes have been delayed for
a variety of reasons.
[Note, this is no longer the case] As an avid builder, I'm pleased to say that the air dates for the 2009 BattleBots Collegiate Championship are now public.
Episode 1: 12/10 at 9:00 PM ET
Episode 2: 12/17 at 9:00 PM ET
Episode 3: 12/24 at 9:00 PM ET
Episode 4: 12/31 at 9:00 PM ET
All of these episodes will be carried not by CBS College Sports, but by Fox.
The Contenders [that I know of]:
Bear Punch - Missouri State University
Category 5 - University of Miami
Cattitude - University of Cincinnati
Chunk - CalPoly
DracUCLA - UCLA
Falcon - Team Blue Devil (offshoot of Team Whyachi), college/university/institute unknown (Menomonie, Wisconsin)
JailBrake - C.O.B.R.A., college/university/institute unknown (Peoria, Illinois)
Pharaoh - R.U.M., college/university/institute unknown (Mayaguez, Puerto Rico)
Rhino - Metal Twisters, Polytechnics University of Puerto Rico
Shark Tooth - CSULB Robotics, Cal State University Long Beach
Triton - Triton Robotix, University of California, San Diego (San Diego, California)
You can see them
here.
In addition, the date for the 2010 Pro, Collegiate, and High School National Championships has been announced: April 6-11th in San Francisco, CA. If all goes well, the team I am a member of may be in attendance for that competition (if not, we will probably attend RoboGames later in the month in San Francisco, CA).
EDIT: I'm crossing my fingers they show the Pro event shortly as well, because I totally want to see this thing in action:
Posts
The most successful bots in the past were either the four wheeled, low to the ground flippers with really powerful pressure under their lifts or the small round spinners that pretty much tore things apart once they got to full speed
That was Deadblow made and operated by Grant Imahara from Mythbusters.
Steam 3DS: 1160-9885-2554
I'd actually probably prefer a separate bots with legs fighting class though as I agree that it'll be knocked off its balance pretty easy.
Comedy Central wasn't the right place or environment for this. But robots battling to the death, that's fucking rad. I always felt bad for the people whose robots would break down in some way during a match or at the start.
If you add legs, you get a much higher max weight.
I remember this one that didn't win it's first match that looked like a snake. It was awesome. Too bad the other guy just had to drive into it's middle.
Oh, and
That was the most disappointing thing about battle bots. They were more often armored RC cars, than "bots".
Fuck that movie was so bad.
Is Grant gonna build another robot for it
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
EDIT:
The name of the robot I was thinking of Mechadon.
I fucking loved this show back in the day.
Emotiv Epoc + Netbook + DIY USB adapter for --> + RC Transmitter + battlebot = Neural Interfaced battlebot 8-)
Biggest technical problem looks like it'll be EM interference on the headset, but I can shield that without too much trouble. But, if it works out it should cut reaction time down and be totally badass at the same time.
(Note, weeks and weeks of programming work not included)
Good times.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
Actually I don't think it was Deadblow. I think this one was in a higher weightclass.
But yeah, I remember Deadblow being crazy effective too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfu9l_OF_gw
They bribed him with a special award and kicked him out of Robot Wars 1997 because his bot, a spinner named Blendo, was too good and was chewing up opponents so badly that it was becoming too dangerous for the arena. (Blendo was an innovator in that it actually went for a knockout instead of trying to win on points.)
Here were two of its fights that season, against Punjar...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKE7R-Vljd8&feature=related
And Hercules...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0aHu3UVpw0&feature=related
Current areas of weapon advancement focus on disks (vertical & horizontal) and drums. The geometry of those two weapon types gives them an advantage in energy storage capacity over all other weapon types - we're talking levels approaching chemical explosives. 3g to 200g of TNT is the current range of energy equivalents for disks & drums, most falling within the 2-5g range, with 200g being essentially a theoretical maximum. My team aims to make one starting at around the 5-10g equivalent and moving up to around a 25g-75g equivalent with later upgrades.
Such an awesome robot. Much more graceful and cool looking than pretty much everything else and it destroyed (in the seasons it didn't have mechanical issues)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e4cHWS2758
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcvVN-He7_g
Just watched some more recent videos of battlebots and it's obvious those things would massacre Razer, but back in the day Razer was pretty damn cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Jgm3mwPMw&feature=related
Newp wasn't those. It was basically a larger version of Deadblow pickaxe and all.
Don't think so. I remember it being very (almost stupidly) large and green and having a pickaxe that would intimidate me.
Anyway, the 900+ lb walking robot posted at the beginning is Gearcrow and was made by Mutant Robots. Incidentally, the creator of Gearcrow is our team mentor!
I actually got to compete in the April 2009 Championship, and that what an incredible experience that was. The producers showed the team some rough edits of the fights, and it looks spectacular. The Youtube videos hardly do the show justice, especially if you don't know how big these robots actually are.
Was it Grendel perhaps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7UOjgT55Oo
Kind of hard to tell, since all we've got to go on is "Big, green with a pickaxe". The other one I was thinking it might be is The Judge, but you've ruled that out by saying it was green. Lots of designs use a pickaxe.
Still, I was a huge fan back when this was on the air. Really don't think it belonged on Comedy Central, but it was better then not seeing expensive remote controlled killing machines fighting for my enjoyment.