Robot Wars returning to BBC2!

[bledd]

It's like UFC seasons 1-10, knock out tournament. Taking massive damage and being forced to carry on.

Do the teams have a limit of the number of spares they are allowed? Surely you'd take 4 of everything.

 

[theone8181]

Hi guys my maths is failing me. I was trying to explain to a guy at work about frostbite using plastic and it being crap against supernova. I think the spinner will have more energy in it than a bullet but i wasnt sure if i worked it out right. I was going off the disc being 15kg and about 0.5 metres and spinning at 2000rpm. Any mathmeticians out there? When i worked it out it looked like 10 x the energy of a 12 bore. I know they have some serious power behind them but i wasnt sure if it was that high, altho i notice they do tend to destroy themselves.

 

[MikeTheNative]

It's like UFC seasons 1-10, knock out tournament. Taking massive damage and being forced to carry on.

Do the teams have a limit of the number of spares they are allowed? Surely you'd take 4 of everything.

Yes, but the good robots now are extremely expensive so most amateurs can't afford too many spares...unless your pulsar and have a seemingly bottomless pit of money. I agree that the format needs to be changed, namely the mini league. It does offer a lot of fights per episode but I think it's detrimental to the quality. I wouldn't mind a 3/4 way melee at the start then the losers go into a losing bracket with they fight each other to the chance to get back in.

 

[GhostWKD]

Yes, but the good robots now are extremely expensive so most amateurs can't afford too many spares...unless your pulsar and have a seemingly bottomless pit of money. I agree that the format needs to be changed, namely the mini league. It does offer a lot of fights per episode but I think it's detrimental to the quality. I wouldn't mind a 3/4 way melee at the start then the losers go into a losing bracket with they fight each other to the chance to get back in.

Pulsar had enough spares -1 I think also was quite surprised they didn't have a spare drum but I guess spares for everything would be enough to build 3-4 robots and much £££.

Actually thinking about it what would the rules be if someone had 3-4 spare robots built (copies of each other) to roll out after the first was destroyed? Triggers broom style, how much of it would have to remain original vs could be replaced and still considered the same entrant?

Do like the idea of a 'losers' battle to fight their way back in though.

 

[chroniclard]

Quite enjoyed Supernova smashing Frostbite to bits. Didn't manage to catch the rest, other than Pulsar breaking down, as kids were whinging. Will catch up on iPlayer.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

It wouldn't be practical or cost effective to take spares of everything, but I imagine they try to take as much as they can.

They definitely need to fix the "1 touch death" problem. Too many robots are stopping after the first impact

 

[MikeTheNative]

Pulsar had enough spares -1 I think also was quite surprised they didn't have a spare drum but I guess spares for everything would be enough to build 3-4 robots and much £££.

Actually thinking about it what would the rules be if someone had 3-4 spare robots built (copies of each other) to roll out after the first was destroyed? Triggers broom style, how much of it would have to remain original vs could be replaced and still considered the same entrant?

Do like the idea of a 'losers' battle to fight their way back in though.

I've heard that for battlebots some teams take enough spares to make 3 or 4 of their robot but as I said before they have much more money.

 

[varkanoid]

Believe me the 2 hour limit between battles is utter crap and they DO NOT film the battles all on the same day. They may be set a 2 hour limit and then not allowed to tinker with it but the next battle might not be till the next day. Out of all the pulsar battles there were yesterday on the program the actual day we saw the filming we saw ONE pulsar battle. So they are NOT filmed all on the same day. We also saw ONE Apollo battle and TWO Carbide battles (which is next weeks episode cant wait to see that battle again). Looking forward to the pointy pyramid robot as didnt see that one "live".

Dont forget the illusion of TV. What you see is not always how it happens.

 

[Cold_And_Miserable]

What they could do is reduce the field.

Battlebots just about gets 48 decent robots, and thats the entire US.

Battlebots includes teams from the entire world. There are numerous reserve slots and lot's of solidly built machines are rejected for not being different enough by the studio.

Battle Bots would be awesome without all of the Jesus loving BS that takes up most of the program. Drop the talking and just have a single episode with all the fights and then they might have something worth watching rather than recording and fast forwarding through.

I quite like the talking as there's lot's of tech talk. There is no Jesus loving?

 

[Mr Jack]

Believe me the 2 hour limit between battles is utter crap and they DO NOT film the battles all on the same day. They may be set a 2 hour limit and then not allowed to tinker with it but the next battle might not be till the next day.

What does the actual timing have to do with the two hour limit? It's trivially obvious that the gap between fights is variable. The two hour rule is to put them on an even footing.

 

[Mr Jack]

what are you watching.
the format is utterly terrible. Robots that either simply cant carry on, or have to carry on in an utterly destroyed state. Should be simple knockout, not having so many fights on the same day.

on top of that half the robots simply cant cause any damage
another 5/12ths of the robots are so poor they kill themselfs
which leaves a few decent bots.

it is poor.

It's not perfect. They probably should have either gone for a pure knockout format, or given them more time between fights to repair (perhaps arrange it so they fight once a day). I suspect the BBC wanted a one hour show and so they were forced to compromise the format to deliver enough content to fill it. But that hasn't stopped it being thoroughly entertaining. This week saw three real quality robots (Supernova, Ironsides, and Pulsar) each with their own flaws and some solid destruction, and it was probably the weakest episode of the season so far.

 

[Caged]

I get unjustifiably annoyed that people can't seem to do current draw calculations and size their wiring way too far on the thin side, and seemingly don't believe in heatsinks for things like motor controllers.

 

[Dup]

I get unjustifiably annoyed that people can't seem to do current draw calculations and size their wiring way too far on the thin side, and seemingly don't believe in heatsinks for things like motor controllers.

Even a fan or two couldn't hurt. They report the arena is cold but without airflow...

I really don't understand why Pulsar didn't just turn it down a notch. Second season of the same issues. So much potential too. Such a great well built machine with one tiny flaw, the operators ego. It surprises me how little they seem to really test these things too. Hopefully with a 3rd series and there being less of a rush we'll see some convincing contenders next time around.

 

[GhostWKD]

It surprises me how little they seem to really test these things too.

I thought that. I'm sure I remember in the original Robot Wars one or two of the teams even had a roadside battle between themselves to test their robots... I get why that might not be an option (especially for these spinners etc) but surely they could at least practice driving them around a little and at least be used to the controls?

Edit: I remembered correctly! Cassius and Chaos2 had a few practice fights

 

[MikeTheNative]

The spinners are extremely dangerous so many can't test at home as they have nowhere safer enough and have to wait until they get to the show to see if it works. Also the schedule doesn't help the competitors, I think from announcement to entry date they only have a few of months to make their robot. I agree about Pulsar, seemed to only care about POWER, not if it actually works properly, it's also rather over engineered.

 

[Glaucus]

even with spinners you could devise tests, hit solid objects and see if your spinning mechanism survives, see what happens when you drop it from several feet with spinner on full and yes with teh first series there was massive time restraints, i don't know about this series, but if its teh same its yet another flaw inn bbcs incompetence.

But that hasn't stopped it being thoroughly entertaining. .

it realy has, most of teh fights can not even be described as fights.

 

[varkanoid]

even with spinners you could devise tests, hit solid objects and see if your spinning mechanism survives, see what happens when you drop it from several feet with spinner on full and yes with teh first series there was massive time restraints, i don't know about this series, but if its teh same its yet another flaw inn bbcs incompetence.


it realy has, most of teh fights can not even be described as fights.

BBC dont make Robot Wars so they are not being incompetent. In fact BBC make very little shows now most are commissions. With regards to the build time I mentioned it before but this series on now was meant to be filmed last summer but they put it back to winter and the teams could only apply Oct/Nov time and then they have to wait a few weeks to see if they get accepted. With filming in December it didnt give them a lot of time to build the robots. I should also imagine its pretty difficult to test them safely. They would have to find a big open space that is relatively flat its not like you can test a 3000rpm spinning blade in your back garden or even in your garage.

If you are interested in finding out the answers to your questions or even talking to some of the Roboteers (and are not anti-facebook) who sometimes post here suggest you head over to https://www.facebook.com/extremerobotshow/ as you will find a lot more info and also other roboteers who dont appear on the TV show but do the live shows post on here. You can see robots in progress etc etc.

Also check out https://www.facebook.com/shockwaveUK

 

[Glaucus]

now you are just splitting ends. it is commissioned by bbc and bbc have huge control over the production. It is not a show created in a vacuum and then sold to the highest bidder.

 

[Rroff]

even with spinners you could devise tests, hit solid objects and see if your spinning mechanism survives, see what happens when you drop it from several feet with spinner on full and yes with teh first series there was massive time restraints, i don't know about this series, but if its teh same its yet another flaw inn bbcs incompetence.


it realy has, most of teh fights can not even be described as fights.

Not quite sure what you are saying there but some of those spinners are incredibly lethal - if something came loose in a full power test it can be as dangerous as a bullet - and difficult to really test effectively without the blade, etc. being fully assembled very few people have facilities safe enough.

 

[Glaucus]

Not quite sure what you are saying there but some of those spinners are incredibly lethal - if something came loose in a full power test it can be as dangerous as a bullet - and difficult to really test effectively without the blade, etc. being fully assembled very few people have facilities safe enough.

If you can afford to build a robot, you can afford to construct a steel box to do some reasonable testing in.
and energy is only part of the reason, energy of a bullet is reasonably low, but it has such a small cross sectional area that that energy is concentrated.
a spinner despite having more energy is not going to fly as far or deliver as much damage at larger distance compared to a bullet.