Robot combat

Not to be confused with Military robot.
A spinner-type robot attacks

Robot combat is a hobby in which two or more custom-built machines use varied methods of destroying or disabling the other. As of today, in most cases these machines are remote-controlled vehicles rather than autonomous robots, although there are exceptions, particularly in the field of robot-sumo.

Robot combat enjoyed a period of mainstream exposure in the late 1990s and early 2000s when several television shows broadcast the robot fights. Either the public or the TV network administrators lost interest, and the shows dropped from the airwaves. The most well-known of these shows were Battlebots, Robot Wars, and Robotica. Although the mainstream was lost after the cancellation of those shows, robot combat has a large dedicated cult following and there are still dozens of smaller competitions around the UK, USA and in other countries every year. Combat robots have received mention in the press and entertainment shows from time to time as well. Battlebots itself would return to ABC in the United States in 2015 as a summer series, with Robot Wars returning alongside a second series of Battlebots in 2016.

Robot builders may be of any age and come from any walk of life. The robots themselves can range from modified remote controlled toys weighing less than a pound to three-hundred plus pounds of exotic metallurgy and sophisticated electronics. Although building a combat robot can cost thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours, some schools use the construction of combat robots in their courses to teach mechanical design and technology. For schools that shy away from the violence of combat robots, there are robotic competition alternatives such as the cooperative competitions FIRST and BEST Robotics. Robot competitions such as RoboGames, offer a mix of combat and non-combat events.

In 2015, the United States-based robotics company MegaBots with their giant robot Mark II challenged a Japanese-based robotics company Suidobashi Heavy Industry with their giant robot Kuratas to a one-to-one combat, a challenge that Suidobashi accepted.[1][2][3] The duel was expected to take place in June 2016.[4]

History

Critter Crunch in 1991, at the moment when "Agent Orange" beat Bill Lewellyn's critter to win the event.

Among the oldest robotic combat competitions extant in the United States are the "Critter Crunch" (founded about 1987) in Denver and "Robot Battles" (founded in 1991) based in the southeastern U.S.[5] Both events are run by members of the "Denver Mad Scientists Society".

1987 - The "Denver Mad Scientists Society" organized the first Critter Crunch competition [6] at Denver's MileHiCon science-fiction convention.

1991 - Kelly Lockhart organized the first "Robot Battles" competition [7] at Atlanta's DragonCon science-fiction convention.

1994 - Marc Thorpe organized the first Robot Wars competition in San Francisco.[8] Four annual competitions were held.

1997 - Rights to the Robot Wars name is transferred to British TV production company who produce the Robot Wars television series. Early seasons feature competitive games and obstacle courses as well as simple combat. The series aired 151 episodes across 12 series from 1997 to 2003. Special series were produced for the United States and the Netherlands.

1999 - Former Robot Wars competitors in the U.S. organize a new competition named BattleBots. The first tournament was shown as a webcast, with the second tournament shown as a cable 'Pay-per-view' event.

2000 - BattleBots is picked up as a weekly television program on Comedy Central. It would span five seasons ending in 2002.

2001 - Robotica appears on The Learning Channel as a weekly series. The format features tests of power, speed and maneuverability as well as combat. The show ran in three series, ending in 2002.

2002 - Foundation of the Robot Fighting League, a regulatory body composed of the organizers of robot combat events in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. The body produces a unified set of regulations and promotes the sport.

2004 - Robot Combat is included as an event at the ROBOlympics in San Francisco, California, with competitors from multiple countries.[9][10]

2008 - ROBOlympics changes its name to RoboGames and, while most events are not combat related, Robot Combat is significantly featured.

2015 - BattleBots returns to television as a summer series on the ABC television network; it would be renewed for a second season which aired in the summer of 2016. [11]

2016- Robot Wars returns to British television on BBC2.

Weight classes

Combat robots in the pit area at the 2007 Robot Battles competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

Robots come in all shapes and sizes, but there are certain defining lines that robots rarely stray across, thanks to official rules and practicality. The standard by which all combat robots are measured is weight; the everyday dilemma of the robot builder is to cram as much power into as little weight as possible. Robots can be as small as the 25 gram 'Nanoweight' class, and as large as the 340-pound 'Super Heavyweight' class. The common weightclasses[12] are as follows:

There are some international variations in weight class - for example, UK robot builders define the UK Antweight class limit as 150g. Whereas in the US an Antweight class was later defined to be 1 pound. The 2016 reboot of Robot Wars has a heavyweight limit of 110kg (242lbs), while the 2015 Battlebots reboot has a heavyweight limit of 250lbs (113.2kg).

Weight is a precious asset for robot builders. For the sake of diversity of design, the rules often give an extra weight allotment for robots that can walk rather than roll on wheels. Such robots are more difficult to construct and their drive mechanisms are heavier. Some builders opt to build walking robots, taking advantage of the extra weight to add more powerful weaponry at the expense of greater complexity and fragility.

Given the violent nature of robot fighting, safety is always the most important issue at robot events. Robot fights take place in a sturdy arena, usually constructed of steel, wood, and bulletproof clear Lexan plastic. The size of the arena varies according to the weight class of the robots that are fighting in it. Some large competitions that entertain many different weight classes have more than one arena, because 1lb antweights do not need 50 foot (15 m) wide arenas in which to fight, but 220lb heavyweights do. Having multiple arenas allows the event to progress more quickly.

Competition rules set limits on construction features that are too dangerous or which could lead to uninteresting contests. Strict limits are placed on materials and pressures used in pneumatic or hydraulic actuators, and fail-safe systems are required for electronic control circuits. Generally off-limits for use as weapons are nets, liquids, radio jamming, high-voltage electric discharge, untethered projectiles, and usually fire.

The Robot Fighting League (RFL) was created in 2002 when several builders decided that robot combat needed standardization of rules and judging criteria. The majority of robot combat events in the U.S. as well as events in Brazil, Australia, and Canada have become RFL members and have adopted their ruleset, but some event organizers oppose the direction in which the RFL is taking the sport and remain independent. The topic of event standardization has lent itself to a healthy amount of controversy since the RFL's inception. The UK-based Fighting Robot Association (FRA) performs a similar standardization function for European robot combat.

Combat robot weaponry and design

An effective combat robot must have some method of damaging or controlling the actions of its opponent while at the same time protecting itself from aggression. The tactics employed by combat robot operators and the robot designs which support those tactics are numerous. Although some robots have multiple weapons, the more successful competitors concentrate on a single form of attack. This is a list of most of the basic types of weapons. Most robot weaponry falls into one of the following categories:

Many modern rulesets, such as the rebooted versions of BattleBots and Robot Wars, require robots to have an active weapon in order to improve the visual spectacle, thus eliminating certain designs such as torque-reaction axlebots and thwackbots, and requiring other designs such as wedges and rammers to incorporate some other kind of weapon.

Interchangeable weaponry

It is increasingly common for robots to have interchangeable weaponry or other modular components, allowing them to adapt to a wide range of opponents and increasing their versatility; such robots are often referred to as "Swiss army bots", in reference to Swiss army knives. Arguably the earliest example was Robot Wars Series 1 contestant Plunderbird, which could change between a pneumatic spike and a circular saw on an extendable arm. Successful Swiss army bots include Robot Wars Series 6 champion Tornado and BattleBots 2016 runner-up Bombshell.

Sometimes, robots that were not originally Swiss army bots have had their weapons changed or altered on the fly, typically due to malfunctions. A notable example of this was Ghost Raptor in BattleBots 2015: after its spinning bar weapon broke in its first fight, its builder Chuck Pitzer improvized new weapons for each following fight, including a "De-Icer" arm attachment which it used to unbalance and defeat the highly-fancied bar spinner Icewave in the quarter-finals, a result that was considered a shock upset.

Prohibited weaponry

Since the first robot combat competitions, some types of weapons have been prohibited either because they violated the spirit of the competition or they could not be safely used. Prohibited weapons have generally included:

Individual competitions have made exceptions to the above list. Notably, the Robotica competitions allowed flame weapons and the release of limited quantities of liquids on a case-by-case basis.[14] The modern series of BattleBots also permits the use of flamethrowers and, as of 2016, untethered projectiles, provided that the latter are merely for show.

Arena hazards have also been granted exceptions to the list of prohibited weapons. Robot Wars in particular used flame devices both in the stationary hazards and on some of the roaming "House Robots", for example Sgt Bash has a flame thrower.

Unusual weaponry

A robot housed in a dog house uses flame against a full body spinner opponent.

A very wide variety of unusual weapons and special design approaches have been tried with varying success and several types of weapons would have been tried had they not been prohibited.

Unusual propulsion

The great majority of combat robots roll on wheels, which are very effective on the smooth surfaces used for typical robot combat competition. Other propulsion strategies do pop-up with some frequency.

The Combat Robot Hall Of Fame

Robot builders voted in 2003 to name the top combat robots of all time. Twenty-five combat robots from both sides of the Atlantic were elected by their peers to membership in the Combat Robot Hall of Fame, with thirteen robots gaining honorable mention. They achieved their status based on:

The hall re-opened for membership in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015. Over these years an additional fourteen robots were elected to full membership and twenty-one robots were named in the honorable mention roll.

Membership in the Hall is by ballot of the global combat robot community. Notification and balloting instructions appear in combat robot forums in the US, UK, Australia, and India in August of odd-numbered years. A robot appearing on at least 50% of authenticated ballots gains full membership in the Hall, and a robot appearing on fewer than 50% but at least 25% of the ballots appears on the Honorable Mention roll and remain eligible for promotion to full membership in future balloting.

The robots in the Hall were named on at least 50% of the ballots in the year of their induction. They are listed in alphabetical order:

Honourable Mentions:

See also

References

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