Slashdot Log In
BattleBots Delayed, Will Go Brains Over Babes
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Fri Mar 14, 2008 06:30 PM
from the more-engineering-the-better dept.
from the more-engineering-the-better dept.
An anonymous reader writes "We got all excited earlier this week about robo-combat returning to TV with ESPN, but now PopMech super geek Erik Sofge talks to the folks at BattleBots and finds out that because of so many early entries, the competition will be delayed until at least November. The reason? Gone are the babes and predictable wedge fights, in are eager engineering students, a crazy ramp arena and lots of new rules. Worth the wait, or do we miss the Comedy Central version?"
Related Stories
[+]
News: BattleBots & ESPN Strike TV Deal 120 comments
NMajik writes "Although BattleBots has been largely removed from the public eye since episodes stopped airing years ago, a new deal has recently been struck with ESPN to return combat robots to the living room. Episodes will be broadcast as a series on ESPNU and ESPN2 after filmed at the competition in June 2008. This is the first notable progress towards televised combat robotics in years."
Submission: BattleBots Delayed, Will Go Brains Over Babes by Anonymous Coward
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Robots? (Score:5, Insightful)
When your battle bot can battle even somewhat autonomously, then I'll watch.
Re:Robots? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The only way autonomy would happen is if it is required. I'd love to see it as a requirement, but the fact is that controlled machines are going to be more interesting to watch, even if they represent less of a tech
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrano [wikipedia.org]
Don't think I want to be around to watch when it decides to 'neutralize' some targets personally.
Re:Robots? (Score:5, Insightful)
We're not even close to being able to have an AI that would be able to adapt to a new opponent with a new weapon system or form of motion. We've been able to make decent autonomous robots that operate in a strictly controlled environment where they can be programmed to expect everything that can happen -- e.g. robots that play soccer, now toss a football at one, or make the floor like a mogul ski slope, and see what it does. Heck, a lot of AIs go completely mental when faced with unknown stimulus.
So given the practical realities of AI today, you'd essentially have to get rid of all the engineering and design aspects of the robots, and basically have a standard robot so that you could make the necessary assumptions about what enemies it would face. Not that this kind of thing isn't interesting -- I always loved programming crobots which had only one robot with standard abilities. It's just that practically speaking you have to choose between software engineering and hardware engineering, and at this point I just think unique human-controlled fighting machines is more exciting.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I think these changes are great. My two biggest complaints were that they tried to "WWF" it, and that it all degenerated into "Wedge vs. wedge". Sounds like they're fixing both of those problems. An uneven ground surface should indeed deal well with the wedges, as well
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
No, I'm not. I'm talking about "weak" AI, the practical side of machine learning and decision making algorithms. Look at our best robots -- Asimo, the RoboCup, even industrial machinery controllers -- and you'll find systems that operate between passably and impressively in their particular controlled environment, but are fairly useless outside it. Even RoboCup -- soccer playing robots -- only works because all the robots are essentially the same, and the ball an
I disagree. (Score:5, Interesting)
Given where student robotics already is, and given the software availability, what more can you possibly need for a perfectly viable autonomous robot league for Battlebots?
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Ah! (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
* the first day, every robot fights a simple robot or remote-controlled one, created by the organizers. Those who can fight it are admitted. These challenges are public so that each team can see the other teams' robot in action.
* 24 before the fight, teams know which robot they will have to fight
* They have one hour between each battle to change the program of their robot or to input new parameters
That's approximately what is being done in the European Robotic Cup Eurobot [eurobot.org]. The intent is not
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
While I agree that it does seem kind of lame that a show titled "BattleBots" featured no actual robots, I highly doubt that a show featuring autonomous bots would actually be interesting to watch.
To borrow a quote from bash.org [bash.org], all you'd end up watching are robots that "collect data about the surrounding environment, then discard it and drive into walls."
But even assuming that the AI could match the human-controlled bots, it wouldn't make it any more interesting. Instead of watching a bunch of human-co
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You don't actually think that it's practical to have robots that fight with lasers, do you?
Re:Robots? (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Well, being a geek... (Score:5, Insightful)
(seriously though, I think focusing on the main content instead of "babes" will give the show much better longevity -- while Kari Byron can be pretty in MythBusters, that's not the main reason to why I watch that show)
Re:Well, being a geek... (Score:5, Funny)
"My God, look how that bot's exoskeleton shines in the moonlight."
"Those mechanical legs go all the way up, baby."
"Seeing the lubricating oil spewing from that gouged bot makes me tingle in all the right places."
"Hot three on one bot action!"
"Man, those two bots just kept ramming the other one into submission! I had to change my underwear."
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Funny you mention Mythbusters (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
ZOMG do we have a female on slashdot ?
Anyway speak for yourself.
Yes and yes. (Score:3, Funny)
I'd love to see more programming that shows "nerds" / "geeks" / whatever you want to call us in a positive light. We've conquered the public programming sector (PBS, NPR, the cable channels with a scientific bent, etc), but we have made little success in the mainstream programming sector.
Seeing a pale skin dude (or chic!) on ESPN... workin' a bot... will be a wonderful day.
And I may actually watch ESPN! (I've got my system setup now so it automatically skips over the channel when surfing.)
Re:Yes and yes. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
not autonomous, not interested (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
First one suffered from faux excitement (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like they're taking the right approach this time!
Bad commentators (Score:3, Insightful)
Why would I want to see some bulky duo of Americans talking about robots fighting, when I could actually watch robots fighting? The commentators are necessary if you want to take something that is essentially dull, and make it exciting, such as American Football (great moments of tactical play interspersing boring, short maneuvering). But in this case... Robots! FIGHT
I was really disappointed (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, the mayhem was just too limited. I wanted more sparks, more dismembered, twitching robot bits laying on the arena floor.
What I'd really like to see is different divisions, RC controlled robots with killer death-hammers, saws and drills. And another division with AI bots th
CC Version Cool Despite Producers Worst Efforts (Score:4, Interesting)
First off, what did Comedy Central have to do with fighting robots? ESPN I sort of get (they call Poker a "sport", so I guess battlebots can be one, too), but why Comedy Central.
More to the point, I miss Battle Bots being televised, but I don't miss Comedy Central. The announcers were annoying, Carmen Electra was pointless, and they spent too much airtime dithering about nothing. The worst of it was that the camera angles and microphone pickup made the bots look like toys. Many of these machines took a team of guys to lift them out of the travel van and get them into the arena. Every year, they thickened the lexan around the arena, and every year, something managed to pierce it. These are nasty machines, but they never looked more powerful than an unmodded nerf gun.
UK Robot Wars (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd heard about Battle Bots in the midst of watching Robot Wars and eventually one of the tv stations here aired a few shows, what a complete let down it was! there was some serious hostility of the opponents being portrayed on screen, wether it was real or staged it just felt nasty compared to the UK's Robot Wars where the teams would help each other out because they were mainly there for the whole entertainment & experience, not to gloat over their wins.
I would hope there's more friendly rivalry in the upcoming Battle Bots instead of nasty "I'm better than you" type taunts & attitude, but being an American show I don't hold out much hope, except perhaps that someone will torrent the shows because I really miss seeing robots beat the crap out of each other, half because of the fights and strategy involved and half because I love seeing the ingenuity and designs of the robots.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
being nostalgic (Score:2, Interesting)
Perhaps I should reconsider (Score:2)
Oh well, my payment will be in the form of a show that I'll definately be watching.
Guns, please (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foster-Miller_TALON [wikipedia.org]
And I would watch it.
Obligatory robotronica reference (Score:2)
Comedy Central Version (Score:4, Interesting)
I blame the contestants for not letting their robots get smashed to bits. Most battles ended with the winner giving pity to the other contestant. Only a few battles featured the other robot getting destroyed. I wanted to see the robots fight to the death. Its like the money shot of the show. They first discuss the robot and how it works, all the aspects behind building it, etc. Then they go at it. I know alot of hardwork go into building these but seriously, when you put your machine in a arena full of dangerous obstacles and a competing robot, do you expect it to come out peacefully.
The majority of battles ended with a robot malfunctioning on the first blow and then if it didn't work after 30-60 seconds they ended the round.
Wish List for Robot Combat Show (Score:3, Interesting)
- Bonus mass allowance for autonomous robots. Remote control is neat and all that, but real robots have senors and logic (and flamethrowers)
- Bonus mass allowance for legged robots. Additionally, there should be terrain features that favor legged bots over wheeled bots. Steps and potholes come to mind. Potholes with flamethrowers.
- Large bonus mass allowance for bipedal legged robots. Hey, if you can make a bot walk and smash things then you're doing alright. If it walks and carries a flamethrower it is just about ideal.
- A venue where flame and projectile weapons are safe (and encouraged). The ultimate bots from the previous incarnation of the series tended towards those that stored up huge amounts of angular momentum. Without the ability to counter this huge offensive potential with countermeasures such as nets or chains or flails these bots were almost unstoppable. I'm not sure how a flamethrower would help here, but flamethrowers make for great TV.
Finally, using the aforementioned flamethrowers, get rid of the WWE style announcers.Peter
Re: (Score:2)
Could it be done? Sure, but your going to need a much bigger budget to do it.
Re: (Score:2)
Other designs were obviously intended to be crowd-pleasers, tall robots with spinning circular saws or huge claws that looked great but performed badly. Oh
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I hope... (Score:4, Interesting)
Trouble was, the robots that rivalled Hypnodisc for the title were always well built and well armoured. So Hypnodisc would utterly destroy the no-hopers, and then when it met the likes of Cassius or Chaos or Razer or Panic Attack it found itself rather worse off. A flywheel weapon relies upon the one-hit kill; it's expensive in energy, so we often saw Hypnodisc running low on power after a few jolts, and left vulnerable. Worse yet, hit something that doesn't yield and you hurt yourself maybe more than the target...
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Jonah Hex
Re:Yeahh.... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent