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Robot Combat is a hobby/sport in
which two 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 in the public eye 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
interest in robotic combat peaked with the airing of those shows,
there are still dozens of smaller competitions around the USA and
in other countries every year. Combat robots have received mention
in the press and entertainment shows from time to time as well.
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. Other robot competitions,
like RoboGames, offer a
mix of combat and non-combat events.
History
Among the oldest robotic combat competitions extant in the
United States were the "Critter Crunch" (founded about 1987) in Denver and "Robot Battles"
(founded in 1991) based in the southeastern U.S.[1] Both
events were run by members of the "Denver Mad Scientists
Society".
1994 - Marc Thorpe organized the first Robot Wars
competition in San Francisco.[2] 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 Sates 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.
Weight
classes
Michael "Shaggy" Macht and Jason Brown review a combat robot in the
pits of 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 75 gram 'Fleaweight' class, and as large as the
340-pound 'Super Heavyweight' class. The common weightclasses[3] are as
follows:
- 75g- Fleaweight
- 150g- Fairyweight (UK - Antweight)
- 1 pound (454 g) - Antweight
- 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) Kilobot (Canada)
- 3 pound (1.36 kg) - Beetleweight
- 6 pound (2.72 kg) - Mantisweight
- 12 pound (5.44 kg) - Hobbyweight
- 15 pound (6.80 kg) - BotsIQ Mini class
- 30 pound (14 kg) - Featherweight
- 60 pound (27 kg) - Lightweight
- 120 pound (54 kg) - Middleweight / BotsIQ Large class
- 220 pound (100 kg) - Heavyweight
- 340 pound (154 kg) Super Heavyweight
There are some international variations in weight class - for
example, UK robot builders define the Antweight class limit as 150g
and the Featherweight class limit as 12 kg (26 pounds).
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 by the weightclass of the robots that are fighting
in it. Some large competitions that entertain many different
weightclasses have more than one arena, because 1 pound antweights
don't need 50 foot (15 m) wide arenas in which to fight, but 220
pound 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, liquid, 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[4] The
majority of robot combat events in the U.S. 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 sport continues today despite the lack of television
coverage. The size of the events has diminished, but there are
scores of tournaments scattered throughout the United States,
Canada, and the United Kingdom.
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:
- Rammer - Robots employing high-power drive
trains and heavy armor are able to use their speed and
maneuverability to crash into their opponent repeatedly with hope
of damaging weapons and vital components. Their pushing power may
also be used to shove their opponent into arena hazards. Rammers
(AKA ‘Bricks’) typically have four or six wheels for traction and
stability and are often designed to be fully operational when
inverted. Robot Wars Series 6 champion Tornado and Series 7 Runner-up
Storm II were effective rammers.
- Wedge - Similar in concept to a rammer, the
wedge uses a low-clearance inclined wedge or scoop to move in under
an opponent and break its contact with the arena floor – decreasing
its mobility and rendering it easy to push off into a wall or
hazard. The wedge is also useful in deflecting attacks by other
robots. Wedges are also used to lift an opponent up to make the
attack of another weapon more effective. A small wedge may be
attached to the rear of a robot with other weaponry for use as a
‘backup’ in case the main weapon fails. The 1995 US Robot Wars
middleweight champion La Machine was an early and
effective wedge design as was Robot Wars Series 1 champion,
Roadblock (1997).
- Spinner - Continuously rotating weapons are
popular and varied. These use a dedicated motor to spin up a heavy
bar, studded disc, or toothed cylinder (drum/eggbeater) and use it
to strike the opponent with the kinetic energy stored in the
rotating mass. The mass may spin on either a horizontal or vertical
axis, although vertical spinners may have maneuverability problems
due to the gyroscopic action of the weapon. The destructive
potential of a well designed spinning weapon requires robust arena
containment to prevent shrapnel being thrown into the audience.
Three-time BattleBots middleweight champion Hazard was a
horizontal bar spinner.
- Full Body Spinner - Taking the concept of the
spinner to the extreme, a full body spinner (AKA shell spinner or
tuna can spinner) rotates the entire outer shell of the robot as a
stored energy weapon. Other robot components (batteries, weapon
motor casing) may be attached to the shell to increase the spinning
mass while keeping the mass of the drive train to a minimum. An FBS
robot takes several seconds to spin the heavy shell up to effective
speed, and they must evade their opponent while waiting for that
speed. The 1995 US Robot Wars heavyweight co-champion Blendo was the first
effective full body spinner.
- Thwackbot - A narrow, high-speed, two-wheel
drive train attached to a long boom with an impact weapon on the
end creates a robot that can spin in place at a high speed,
swinging the weapon in a horizontal circle. The simplicity and
durability of the design is appealing, but the robot cannot be made
to move in a controlled manner while spinning without employing
sophisticated electronics. The 1995 US Robot Wars lightweight
champion Test Toaster 1 was a thwackbot, as were
T-Wrex and Golddigger from the BattleBots
series.
- Torque Reaction - A variant on the thwackbot
is the torque reaction hammer. These robots have two very large
wheels with the small body of the robot hanging in between them. A
long weapon boom has a vertically oriented hammer, pick, or axe on
the end. On acceleration, the weapon boom swings upward and over to
the rear of the robot to offset the motor torque. When the robot
reverses direction, the weapon will swing forcibly back over the
top and hopefully impact the opponent. These robots are simple and
can put on a flashy, aggressive show, but their attack power is
relatively small. BattleBots 2.0 middleweight champion
Spaz was a torque reaction pickaxe robot.
- Lifter - Using tactics similar to a wedge, the
lifter uses a powered arm, prow, or platform to get underneath the
opponent and lift it away from the arena surface to remove its
maneuverability. The lifter may then push the other robot toward
arena hazards or attempt to toss the opponent onto its back. The
lifter is typically powered by either an electric or pneumatic
actuator. Two-time US Robot wars and four-time BattleBots
heavyweight champion Biohazard was an electric
lifter.
- Flipper - Although mechanically resembling a
lifter, the flipper uses much higher levels of pneumatic power to
fire the lifting arm explosively upward. An effective flipper can
throw opponents end-over-end through the air causing damage from
the landing impact or, at Robot Wars, toss it completely out of the
arena. Flippers use a large volume of compressed gas and may have a
limited number of effective attacks before their supply runs low.
The two-time Robot Wars champion Chaos 2 and BattleBots super
heavyweight champion Toro were flippers.
- Clamper - Another lifter variant, the clamper
adds an arm or claw that descends from above to secure the opposing
robot in place on a lifting platform. The entire assembly then
lifts and carries the opponent wherever the operator pleases.
Two-time BattleBots super heavyweight champion Diesector was an electric
clamper.
- Dustpan - An uncommon variant on the clamper,
the dustpan simplifies the design by replacing the lifting platform
with a wide box open at the front and top. An opponent maneuvered
into the box may then be restrained with an arm or claw from above.
Some designs use only the box with no restraining claw.
- Crusher - Related to the dustpan, the crusher
uses a hydraulic cylinder attached to a sharp piercing arm to pin
and slowly penetrate the usually weak top armor of the opponent.
Enormous strength and careful engineering are required to build an
effective crusher, which may be why there have been only two
successful crushing combat robots: two-time Robot Wars world
champion Razer and two-time Robot Wars
Annihilator champion Kan-Opener.
- Overhead Axe - Swinging a high-speed axe,
spike, or hammer forcefully down onto your opponent offers another
method of attacking the vulnerable top surface. The weapon is
typically driven by a pneumatic actuator via a rack and pinion or
direct mechanical linkage. The attack may damage the opposing robot
directly, or may lodge in their robot and provide a handle for
dragging them toward a hazard. BattleBots heavyweight runner-up and
Robot Wars competitor Killerhurtz was armed with an
overhead axe.
- SRiMech - Some robot and weapon designs are
not compatible with inverted operation. A Self Righting Mechanism
is an active design element that returns an inverted robot to
mobility in the upright state. The SRiMech is typically an electric
or pneumatic arm or extension on the upper surface of the robot
which pushes against the arena floor to roll or flip the robot
upright. Some carefully designed flipping or lifting weapons can
perform double-duty as SRiMechs. Even a vertical spinning weapon
may be used as a crude self-righting device. Team Nightmare's
lightweight vertical spinner Backlash
was designed such that when flipped it would hit the ground with
the spinning disc and kick back upright.[5] The
first successful unaided use of a SRiMech in competition was at the
1997 U.S. Robot Wars when the immobilized Vlad the Impaler
used a dedicated pneumatic device to pop back upright in a match
against Biohazard.
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:
- Radio jamming
- High voltage electric discharge
- Liquids (glue, oil, water, corrosives…)
- Open combustion (fire, explosives…)
- Un-tethered projectiles
- Lasers above 1 milliwatt
- Visual obstruction
- Halon - a specific fire
extinguishing gas effective as a weapon in stopping internal
combustion engines. Note that current rules do not specifically ban
Halon as it is no longer commercially available.
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.[6]
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 Bots".
Unusual
weaponry
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.
- Entanglement Weapons - Several early US Robot
Wars competitors sought to immobilize their opponents with
entangling weapons. Nets and streamers of adhesive tape were both
tried with mixed success. Entangling weapons were prohibited in
Robot Wars and BattleBots from 1997 onward,[7] but the
Robotica competitions
allowed nets, magnets, and other entangling devices on a
case-by-case basis.[8]
- Flame Weapons - Although prohibited for use by
competitors in Robot Wars and BattleBots, the rules for Robotica
and the Robot Fighting League do allow
flame weapons under some circumstances. RFL super heavyweight
competitor Alcoholic Stepfather and Robotica competitor
Solar Flare employed gaseous flamethrower weapons.
Flamethrowers are not effective weapons, but are audience
favorites.
- Smothering Weapons – The BattleBots and Robot
Wars lightweight competitor Tentoumushi used a large
plastic sandbox cover shaped like a ladybug ("tentoumushi" being
Japanese for ladybug) on a powered arm to drop down over opposing
robots, covering and encircling them. Once covered, it was
difficult to tell what the opponent was doing and who was dragging
whom around the arena. One version of the robot had a circular saw
concealed under the cover to inflict physical damage, another had a
small grappling
hook.
- Tethered Projectiles – Although tethered
projectiles are specifically allowed and discussed in major rules
sets, their use is quite rare. Neptune fought at
BattleBots 3.0 with pneumatic spears on tethers, but was unable to
damage its opponent. During a friendly weapons test, Team Juggerbot
allowed the builders of Neptune to take a couple shots against
their bot. One of two shots penetrated an aluminum panel below the
main armor, while the other bounced off the top armor.[9]
- Multibots (clusterbots) – A single robot that
breaks apart into multiple, independently controlled robots has
appealed to a few competitors. The Robot Wars heavyweight
Gemini and the BattleBots middleweight Pack
Raptors were two-part multibots that had some success. The
rules concerning clusterbots have varied over the years, either
stating that 50% of the clusterbot has to be immobilised to
eliminate the robot from the tournament (In the dutch version of
Robot wars, there was a 3 part multibot named √3, and although one
of it's parts was tossed out of the arena by Matilda, the robot as
a whole was still deemed mobile, and the other 2 parts of √3 did
enough to win the game), or that all of a multibot's segments have
to be incapacitated before a knock-out victory can be declared.
Current Robot Fighting League match rules[10]
require the latter to be achieved.
- Halon Gas – Rhino Halon fought at the
1997 U.S. Robot Wars event with a halon gas fire extinguisher,
which was very effective at stopping internal combustion engines.
Gas weapons of this nature were promptly prohibited from future
competitions.[11]
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.
- Tank Treads – Numerous combat robots have used
treads or belts in place of wheels in an attempt to gain additional
traction. Treads are generally heavier and more vulnerable to
damage than a wheeled system and offer no particular traction
advantage on the types of surfaces common in robot combat. Most
uses of treads are for their striking appearance. The RobotWars
competitors 101 and Mortis along with the
BattleBots super heavyweight Ronin used treads.
- Walking – The spectacle of a multi-legged
robot walking across the arena into combat is a big audience
favorite. Robot combat rules typically have given walking robots an
additional weight allowance to offset their slower speed, the
complexity of the mechanism, and to encourage their construction.
What the event organizers had in mind was something like the
spider-legged robot Mechadon, but what most often was
produced were simple rule-shaving propulsion systems that attempted
to save as much of the extra weight allowance as possible for
additional weaponry. Attempts at more restrictive definitions of
“Walking” have effectively eliminated walking robots from
competition. BattleBots heavyweight champion Son of
Whyachi used a controversial cam-driven “Shufflebot”
propulsion system, which was promptly declared ineligible for
additional weight allowance at subsequent competitions.[12]
- Suction Fan – Several competitors experimented
with the use of fans to evacuate air from a low-clearance shell to
suck the robot down onto the arena surface and add traction.
Robotica competitor Armorgeddon used a suction fan to
increase traction and pushing power, and Robot Wars UK robot
TerrorHurtz used a suction fan to counter the forces from
its hammer/axe weapon. Similar designs have appeared in robot-sumo competitions
where traction is a key factor.[13]
- Magnet Wheels – Another approach to gaining
traction and stability involves the use of ring-shaped rare-earth
magnets as wheels. This is, naturally, only effective in arenas
which have magnetic metal surfaces. Due to the expense of large
ring magnets, this trick has been used almost exclusively in
three-pound and under “insect class” robots, although a lightweight
battlebot General Gau tried implementing them. Heavyweight Robotica
competitor Hot Wheels attempted to use a large
chassis-mounted magnet to gain traction and apparent weight, and
Beta Hurtz unsuccessfully attempted to use an
electromagnet to counter the reaction forces of its massive hammer
weapon at the BattleBots competition. The result ended in the robot
being completely stuck to the floor.
- Mecanum Wheels – The previously mentioned RFL
super-heavyweight competitor Alcoholic Stepfather uses Mecanum wheels and
specialized motor control systems that allow it controlled motion
in any direction without turning. This is eerie to watch, and
disruptive of attack and defense maneuvers by opponents. Root
Canal implemented a similar design at BattleBots using Omni wheels angled at 45
degrees.
- Translational Drift - Also known as Melty
Brain or Tornado Drive, this sophisticated system
supplements the thwackbot drivetrain with electronic
rotation sensors and rapid speed controller switching that allows a
rotating thwackbot to move in a controlled manner while spinning.
Several robots have implemented this complex design, but none with
particular success. Herr Gepoünden, a lightweight robot, has shown
successful use of the Tornado Drive and has used it successfully in
smaller competitions. The drive is implemented with an LED light
system that tells the driver its current position, indicating where
the robot should be driven to.
- Flying – The 1995 US Robot Wars event had a
flying competitor: S.P.S. #2 was a lighter-than-air craft
buoyed by three weather balloons and propelled by small electric
fans. It attempted to drop a net on the opponent. Nearly
invulnerable to attack, it won the first match against Orb of
Doom (see reference below), but ventured too close to the
arena floor in the second match and was dragged down and
"popped".
- Rolling Sphere – The afore-mentioned Orb
of Doom was a featherweight competitor at the 1995 US Robot
Wars. It consisted of a remote-controlled toy car inside a hollow
papier-mâché sphere. It was able to roll around the arena in a
controlled manner, but was incapable of effective offense. A
similar robot named Psychosprout appeared in the UK Robot
Wars.
- Rolling Tube -Snake competed at
Battlebots and the US Robot Wars using a series of actuators to
bend its triangular cross-section tubular body to roll, writhe, and
slither across the arena.
- Shuffling - refers to the movement of robots
that are propelled by a cam-driven system. See
Walking
See also
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