You may have noticed I've been a bit quiet lately. That's because Near Chaos Robotics has joined up with several other southeastern builders to form a team that will be competing at BattleBots Season 2.
Since 1991, Robot Battles has been staging robotic combat competitions around the United States, with annual events currently held in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Chattacon, in Atlanta at Dragon*Con, and near Nashville, Tennessee at the Geek Media Expo. Past events have been staged events in Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and Colorado.
Robot Battles is one of the oldest continuously running robotic combat competitions in the world, and is a direct descendant of the oldest still running robotic event: the "Critter Crunch" held every year at MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado.
So what makes Robot Battles different? Well, we don't have a TV show, we don't have supermodels, and we don't have huge cash prizes. What we do have is a creatively unique host, some of the most imaginative builders around, and the most involved audiences in the country. You never know what to expect, so be sure to get a good seat and enjoy!
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Our next competition, Robot Battles 50, will be held at the DragonCon convention over the Labor Day Weekend. This is our biggest competition of the year, spread out over two days. The Microbattles event (featuring the one pound Antweights and three pound Beetleweights in an enclosed arena) will be held on Sunday, August 31 and the Main Event (featuring the 12 and 30 pound robots in a larger-scale sumo combat environment) will be held on Monday, September 1.
Robot Battles is what I consider one of my big two events each year, the other being Motorama. The event is great fun and both days have absolutely massive (At least 1,500 people at any one time) crowds. I'll be bringing the whole fleet as usual and Near Chaos Robotics will be defending the 1lb, 12lb and 30lb titles again.
Since 1991, Robot Battles has been staging robotic combat competitions around the United States, with annual events currently held in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Chattacon, in Atlanta at Dragon*Con, and near Nashville, Tennessee at the Geek Media Expo. Past events have been staged events in Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and Colorado.
Robot Battles is one of the oldest continuously running robotic combat competitions in the world, and is a direct descendant of the oldest still running robotic event: the "Critter Crunch" held every year at MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado.
So what makes Robot Battles different? Well, we don't have a TV show, we don't have supermodels, and we don't have huge cash prizes. What we do have is a creatively unique host, some of the most imaginative builders around, and the most involved audiences in the country. You never know what to expect, so be sure to get a good seat and enjoy!
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NEXT EVENT: Our next competition, Robot Battles 47, will be at Dragon*Con over the Labor Day Weekend with a MicroBattles event on Sunday and a SumoBattes event on Monday.
Robot Battles is what I consider one of my big two events each year, the other being Motorama. The event is great fun and both days have absolutely massive (At least 1,500 people at any one time) crowds. I'll be bringing the whole fleet as usual and Near Chaos Robotics will be defending the 1lb, 12lb and 30lb titles.
I put together an Instructable on my 1lb bot Algos. It covers the initial build, some redesign, shaft hardening and titanium anodizing. The Instructable also includes .slddrw and .dxf's of all of the waterjet cut components used. Check it out and vote for it in the Digital Fabrication Contest if you like it. http://www.instructables.com/id/One-Pound-Fighting-Robot-Algos/
1: Robot history related questions. 2: Robot component and design related questions. 3: Discussion of answers to said questions given on this site or any other site.
Keep the discussions civil and don't get personal. There are a lot of experienced builders around that can answer questions and we likely disagree on many key points. Flamewars will be nuked from orbit.
Anyone can answer a question, and several people can answer the same question. For history questions, do try to make sure you're answering accurately. For design questions, there's likely no "right" answer and they will more often than not be an opinion based answer.
There's somewhere between 10-20 threads that have been invaded by discussion of whether a technique, bot type or weapon setup is realistic.
These are my interpretations of the two types of realism:
DSL realistic- No intersecting parts unless a slot or cutout could reasonably be made. Essentially, this is no stacking/parts cutting through other parts completely, and seems to cover the vast majority of DSL realistic.
I would propose the exception to the basic rule that if there is a reasonable way to modify the bot if it were real, then it should be allowed. This would allow for things like ring spinners, hollow shafts, etc... The only difficulty is determining what goes too far.
IRL realism- IRL is much harder to define in concrete terms, so I'll just focus on a few of the more contentious issues:
Wedges: I see no reason to ban metal hinge wedges. The skirt hinges, as best I can tell, do not work, which would only leave axel wedges as an option. There are many real combat bots that have semi-ridged wedges that have a controlled, very limited movement range to prevent the wedge moving into a position that harms mobility or intersects a weapon path. Outside of that, there's currently no way outside of metal hinge, servo or burst wedging to get a strong, fixed, effective wedge like the ones you'd see on just about any 2wd wedge.
I can see the merit of the "no metal hinges at the bottom of the chassis" idea, but for ai tournaments, there will need to be a means of briefly activating any wedges for the first few moments of the fight to allow them to settle into position.
Flails: Of the flail weapons that exist, most use a small number of flails(2-4) and generally heavier components. I'd think a good compromise point would be flails are fine, in small numbers and when using heavy impact components(hammers, heavy blades, etc...)
Weapon heads: The general tendency would be to favor larger weapons wherever possible, though there are some shell and disk spinners that use more, smaller teeth. In addition, drums generally have either two long impact bars or a bunch of small ripping teeth.
There's plenty more to be added to the topic regarding specific bot types and weapon system specifics.
The wheel options in DSL are pretty good right now, but one thing that exists in real combat, but is not prevalent in DSL is the option for different diameters/widths of the same wheel type. You can get the classic Colson in 1-5/8" diameter through 12" diameter in widths of 7/8" to 3" depending on wheel size, banebots is the same, with a smaller range and different grippyness levels. The same diameter/width situation applies to the metal rim/foam tread style wheels used on many larger bots.
I don't know the difficulty level of doing this, but setting up a few of the common wheel types such that you had several diameters/widths, and possibly tread compounds(trading grip for hp) could add a lot of variety to DSL drive systems.
Up until recently (from what I understand) this idea wouldn't have been possible:
Alter the weight classes in RA2 and the components such that they reflect the real world weight of the objects they represent
ie: Long mag + gearbox would be 14.15lbs, etek would be 30lbs, battlepack would be 4lbs, NPC T-64 would be 13lbs, etc....
You could keep the scale the same without any real issue, though almost every component would need the weight changed. Adding in another small motor or two might be a good idea as well. (something like the 18v dewalt or a banebots of some sort)
The only real X factor here is how RA2 would respond to much smaller weight values.
Some of you may have seen the .pdf version of it, just thought I'd post this in case anyone who wants to build real 'bots had missed it or wanted the paper version and hadn't noticed that it was now available.
Might be due to me changing a file that I can't remember the name of a long time ago to show all components(includes stock and bot specific parts) causing a conflict somewhere, but whenever I try to pick either the flamethrower on the weapon select page or the one listed under bob's parts it crashes RA2.
Anyone know which file I modified or have any suggestions for fixing the flamethrower?
Or for something I'd assume would be fairly easy, import some of the better bots from the AU battlebots pack. (Mauler 5150 being a personal favorite, or heckfire 666 as it was last known http://www.buildersdb.com/botpics/490.jpg)
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