Robot combat

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

Robot combat is a hobby/sport 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.

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.

History

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.[1] Both events are 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 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.[3][4]

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

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 75 gram 'Fleaweight' class, and as large as the 340-pound 'Super Heavyweight' class. The common weightclasses[5] are as follows:

There are some international variations in weight class - for example, UK robot builders define the UK Antweight class limit as 150g.

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 do not 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. 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.

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:

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.[7]

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.

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robot combat.

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