Robot Wars returns on Sunday 24th July

[Gerrard]

Bump to remind people it is on tonight.

[virtuo]

Heard mixed reviews so far, going to watch it on catch-up tonight

[g8ina]

Pretty good, Dara is a LOT more laid back than Craig was, bots are just as good if not better, and we have a new *beast* to watch out for - a worthy hero that gives the same sort of destruction as good old Hypnodisc You'll know which one it is when you see it I wont spoil the surprise

[Tetsuo Ryuu]

I remember watching this every afternoon years and years ago.
Nostalgia!

[DanceswithUnix]

Bump to remind people it is on tonight.

Thanks for the bump, watched it with my daughter, we both really enjoyed the show. Nearly forgot!

[Kumagoro]

It seemed to me that not much has changed since it ended last time. I hope there are more new bots which are better to come.

I wonder how much they cost to make. Also I wonder how they test them, the spinning ones must be quite dangerous.

[DanceswithUnix]

I wonder how much they cost to make.

They said on the show up to £25K. That is lunatic money for something that might get shredded in seconds with a lucky blow from another bot!

Would be fun to have a lightweight class, or fun to build at least. Something like 10kg so you would have to be 3d printed out of cheap plastic with some metal used sparingly.

[Gerrard]

I am pretty certain I remember there being a weight class at some point, but it might have been on the US version.

With the weight limit, I think there is only so much you can do and it looks like just armouring up should protect you against pretty much anything, except for maybe Razer's claw. You then just need a device that can reduce the traction of another robot and rely purely on pushing power. I think there were a couple in the original series that relied on that principal (Chaos and Tornado?); not very impressive to watch with no weapons, but probably more effective.

[jimbouk]

Well that was jolly good fun! Good light hearted entertainment and some good destruction

[blockedSounds]

Glad to see the show kept its gritty, low-tech feel; I was concerned a reboot might be sterile and trying hard to be modern or futuristic. The cutting to the audience and full-screen action replays during a battle were annoying. They should stuff those distractions into the corner of the screen if they really feel it's necessary. I thought Dara was ok, but he really brought home how awesome Craig Charles was, the guy was made for presenting Robot Wars. Hope they bring him back at some point for a special.

[Spud1]

I wonder how much they cost to make.

The cost seems to vary dramatically depending on the materials you want to use. The electronics are (perhaps surprisingly) some of the cheapest bits - as you pretty much just need some ESCs, Motors, Lipos, TX and RX - suitable ones can be had from China for as little as £300 brand new, with the major cost being some decent motors (and you may want a lot of them!).

The frame and casing come in next - steel is rather cheap to buy (maybe £300-£400 ish for a good sized robot) and you can buy the tubes + sheeting made to measure, however you then need the milling machinery to work it, welding equipment, bolts etc. That can get expensive, unless you are lucky enough to have a "Fab Lab" or equivalent near you where you can get time on machines for free or very little You can buy pre fabricated frames for £2000+ but where's the fun in that!

The real cost can be the weaponry. A simple spinning weapon (like a circular saw) is cheap to make - but if you start to invest in pneumatics, flippers etc then the cost does seem to skyrocket.

I have costed out a flat starter robot at around £5k all in, brandishing circular saws and a self righting mechanism. Can't quite afford that yet but I am building a plastic prototype using arduinos and 3D printed parts - my boss is keen to sponsor a full sized metal version so who knows! Got a lot to learn mind, I am really a dev and electronics tinkerer, not a robotics expert!


There are lots of good examples on indestructibles if you fancy a go! for example http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...ini-Battlebot/

[Rob_B]

£5k ouch!

But totally worth it seeing as I'm not paying! Go for it!

[Kumagoro]

WOWSERS! As inspector gadget would say. No wonder you don't see many new bots.

I think I would prefer to see a scrap heap challenge style contest and see what they could do in a week with second hand parts and a 500 quid budget.

Does anyone know if there is a rule that says they can only have one weapon? I have often wondered why none seem to have more than one other than the house robots. I would have a spinner one end and a flipper on the other, or the Razer crusher and either a spinner or flipper etc.

Imagine chaos 2 merged with Razer or hypnodisc.

Another thing which seems to have never been used is reversible controls. so rather than just reversing you hit a switch and the front becomes the back etc, which would make manoeuvring so much easier.

[Spud1]

Does anyone know if there is a rule that says they can only have one weapon?

You can have as many as you like - but there are restrictions, and the team do reserve the right to say no if they think it's too powerful! I have seen a few with multiple weapons - e.g. spikes on the back and a flipper on the front.

I've pasted the official rules document here for you - http://pastebin.com/Q8mkfPkj

[Xlucine]

That's absolutely perfect - robot wars is back properly. That robot is down right terrifying, it's painful to watch the best robots just get taken to pieces by it. I'm starting to wonder how it can be optimised though, there's clear room for improvement in stored energy of the weapon and maybe even the time to attack

They said on the show up to £25K. That is lunatic money for something that might get shredded in seconds with a lucky blow from another bot!

Would be fun to have a lightweight class, or fun to build at least. Something like 10kg so you would have to be 3d printed out of cheap plastic with some metal used sparingly.

I'd love to see an autonomous class, it'd be hilarious. Limiting it to extruded ABS ought to make it more accessible and less downfall-of-humanity - heavyweight robots with no controller is scary

[Xlucine]

WOWSERS! As inspector gadget would say. No wonder you don't see many new bots.

I think I would prefer to see a scrap heap challenge style contest and see what they could do in a week with second hand parts and a 500 quid budget.

Does anyone know if there is a rule that says they can only have one weapon? I have often wondered why none seem to have more than one other than the house robots. I would have a spinner one end and a flipper on the other, or the Razer crusher and either a spinner or flipper etc.

Imagine chaos 2 merged with Razer or hypnodisc.

Another thing which seems to have never been used is reversible controls. so rather than just reversing you hit a switch and the front becomes the back etc, which would make manoeuvring so much easier.

ISTR a few trying that in the old series, and you always ended up with a naff attempt at both.

You can have as many as you like - but there are restrictions, and the team do reserve the right to say no if they think it's too powerful! I have seen a few with multiple weapons - e.g. spikes on the back and a flipper on the front.

I've pasted the official rules document here for you - http://pastebin.com/Q8mkfPkj

Thanks for that, it's really informative! I wonder if they would allow the use of supercapacitors? It'd be useful for spinning disk robots to get their weapons up to speed rapidly without melting their batteries.