Yeah, whenever I mention the words "robotics competition" Battlebots is the first thing out of the other persons mouth. So now I just make sure I add "and it's not Battlebots" before they get to say anything. But, honestly, the thing that would bother me about doing Battlebots instead of FIRST is that I don't think I could stand to see my robot get ripped apart after spending such a long time building. That would probably make me cry or something.

~Christina

Yeah.....
 

I've also experienced this first hand at a large event. It was the Assembly Technology Expo in Chicago, IL. We had our bot at the IPS booth and there was a battle bot at the Loctite booth....i bet i was asked if we were a battle bot or i heard them talking about it as they walked by more than 50 times. I know DJ knows what i'm talking about and Andy probably does too.

:cool:

Well, you can just do what I do -

I tell them that I am involved in a robotics competition - and then I tell them that it's a lot more difficult than Battlebots. I think it is, and if they're impressed by the Battlebots, they're in awe of anything that's more complex.

LoL, I definitly think that there's no reason to have a poll if you've ever had someone ask, "Do you do BattleBots?" or something of that sort. I've done more demonstrations than I can remember, and that's the stand first question out of EVERYONE's mouth. There's nothing wrong with BattleBots, but you just get tired explaining that you're not a part of it - and watching people go "oh...:(" (Gotta love that disappoint look that always seems to appear).

~Tom Fairchild~, who thinks that robotic competitions, no matter which organization they might be in, are here to stay.

I don't know, it seems like no one ever believes me when I say it's better than battle bots. I usually get the "well, do you get to beat up the other robot?" And when I say "not really" that's when I get the second disappointed look and that's where the conversation usually ends. Even if I do say, "But...but...it's better...I promise!" Doesn't quite seem to get them.

~Christina

Fighting Robots
 

Well since FIRST is only a seasonal competition our school is thinking about letting us enter Battle Bots soon. This is so the team doesn't lose interest during the summer and the preseason months. Also, it will help us with possible strategies that can be applied to FIRST as well as experiment with new parts and the way they function.

Re: Fighting Robots
 

Well, that's why I'm going to try to get my school involved with post season competitions. This way the team still has reason to be working on our robot and everything.

~Christina

Aye--people think violence is better.

They think that beating up another robot is much harder than working through a complex and challenging game with unknowns (allies) with a limited amount of parts and money, and a very limited amount of time.

They tend to stop listening as soon as I say that in the past couple of years, teams have had allies, or at the word "game".

I think it's time to face the facts.. Battlebots are to society now, what Gladiatorial killings were to the romans.. The fact that it was picked up by Comedy Central is center to this whole influx of intrest in machines that can beat the tar out of each other.. the fact still remains, though, that we of FIRST will get the heads up when it comes to the finer things, such as education and job offerings.. Most of the people who participate in Battlebots have careers, and money with which to build the robot.. Who knows, if we had a national cable sponsor, like MTV per se, FIRST might just get what it deserves...

We had ESPN up until '99.

Why must BattleBots be considered bad?
 

IMHO, and yes I realize that this is not concurrent with Dean's feelings, but robots battling is not violence. Destruction? Yes, but not violence. Woodie Flowers spoke out against war reenactments at Nationals last year. Once again, I do not consider it violence. Robots are not people. Is it silly to build a robot only to have it destroyed during a competition? Last year I would have said yes, but more and more I think that its no less silly than devoting 6 weeks of your life to a robot to only have it compete in three or so competitions. FIRSTers love to talk about how much learning they get from their projects and I could not agree more. But the common consensious seems to be that FIRSTers seems to think that they learn more than Battlebot fighters. Its like comparing passenger jets to fighter jets. Both are complex in their own ways.
In all though, FIRST robots do seem to be much more complex final products (I cannot say better since it really is apples and oranges). I cannot praise FIRST enough for the lessons that it has taught me, and the fact that it has guided me to seek a career in engineering. But to see FIRST as the one of only to me just seems foolish.

~Tom Fairchild~, who is extremely glad that the "violent" sport of football is on TV instead of the Polo.

P.S. forgive any mispellings that I might have made in there! And please remember, this is all IMHO!

Clark is right....... i dont know how many times i heard the question "Is this a battle bot?" or "What weapon do you guys use?"

The battlebot in the loctite booth was Vladiator....it was only the shell of it...but it was authentic, with actual battle scars...

Re: Why must BattleBots be considered bad?
 

This is a great way of looking at it. I also agree most FIRST bots are more complex in structure. There is a minimum threshold of complexity in BattleBots that is pretty low (like you could just build a robot in the pits like I pretty much did) but there is no ceiling to how much time and thought can be put into even the most simple looking design.

Maybe you have to compete in BattleBots a bit to realize the amazing attention to detail that went into Vladiator--and this is just a box with a poker on the front.

BattleBots offers a huge amount of freedom; so it is up to you to decide what problems you want to tackle and how much you want to learn. The event itself is almost a celebration of your robot's completion with the rest of the builders. The actual fights are just entertainment and closure to your building cycle.
It's whole lot of fun.

Dan

I myself prefer the old-school Vlad the Impaler. I don't know why, but I love the classic robots from both FIRST and the "fighting" shows. Let's see, there's Roadblock, Cassius, the original Panic Attack, Killerhurtz. Wow, this brings back memories...

Minion was always my favorite