Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

There is a new show on the Do-It-Yourself Network (http://www.diynet.com/) called "Robot Rivals". This show is amazing.. I am just watching the first episode tonight, and what they are doing is great. It is just like FIRST robotics...

Check out info here: http://www.nspe.org/etweb/14-03rivalrobots.asp

They use IFI Issac 32 Systems, Victors, CIM Motors, Bosch, and a bunch of other parts that appear in our kit of parts. They get 8 hours to do a build a robot to do a specific thing (like Junkyard Wars), then they go on if they win in a ladder style competition. They have to do the things FIRST does, program, design, build test.. but they don't have the comfort of the 6 weeks.

This is seriously the first Robotics show I've liked for a long time. Tell me what you think.. if you have seen it or whatnot. This is a great show, too bad it is on such a unknown network.

Next airings:

Sun 20 6:00 PM
Fri 25 8:00 PM
Fri 25 11:00 PM
Sat 26 9:00 PM
Sun 27 12:00 AM
Sun 27 6:00 PM
Fri 2 8:00 PM
Fri 2 11:00 PM
Sat 3 9:00 PM
Sun 4 12:00 AM
Sun 4 6:00 PM

Sounds cool. I'll have to check it out next time it's on.

Purdue - 461
 

I've not seen it yet, but I hear that the FIRSTers from Purdue (Westside Boiler Invasion - team 461) are kicking some major 'bot in this competition.

Also... I hear that they are the only FIRST-experienced people in the competition, so we can all pull for them.

Go WBI!!

Andy B.

Interseting. What type of challanges are these? Like Junkyard or more like FIRST?

Grrr... I looked at my channel listings, and I don't even get the channel that it's shown on.... boo!

The one I saw, was to make a robot that can pick up a small soccer ball, and shoot it into a goal. It is a cross between FIRST and Junkyard Wars. They get a kit of parts, and a common household item to turn into their robot.

FIRST mentioned in regards to TV show...
 

From

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable

San Francisco Chronicle
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer

Has anyone been watching this show?

It is great! It gives me a FIRST fix every week.

Excellent show. Now if only I could figure out how they determined which schools to choose for the show, and hope that they produce a second season, hopefully with WPI included this time :D

One of the two advisors is a friend of mine. I think the way it basically works is you email him and ask to be on the show. Me and two other friends will be representing FIU probably in the next season, which should be pretty cool. All three of us have done FIRST since 1999 and I have done Battlebots IQ since 2000. It should prove interesting. PM me and I could probably get you in contact with him, I dont have his card on me right now but I'll give you a link to his website. http://www.teamdavinci.com/ , just look for Brett "Buzz" Dawson, hes the crazy bald guy =)

Also for an episode list of season 1 and what "competition" they did, check out http://www.teamdavinci.com/robot_rivals.htm

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

Robot Rivals kicked off its 2nd season within the last 2 months! There are still reruns of both seasons on just about once a week! It's the best robotics show I've see on TV in a few years!

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

Buzz' e-mail address is buzz <commercial at sign> teamdavinci.com. I was a judge at the last BattleBotsIQ competition and got to hang-out with Buzz, which was a lot of fun. It was clear to me that Buzz is very, very serious about teaching engineering through robotics.

-Kevin

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

i thought the show was great. It really reflects what we really do. However we have more time to build. But alot of the designs these teams come up with are amazing.

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

This is a great show, and lucky for our team, Buzz Dawson (one of the hosts) lives right down the street from out team.

The show has been on for two seasons now.. and last I heard from Buzz they had not told him whether or not there was goign to be a third season.

It is a great show though.

Nathan Pell

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

And we all thought 6 weeks was too short!

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

If you don't want to wait to see how Lehrbaum's team does, you can read this: http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/forefron...003/robot.html

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

i think we need to get an RIT team in there for season three :D

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

I'll let Chris (WernerNYK) post his experience appearing on the show, but the gist of it is that most of the stuff they filmed was staged, the robots were pre-built when they arrived (they dissasembled and reassembled them for the camera, and made duplicates of parts), and, at least in the episode with the WPI team, the "winner" was decided arbitrarily.

Re: Now that's a Robot Show! "Robot Rivals"
 

Yes, the bots were prebuilt, but to the design of the teams. We did this because each episode is literally filmed in one day. Unfortunately, we found out early on that not every team that shows up is capable of building a robot on their own much less do it in five hours. Therefore, to save costs, Brian and I would prebuild each bot just prior to the teams arriving.

As some of you have noted, Robot Rivals is on a relatively unknown station and therefore didn't get the widespread recognition that it was capable of. It now seems that the network has decided not to renew the show for another season. It was fun while it lasted.

If any of you come down to the Southeast regionals then you will probably see me and my bald head behind the microphone arenaside :-D

Brett "Buzz" Dawson