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Battlebots may have been the best thing to happen to robotics in terms of letting people know about the "sport", but it gives a bad representation overall. I can't tell you how many times I'm talking to people not involved in robotics about our FIRST team, and the first question out of their mouths is always "do they fight?" and "do you to Battlebots" Its hard to explain to ppl whose only exposure to robotics is BB that it takes much more design skill and creativity to build a FIRST bot designed to do a complicated task than to bolt a circular saw to a overgrown RC car. There are exeptions in BB though, there are many finely engineered and designed bots, as well as many innovative designs. Unfortunately the trend seems to be towards bots that are cheap to build, have one huge hit per match, but get blown apart easily. The rules of Battlebots also hinder creative thinking, because basically everything goes. Why not limit some of the weapons used so that designers need to find more innovative and creative ways of inflicting damage other than brute force?
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