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Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard
Does anyone know where I could find the full rules for building one of these?
I'd love to see both the robot rules (weight, height, power/speed limitations), as well as the "game rules" (What am I allowed to/not allowed to do in the arena, how cool does my robot need to be/how aggressive/defensive do they need to be).
I think it would be an interesting exercise mentally building a robot for this "game".
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I can add some details here from what I heard... and know from past events that seem to have carried over.
Team's were pooled mostly from existing groups of known builders that were still semi-active, groups that competed in such things as ComBots/Robogames and smaller events around the USA/world). I believe teams had to submit a video/designs for a robot/updated robot, some which are floating around on the youtubes.
Battlebots 2015 has a 250 LBS weight limit, and no weight bonuses given to walkers (like it did way back during the first few seasons of the original ie: son of whyachi). "Mini bots" are factored into weight, all "bots" are weighted together and the total weight has to be under 250lbs. As stated earlier the 250lbs is calculated on what you have sitting on the arena floor, so you can reconfigure all you want, just what you fight with is under 250lbs. (Unlike FRC the 250lbs includes batteries/etc)
The best thing about battlebots imho is that it has a very OPEN set of rules. Almost any motors/ESC/power system/building material/etc is fair game, along with no budget limitations. (I could be wrong about the new show but it seems every "battlebot" competition has been like this). Some competitions have stricter rules on weapons (places that don't have a battle cage) such as no flame throwers, no spinners/etc obviously because of the cage most of that area is pretty free for battlebots itself as far as I can tell. Also I don't know numbers but I assume there are some basic dimension rules so the bots can fit through doors and such, as well as basic safety guides (IE no firearms/bombs/EMP/radio jammers/etc).
Matches are 3 minutes, if any robot is disabled within the 3 minutes (ie cannot move) the other robot wins. If both robots are still functional the panel of judges decides who is the winner of the match based on number of hits, severity ofs the hits, who dominated etc. And I believe there's a button where you can forfeit the match if it's going that badly for you.
Now I know a lot of people seem to be bashing certain robot(s); not all builders are driven with the main goal of building the most engineery/techy solid killer robot possible. Some people build them for fun and express creative designs and weird fun things often just for TV, sure they don't do as well as the hardcore battlebots but that's not the point. Sometimes a design just doesn't work out, happens all the time, often time/season(s) builders iterate just like in FRC! I don't want to speak for anyone but aftering seeing some of the posts on reddit/fb/etc I felt like mentioning something along these things here.
I have followed all the "battlebots" alike competitions (battlebots, robotwars, robotica, combots, robowars) since I was a little kid, and am glad to see it back. And pretty happy with how it went, sure there was some TV fluff and drama added in but some great flights as well. All of just just reminds me I need to go finish designing my 30lber- for the competitions around me...........
PS: Most of the teams have pages on FB if you wanna see more photos/etc hit them up since as the show is now on air some NDA restrictions have lifted.