pic: OUCH!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

well heres a little update for all of the folks at home.

Our first match was against the RIT robot Bane. We won that match because we turned them off from repeatedly hitting them. Our second match was against Phrizbee (see above link), they are the cause of this damage to our flipper. we left right after that match to get back to the X-Cats site and repair/beef up for our next match which was against Cyclone Bot. which is just as good as Phrizbee and is also a very damaging spinner. Around 3:00AM we finally went to bed and at 7:30 we woke up and started working again. We then found out that Cyclone Bot couldn't get their system working and we won by forfeit.Our third match was against Big Betty which was a flipper that won against Cyclone Bot previously. We had them over on their back and then Greg flipped them back over for more. We then found out by the judges vote we lost and we were done for the day since it was a double elimination tournament.

the overall experience was great, i love robots, i love seeing kids entertained and Greg almost just melted when a kid came up to him to get his autograph. It was an amazing experience and i hope to personally build a middle weight or even smaller weight class robot for future competitions. I am tired and still on not much sleep and i must leave at 5AM to get back to college tomorrow so I'm off to bed.

THis was my first time attending a Battlebots competition. The frst thing I noticed was IT WAS VERY LOUD! From the banging hammers in the corners to the robots using combustion engines (particualy the one with the snowmobile engine. Geez!). The second thing I noticed was they don't seem as safe as they should be considering the destructive capabilites of these machines. They're still live when they go in and pick them up. If someone messes with the control and activates them it could lead to a horrilbe accident. The third thing I notices is they aren't very organized. It came across a smore of an exibition than a competition. Things were slow and random (they got waaaay behind) and lastly it was pretty cool to watch it. Watching such massive robots throw one another around (this one robot had this front flipper and sent the opposing robot flying and boucing off of the plexiglass siding. That was a 200+ pound robot bouncing around. It was impressive). It's kind of like going to a Nascar event to watch the cars crash.I wouldn't mind seeing another event. It was pretty cool.
I know alot of people around here despise Battlebots intensly but whether it's FIRST, Battlebots, Best or any of the other robotics events if it gets people talking about not only robots but science and technology. It's all good.

[mechanicalbrain]

Whoa they allowed combustion engines! Just curious, what type of alternator did most people use then? Also I love Battlebots, heck they started me on robotics before FIRST (They have Bill and you can't beat that!). I think its a great next level to FIRST because of the greater freedom it allows, also the mayhem that a couple of us thoroughly enjoy! Anyhew I'm wondering if you guys are going to give us some good pics of the innards! I'm dying to take a peek at the proverbial intestines ( ) of your robot! By the way great job! I love the work and i hope you guys do it again next year! I'm planning my own eventual design! Curious, do you know if they banned turbine engines (I'm serious)? I mean as long as it fits all the other constraint of course.