Battlebots and FIRST

[Keith Chester]

Trust me, I have talked to a few Battlebots competitors and have done extensive reading, and I am preparing my first personal robot for the competition.
You don't like it, don't watch it.
The pits are desinged the same way as in FIRST, everyone helps everyone else.
Just unlike FIRST, bbots doesnt tell tehm to do that.
trust me, the TV spruces it up to make the team members look like some mad scientist.
And if you buy into everything the tv says, and trust me im not a mean person, you are an idiot.
::bows::
RESEARCH BEFORE YOU COMMENT.
It's like saying you don't like fish while never eating it.
It's called ignorance.

[Dallin]

I dug up an old post but I'd like to add -

You guys complain about the way Battlebots is presented. The competitors hate it as well, even Trey and Greg(The owners) dislike it. Bill Dwyer is a great guy - he is truly interested in the sport. Anyone else can go away and never come back. Comedy Central puts on the show, they just use the match footage and do whatever they wish with it. For those of you who read the BB forum. Go away Crayon, go away! =P

"I personally can't stand Electra and think that she is about as bright as a black crayon (not that I have an opinion or anything)

-Buzz"

-Dallin

[Brett]

Originally posted by Matt Reiland

One cool thing I have been learning is ProEngineer to model the robot.

Matt

How's that different from Pro/DESKTOP ? I've been learning Pro/D on my own for my little pet projects and my Eagle project. Just wondering.

[MattK]

BB is gettin Lame, It was fun the first season but thats it.

I wish it was better

[Aaron Lussier]

I think Battle bots is very similar to FIRST only with out the time constraints. Which is good

[Hailfire]

Battlebots is awesome! (As you can see, I'm a big fan of Battlebots) I try to catch each show but sometimes I can't. Oh well. Yet, I think it's a good show.

[Adam Y.]

RESEARCH BEFORE YOU COMMENT.

Errr trust me there is plenty of ignorance about battlebots and its spinoff's. I have found plenty of stuff that simply isn't true and have been used as support for bashing battlebots.

[Stephanie]

i personally like battlebots. it encourages people to learn about technology, physics, programming, and all the other cool stuff we learn about. it is done in such a way that the public says "oh, that's really neat!" i mean, when we say we're on the robotics team, what's the first thing out of people's mouths? "OH!! are you in BATTLEBOTS! " "err...no, not exactly, we focus more on-" "oh... " *people walk away* seriously, they expose the public to the field of robotics somewhat more efficiently than FIRST. everybody knows what battlebots is about, but when you say "FIRST" they say "wha? "
please don't use the excuse that they destroy eachother, because their pits are similar to ours wrt gracious professionalism and helping eachother out.
i think the show is really cool, in that it is spectator friendly. it's easy to understand. it doesn't take 5 minutes to explain it. I like to watch it, to look at the designs, and the ways that their builders solve design problems. i think that i would definitely like to present some of the ideas i have gathered to the team for next year's robot.
lastly, i like it because it is bonding time for me and dad. we sit down with a bowl of popcorn, critique the designs, speculate, and afterward, draw ideas out, and discuss the matches, and how things could have been handled differently.
battlebots has given me a very positive experience in my usually-not-so-great-relationship with my dad, and i appreciate that.

[hixofthehood]

I have to admit, I get tired of people asking 'Are you Battlebots?'

But still, it is robots competing.

FIRST competitors disrespecting Battlebots is like the Army disrespecting the Navy, or The Beatles disrespecting the Rolling Stones.

It's like...Milli disrespecting Vanilli.

So while I might not like the show on Comedy Central, from what I've read here, it sounds like a lot of fun, so I'm all for it.

[Adam Y.]

But still, it is robots competing.

Errr big problem in saying that because they aren't robots of course the machines we build in First aren't really robots also. The more choice term would be ROV of course robots is much easier.

[mtaman02]

BB is in many ways like FIRST. and yes the only dif is is that there is no time constraints to complete objectives. thats all i gotta say

[Adam Y.]

Of course it depened on what competition you entered. Robotica if I remeber correctly had a time limit from when they said they were going put the show to when the robots had to be built.

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by Mike522
BB is in many ways like FIRST. and yes the only dif is is that there is no time constraints to complete objectives. thats all i gotta say

Yeah. Dean likes to pull the lever on the big hammer and stuff! Woody loves to watch those spikes gorge the metal of the robots!

Yeah....

BB is only like FIRST in the respect that they build moving objects that run via remote control. Concept, execution, and other things are tottaly different.

[f22flyboy]

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?

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by f22flyboy
Battlebots may have been the best thing to happen to robotics in terms of letting people know about the "sport"....

I disagree. Battlebots made robotics a household name, sure, but that removes some of the intrigue of a robot competition. Look at Disneyland. It's quite possibly the best theme park out there, and the first to boot, but every start up has had not a big of success due to the brand name associated with DL.

People are interested in firsts, and don't care about seconds, even if they are better.