Meet the 2016 BattleBots!

[Winston]

[video=youtube;sf9GrRkVm5k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf9GrRkVm5k[/video]

[video=youtube;kUe4AujjBVo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUe4AujjBVo[/video]

 

[brianc]

Former astronaut Dan Barry entered a team, but was eliminated in the prelims...
https://battlebots.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Ice

 

[new2hpr]

I've been kind of disappointed at the field this year. Probably 50% of them are useless and could easily be beaten by any good high school FIRST Robotics Team.

At this "level", I think it should be mandatory for them to be fully autonomous with only a kill switch for the operator. For a REALLY good time, how about closed on all sides field(for safety of course), fully autonomous drone on drone battles with "untethered weapons" allowed!
-Ken

 

[Winston]

I've been kind of disappointed at the field this year. Probably 50% of them are useless and could easily be beaten by any good high school FIRST Robotics Team.

At this "level", I think it should be mandatory for them to be fully autonomous with only a kill switch for the operator. For a REALLY good time, how about closed on all sides field(for safety of course), fully autonomous drone on drone battles with "untethered weapons" allowed!
-Ken

Yeah, I'd be more impressed and entertained with autonomous bots using AI (with that kill switch - don't want a Terminator getting loose) instead of just bots under remote human control. However, nice hardware always impresses me. The linear motor drive train shown in part 2 was interesting and one of the teams was using laser range finders to follow, back up from their opponent while facing them, and to fire the sledge hammer when exactly the right distance away. I was thinking an EMP weapon would be a great idea until I read that it was against the rules.