battlebots!!! (highschool/college robotics)

[slade]

i just ran into an engineer from Raytheon at home depot today who i worked with on battlebots IQ last year, and it reminded me of battlebots this year. I wanted to know, was anyone else on AO at the highschool/college competition last year? or is anyone going to be going this year? the date or place isnt set yet, but it probably will be soon.

does anyone else have a robotics club at their school that does something else? i remember someone posting about FIRST. we unfortunately wont be doing FIRST because we did not get the grant we needed from NASA to cover the cost.

[WenULiVeUdiE]

That was me posting about FIRST. I spent all day today in our warehouse getting things set up and ready for the kickoff next saturday. I'll be there 15+ hours a week for 6 weeks starting next saturday...grrr....

Maybe I should go take pictures of our 2004 robot that is in my basement...hehe

Edit- Everytime I mention I am part of the robotics team, everybody asks me if it's "like battlebots". Sadly, I always have to say no. But it would be damn cool to say yes.

Edit 2- I will be at the Boston regional even this year. March 23-26th I believe. I would encourage you to go so you can see what it's like in FIRST, if you do not already know.

[slade]

That was me posting about FIRST. I spent all day today in our warehouse getting things set up and ready for the kickoff next saturday. I'll be there 15+ hours a week for 6 weeks starting next saturday...grrr....

Maybe I should go take pictures of our 2004 robot that is in my basement...hehe

Edit- Everytime I mention I am part of the robotics team, everybody asks me if it's "like battlebots". Sadly, I always have to say no. But it would be damn cool to say yes.

Edit 2- I will be at the Boston regional even this year. March 23-26th I believe. I would encourage you to go so you can see what it's like in FIRST, if you do not already know.

you should try battlebots IQ, or push for your school to go. im guessing it will be far enough apart as far as time is concerned for your school to do both first and battlebots IQ, if they have the funding for it. it was really fun last year, and should be great this year too.

i do sort of know what FIRST is like. i took a mech engineering course at WPI this past summer and i got to see some of the bots their team had made for first. one thing i saw that was really interesting was omniwheels that they designed and made. When my schools robotics team started they were in FIRST... but they pretty much sucked. that was way before i was on the team. then they switched to battlebots... and still really sucked. two years ago the team was okay, but last year i designed a flipper that performed pretty well and im bringing it back with some revisions i had in mind. as i said we didnt have enough money for that and FIRST... the team used to suplement our sponsorships with fundraisers from selling krispy kreme donuts... but parents complained it was making the students fat and we couldnt sell them anymore . anyway the freshmeat on the team voted to try VEX since we didnt have the money for FIRST... but vex is basically one step up from legos . ill just be working on battlebots.

that actually reminds me, for the flipper we used a SP 45/45 nitro tank, and the lock on the reg broke, so i have to get that replaced this year for the tournament.

[WenULiVeUdiE]

I'd love to try Battlebots IQ. However, our school would never go for it. We are the oldest active team in New Jersey and I don't see us switching formats anytime soon. Not to mention I doubt our sponsor, JOhn and Johnson Consumer Products Worldwide, would go for it. They are already spending something like $200,000 or something absurdly high on us.

I'm really intriuged about BB IQ now. I'll have to do a search and see if I can find anythign in my area.

Hehe, nothing like having your school pay for fixing some of your paintball gear.

[slade]

I'd love to try Battlebots IQ. However, our school would never go for it. We are the oldest active team in New Jersey and I don't see us switching formats anytime soon. Not to mention I doubt our sponsor, JOhn and Johnson Consumer Products Worldwide, would go for it. They are already spending something like $200,000 or something absurdly high on us.

I'm really intriuged about BB IQ now. I'll have to do a search and see if I can find anythign in my area.

Hehe, nothing like having your school pay for fixing some of your paintball gear.

...damn. $200,000? i think we got around $6,000 this year. how the heck did you manage even anything CLOSE to a quarter million dollars?!

oh well, we got free titanium with that, i dont think we'll need much more than $6,000, as long as we're doing just battlebots.

the date and location for battlebots isnt set yet. last year it was in orlando, florida, which was really nice. ...although the year before it was in nowhere, michigan im glad i didnt go to that one.

part of my point though was that you wont have to switch format. if youre getting THAT much spent on you doing battlebots too shouldnt be a problem. theres even a tabletop 15 lb competition, if you want to try that. it should only cost a few thousand for a decent bot, or a few hundred for a decent tabletop... ours was far from decent though, lol. the only issue you should have is time. im sure your sponsor wouldnt mind allocating a small fraction of their money for a different robotics competition.

you do have a good point though, FIRST often looks much better to sponsors or on a resume than battlebots. i guess battlebots just gets a reputation from outsiders for being more of a "game" and "robots fighting" instead of engineering or learning, the same way paintball is a "war game". i can tell you right now battlebots is 100x better than vex, at least. im glad that you arent a "first purist" though, a girl was trying to insist that first was "the real thing" and battlebots was "fake" and "a game"... and she had never done battlebots.

oh, and the tank isnt mine. it was bought by the team and for the team, and used exclusively for the team. what, do you think id ever disgrace my gun with a SP tank? the team had it when i joined, and aparently it was the only tank that met the regulations. that does remind me though, i should start charging for all the times ive filled the tank off of my scuba . oh well, i stole the NXe barrel condom that came with the tank cover.

*edit* mmm, dont you love two person threads?

[Makarov]

I'm on FIRST robotics team 469. I like FIRST better than battlebots because of the technology available. I don't exactly know what's involved in battlebots past a chassis and some osrt of weapon, but in FIRST, we have a 15 second (generally) period in the beginning of the match that requires that the robot move on its own. DUring this, we use a variety of things, such as Infrared sensors, CMU cameras, and optical encoders and potentiometers for dead reckoning. I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff, but I just woke up from a nap so i'm kinda out of it

For more info, check www.chiefdelphi.com, it's like the AO of FIRST.

BTW, since this is a paintball forum, I saw a FIRST team sponsored by Smart Parts. I was wondering if I could get SITE mfg to sponsor us for a carbon fiber chassis

[ramennoodles]

I was a part of our Robotics team in the B.E.S.T. organization. I only did t-shirt design, but it won best at every competition.

-Isaac.

[slade]

I'm on FIRST robotics team 469. I like FIRST better than battlebots because of the technology available. I don't exactly know what's involved in battlebots past a chassis and some osrt of weapon, but in FIRST, we have a 15 second (generally) period in the beginning of the match that requires that the robot move on its own. DUring this, we use a variety of things, such as Infrared sensors, CMU cameras, and optical encoders and potentiometers for dead reckoning. I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff, but I just woke up from a nap so i'm kinda out of it

For more info, check www.chiefdelphi.com, it's like the AO of FIRST.

BTW, since this is a paintball forum, I saw a FIRST team sponsored by Smart Parts. I was wondering if I could get SITE mfg to sponsor us for a carbon fiber chassis

In battlebots you can use anything you can get your hands on, just as long as its under 120 pounds and within the safety regulations. i think that basically just rules out untethered projectiles and EMPs (there went two of my ideas ), and then some other regulations like all pneumatic systems have to be under 2500 psi upstream of the regulator, and 150 psi downstream. that was sort of ridiculous though, considering, well, i know a 4500 psi tank exploding would be dangerous in most situations, but last year a 150 pound spinner was hurled 10+ feet across the arena into the lexan wall, without much damage to the lexan... and there are two layers of lexan, on a steel frame. and 150 PSI is a bit low also for downstream pressure. but i digress. the point was, in battlebots you can use almost anything you want. you could even have multiple bots, if you wanted.

i wasnt arguing that battlebots is better, i just hate it when people completely discredit it. what i dont like about First is you are limited to the parts included in the kits you get... which from my understanding is more substantial for FIRST, but honestly is quite pathetic for VEX. The good part is that does level the playing field somewhat; the reason the bot i designed lost last year is it wasnt titanium. it had nothing to do with the design. although that was a close match.

I was a part of our Robotics team in the B.E.S.T. organization. I only did t-shirt design, but it won best at every competition.

-Isaac.

hmm, want a job? our shirts last year sucked

[Recon by Fire]

I miss the days of me and some of my buddies getting together for the bot battles on TV. Nothing says entertainment like remote controlled gladiators wielding flame throwers and hydraulic claws!

[Makarov]

I wasn't discrediting battlebots, I was simply stating that I liked FIRST better. But that's just me.

[Recon by Fire]

Oh, engineery roboticy talky things.....let's just have more destruction please

[ramennoodles]

Sure, I'd do it...for a price.

Here is the front of ours:


The theme was hubble telescope.

-Isaac.

[WenULiVeUdiE]

...damn. $200,000? i think we got around $6,000 this year. how the heck did you manage even anything CLOSE to a quarter million dollars?!

oh well, we got free titanium with that, i dont think we'll need much more than $6,000, as long as we're doing just battlebots.

We have been with J&J since '97 I believe. We have just won two off season competitions as well in the past couple of months. We took 2nd or 3rd in the National Animation award and the top 5 for our Design Showcase website. We also took 1st in the NJ regional for animation. Not to mention being on the cover Atlanta newspaper "living" during Nationals. We were also selected to send down 3 team members and an advisor to Brazil to expand and compete in their FIRST league. J&J is gracious enough to lend us the engineer that designs the machines that produce those nifty things called Band-Aids.

www.roboraiders.com to see our work.

And titantium- Mwahaha! Back in 2001 our robot was comprised of nearly 100% of the stuff. Estimated value- $30,000. Of course, that is now outlawed because many schools can not afford the stuff.

/shameless plug

In battlebots you can use anything you can get your hands on, just as long as its under 120 pounds and within the safety regulations.

Hehe, weight restrictions are evil. Last year 2 days before the deadline, our 'Bot was 30lbs. overweight. We spend 3 entire days at the warehouse and rebuilt nearly half of it. Swiss cheese mod galore!

I'm on FIRST robotics team 469. I like FIRST better than battlebots because of the technology available. I don't exactly know what's involved in battlebots past a chassis and some osrt of weapon, but in FIRST, we have a 15 second (generally) period in the beginning of the match that requires that the robot move on its own. DUring this, we use a variety of things, such as Infrared sensors, CMU cameras, and optical encoders and potentiometers for dead reckoning. I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff, but I just woke up from a nap so i'm kinda out of it

Our Programming advisor spent close to 4 weeks getting that silly camera to work. In the end, it never did. However, he did manage to write our autonomous mode to cap the center. I coudl tell so many stories of screw ups and other such stories, but I won't bore you all with that.

BTW, since this is a paintball forum, I saw a FIRST team sponsored by Smart Parts. I was wondering if I could get SITE mfg to sponsor us for a carbon fiber chassi

I saw that team too! Down in Atalnta they were in my division I believe. I was going to ask them why everyone was wearing pit shirts with the freak symbol on it, but I got lazy.

[neppo1345]

Four year member of team 379 - The Robocats (the team with the cheerleaders)

It was a great experience, learned tons of stuff and made some great connections at raytheon, NASA, GM, and a ton of other places that I wouldn't mind working at when i graduate (hopefully) in 5 years from UC...

We had our fun...trust me...we had our fun...

If anyones going to the cleveland regional LMK...i might show up to support the team (A.K.A make fun of everyone)

Edit: I knew i should have written those dam**d letters to Tom and Bud asking fro sponsorship...those....sp...guys...piss...me...off ...

[slade]

Hehe, weight restrictions are evil. Last year 2 days before the deadline, our 'Bot was 30lbs. overweight. We spend 3 entire days at the warehouse and rebuilt nearly half of it. Swiss cheese mod galore!

Our Programming advisor spent close to 4 weeks getting that silly camera to work. In the end, it never did. However, he did manage to write our autonomous mode to cap the center. I coudl tell so many stories of screw ups and other such stories, but I won't bore you all with that.

I saw that team too! Down in Atalnta they were in my division I believe. I was going to ask them why everyone was wearing pit shirts with the freak symbol on it, but I got lazy.

haha, yeah weight restrictions definately are evil. the year before i was on the team they built a pueumatic flipper bot with the smart parts tank, a HUGE arm that rotated on one pivot point and had a 4" bore piston they picked it because it had almost 2,000 pounds of force at 150 psi. needless to say, the bot failed miserably. it was over 20 pounds overweight. they swisscheesed the entire thing, and cut up the arm. then it got in the first match, had electronic issues, and couldnt move well. the arm lifted with so much force but was way too slow, and only lifted about 4" .

i completely redesigned the bot with a different arm system and pneumatic system. when we took it for the weigh in, with all the necessary safety equipment, the scale read EXACTLY 120.0 pounds. everyone laughed so much. its a good thing we blew all the metal shavings out of the bot before the weigh in

at the tournament the bot did well (we won the first match in 3 seconds flat!) but was sort of torn up in two of the matches. good thing the engineers from raytheon came with us, they realized we really needed titanium and aparently got it for us this year.

this year im redesigning the structure and mechanical aspects of the bot, and my friend is going to work mainly on the programming. that was our weak point last year. hes indian though, so we should be fine .

i also have a design concept for another bot. but im keeping that to myself

hmm. sponsored by smart parts, eh? they sponsor just about everyone it seems. hey, since i use their tank i should contact them. or maybe NPS.