3 ms·

If wedges are a problem, why don’t they just make the arena an uneven surface ? Technology has advanced: the robots don’t need a nice smooth surface anymore.

georgyo 4y ago
I don't think wedges are a problem anymore. The last 5 seasons have had almost no wedges. The article says they solved the problem by requiring a real active weapon. But an uneven floor would likely cause mayhem for the massive amount of centrifical force these spinner bots have. Some bots might be able to handle it, but many would not.
- dieselgate 4y ago
  Pardon me for being pedantic but I believe there is no such thing as centrifical force. It is a common confusion for either “centrifugal” or “centripetal” forces. Edit: that’s a great point about the uneven flooring though! Would you expect bots to land belly up or their weapon-plane thrown off?
  - exmadscientist 4y ago
    It's a clichéd response, but it's very hard to do better: https://xkcd.com/123/ https://xkcd.com/123/ (The line about Newton's laws in a rotating frame is, of course, entirely true.)
  - georgyo 4y ago
    "Lies we tell children." While the _force_ may not exist, it describes an effect that happens when something spins. I still used the wrong term though. I was actually referring to gyroscopic motion.
    - schoen 4y ago
      I think the parent comment was complaining specifically about the misspelling "centrifical" rather than the fictitious force issue ("-fical" means "making", while "-fugal" means "fleeing" or "escaping").
- suzzer99 4y ago
  Good lesson for the upcoming IRL robot wars. Just require your enemy to have a real active weapon.
- bawolff 4y ago
  Still, seems like having natural solution would be much better than doing it via a rule. > But an uneven floor would likely cause mayhem for the massive amount of centrifical force these spinner bots have. Some bots might be able to handle it, but many would not. Sounds like a good thing to me. Introduces constraints and tradeoffs.
silisili 4y ago
It's funny because I've been watching battle bots of some form for seemingly decades, and the arms race happens just as in human history. Early on people had all kinds of ideas...saw blades, flames, hammers, etc. Then a tiny wedge car showed up and just flipped them over. Then people put something akin to a lawnmower blade on the front, near ground level, and sent those wedges flying. Another had nothing more than a small blade that rode on the ground, and on command, shot it up at a speed that would send anything on top of it twirling in the sky. I don't think we should ban any one type. It's just incentive for people to do better.
- ninth_ant 4y ago
  The issue is most severe when two wedges "fight" each other. It's not captivating television for a mainstream audience -- though some diehards love the technical aspect of those matchups -- and some believe contributed to the cancellation of the original BB series. The producers designed the rules for a show that they hope will deliver explosive action, relative to other tradeoffs.
- antihero 4y ago
  I have yet to see something as glorious as hypnodisc, from UK Robot Wars. Also Chaos II

georgyo 4y ago

I don't think wedges are a problem anymore. The last 5 seasons have had almost no wedges. The article says they solved the problem by requiring a real active weapon. But an uneven floor would likely cause mayhem for the massive amount of centrifical force these spinner bots have. Some bots might be able to handle it, but many would not.

dieselgate 4y ago
Pardon me for being pedantic but I believe there is no such thing as centrifical force. It is a common confusion for either “centrifugal” or “centripetal” forces. Edit: that’s a great point about the uneven flooring though! Would you expect bots to land belly up or their weapon-plane thrown off?
- exmadscientist 4y ago
  It's a clichéd response, but it's very hard to do better: https://xkcd.com/123/ https://xkcd.com/123/ (The line about Newton's laws in a rotating frame is, of course, entirely true.)
- georgyo 4y ago
  "Lies we tell children." While the _force_ may not exist, it describes an effect that happens when something spins. I still used the wrong term though. I was actually referring to gyroscopic motion.
  - schoen 4y ago
    I think the parent comment was complaining specifically about the misspelling "centrifical" rather than the fictitious force issue ("-fical" means "making", while "-fugal" means "fleeing" or "escaping").
suzzer99 4y ago
Good lesson for the upcoming IRL robot wars. Just require your enemy to have a real active weapon.
bawolff 4y ago
Still, seems like having natural solution would be much better than doing it via a rule. > But an uneven floor would likely cause mayhem for the massive amount of centrifical force these spinner bots have. Some bots might be able to handle it, but many would not. Sounds like a good thing to me. Introduces constraints and tradeoffs.

silisili 4y ago

It's funny because I've been watching battle bots of some form for seemingly decades, and the arms race happens just as in human history. Early on people had all kinds of ideas...saw blades, flames, hammers, etc. Then a tiny wedge car showed up and just flipped them over. Then people put something akin to a lawnmower blade on the front, near ground level, and sent those wedges flying. Another had nothing more than a small blade that rode on the ground, and on command, shot it up at a speed that would send anything on top of it twirling in the sky. I don't think we should ban any one type. It's just incentive for people to do better.

ninth_ant 4y ago
The issue is most severe when two wedges "fight" each other. It's not captivating television for a mainstream audience -- though some diehards love the technical aspect of those matchups -- and some believe contributed to the cancellation of the original BB series. The producers designed the rules for a show that they hope will deliver explosive action, relative to other tradeoffs.
antihero 4y ago
I have yet to see something as glorious as hypnodisc, from UK Robot Wars. Also Chaos II