RoboGames 2024: The Tale of Four Builders (Part 1)

On This VERY SPECIAL RoboGames edition of the Builder Blog, we will be following around 4 Different Robot Builders on their journey through RoboGames! #robogames #robotics #blog
Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Tony Woodward Photography: profile.php?...
We will be following around Ryker as he competes in the Jr. League Antweight Combat League here at RoboGames, Ezra who is looking to get his first medal in Robot Combat, Dan (Of Battlebots Wrecks Fame) as he seeks his first Gold medal, and Jeff (Of Jackpot Fame) as he looks to win the two hardest competitions: Beetlweights and Heavyweights!
We will be releasing more RoboGames footage throughout the next few weeks so stay tuned!
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[@grantcatdone3417]

20:46 you'll see the arena has a very unique feature in which the panels will flex enough to create a fun little splash zone for spectators. This isn't as fun as last years raining shrapnel event but it'll do.

[@elitesniper923]

Mortician sounds absolutely menacing at full speed!

[@cheese.161]

The event where there where already 3 breaches And at least 1 lightly injured Person?

[@vagabondrobotics]

This was my first time seeing bots larger than 3lbs fight, it was an amazing experience and well worth the trip. And being able to bring my own as a team with friends was the icing on the cake. Talking to all the bot builders jn the big bot pits was so cool and everyone was so nice!

[@ryanbrancaccio7768]

The intro already sold me before even watching the vlog.

[@BitzTeamHeatwave]

I like robogames and I think that having every single active weight class in combat robotics is nice. But, the amount of arena breaches is the heavyweights is not ok. I saw on discord that bunny got hit by a part of the arena. There was a corner piece that flew out out of the arena. There’s video of it. There was a picture of flames comming out of the arena. Yet David Caulkins Denys the fact that there was a single arena breach while there was multiple videos, pictures. He claims that they looked all over the arena and couldn’t find a single breach. There’s multiple pictures going around about the breaches. I’d say this. Remove the heavyweights or get a better arena. Someone is gonna get killed by one of these breaches.

[@bami2]

If I was in attendance I would be wearing my motorcycle helmet for sure lol, but I don't think it's as extreme as you describe. The flames/sparks leaking out is a bit eh but these panels just sit on the floor with a steel kickplate in front of them, it's not like a piece of shrapnel is going to bounce under it hitting spectators. The biggest issue looks to be the roof and things like Terrortops fork launching through it and landing in a walkway is a big oof. I don't think banning heavyweights is entirely necessary, just putting a tip speed limit of like 100-150 mph should be enough to make that arena totally safe again, Extreme Robots in the UK has an arena that's probably worse in quality but they have zero issues running heavyweight spinners with a 125mph tip speed and while they hit with about 1/4th of the kinetic energy as in Battlebots, they still hit pretty hard and the fights are both exciting to watch and very destructive.

[@beenoc]

@@bami2 The breach this year wasn't through the roof like last year, it was the lexan panel flexing (they are not secured on the sides at all) enough for a metal piece of Terrortops to wedge in the gap and force it open wide enough for another UHMW bit to fly through. If the piece that wedged it open had a bit more energy and made it through at speed, it could have very easily sent Bunny or anyone else to the hospital. And a tip speed limit won't really help - Manta was spinning at 125mph this event and we saw how brutal they were.

[@bami2]

@@beenoc There was another issue this year in the ceiling, but there were thankfully two lexan layers and it only breached the first one. So I found a video/photos of the breach that hurt Bunny and yeah that's pretty bad. Not so much that the breach occurred but the slow reaction to it, that was quite a wide gap between the panel and the frame and that's honestly inexcusable to have a fight going on when the box is in that state. I understand it's pretty tough to properly secure these panels since you don't really want to drill through them as that would impact their strength, and if you clamp it down like this without enough force they can flex out of their mountings. With the combox it looked like they were just clamped on the tops and bottoms so the sides could flex. As far as I know, Manta team proposed doing a 125mph tip speed limit to keep it safer but it was never set as a rule, so I think they ran a bit below top speed just to control gyro aside from the finals match where they cut it down? Looking at Magnitude v Manta match I find it hard to believe that they did that much launching with a reduced tip speed but it looked a lot more "normal" for a 125mph weapon in the match vs Scotsman, the weapon pitch was also audibly lower in that match and you can hear it spin up to full speed at the end where it was gyro dancing.

[@woollvin]

I'm not surprised your voice is tired from announcing - you never seemed to take a break It was great to see the NotDeadYet fight footage - This was my first time driving a bot, and your commentary and humor were a highlight!

[@GrenPlayerSMG7.0]

15:20 Bro Diana doing the hand moments is literally something I do on like a monthly basis. Glad to see I’m not the only crazy one 😂

[@LINCARD1000]

What a fantastic event! Something for everyone by the looks, competitors and spectators alike. Thanks so much for this!

[@ConstantlyDamaged]

Manta is freakin' terrifying. Also, great to see Ray mixing it up with Mortician in there. That bot has got some serious upgrades of late (those brushless motors mean it is every bit as powerful as Tombstone was at double its weight, though it still can't compare for stored kinetic energy).

[@tmntleo]

I'm hearing a lot of negative stuff from Robogames this year, from the main arena not being safe to them straight up not having the right PPE to deal with lipo fires O-o It makes me concerned.

[@giddybots]

Building Blight ended up being so much more work than I could have ever imagined. What I love about these leagues and communities for smaller bots, in addition to them making this sport so accessible to all, is everyone has an understanding of what goes into even the 150g and 1lb bots so everyone truly appreciates what everyone else has done. I've been burning the candle at both ends for weeks now, blowing through all my disposable income and bringing myself to the brink of insanity to have Blight ready for RSL this weekend. And heck I'm going to keep doing it because I love it. I love talking to everyone about bots and seeing what they've created. I love holding that finished bot and I love throwing it to it's or it's opponents doom in the cage. I'll never stop doing this. I love this community of ingenious bot builders, don't ever change!

[@codyphillips1821]

I really want to go to one of these but I don't see that happening for a while unfortunately so this is awesome. Makes me want to go more after watching, from what I saw the people there are what make it so much fun

[@grahamthegoat9433]

pleese take over robogames from dave we need you to save this event before dave kills it

[@kaiserruhsam]

before dave gets someone killed

[@mikeman2526]

Goodness Mortician sounds like Minotaur

[@bami2]

I love that robogames isn't just combat robots but all kind of different forms of robotics. Would be cool if they had some kind of FIRST or VEX side-competition as well.

[@mosraelthewaker]

Comment for the algorithm

[@funnybones46]

Spoiler for the end of Black jack’s run in part 2 The way that torrortop’s fire went off the rails and they had to get the entire crowd to evacuate was crazy

[@bami2]

spicy spaghetti

[@ShahFahadAhmed]

The world largest combat robotics event but no official coverage..