How has robot combat evolved across the world? 

Important notes: 1. Japanese sumo combat robotics wasn’t covered in the video because it evolved separately to BattleBots-style robots. This video was aimed at fans of Battlebots/Robot Wars who would kind of understand which type of robot combat I mean, but more people have found it and that’s great! I just needed to clarify why it wasn’t on there. 2. This is my first documentary-style video, so if you have any criticisms, please tell me why instead of just simply stating you didn’t like it. It would help me understand what I could do better next time! Credit for the footage in the video go to: TeamVelocity Team Panic ThundeRatz World of Woodrow Team ORBY Liam Bryant Robogames BattleBots Theo Hummel Bugglebots MatLampitt Blanka Botz Team GAJ Cyborg Robotics (There are more that I am still finding) With thanks to the mystrsyko2 server for the information regarding American robot combat

I absolutely love the fact that America invented fighting robot shows twice, and that they're both successful despite corporate asshats trying to kill the original.

How to fix flaws of current combat robot scene: dich the smooth flooring and replace it with dirt and gravel.

Interesting that other countries developed their combat robots like the american ones and then you have japan with bipedal robot martial arts contests

I'm from iran. I competed in a national tournament when i was in middle school. We had to use only plastic. You had to throw your opponent off the stage for a win. We had a clamp thingy that would hold the other robot and push it around. It was so much fun, i wish i could get into it again.

Holy shit, this video came out of nowhere. This is like a mini documentary explaining robot combat. How I got into robot combat is of course, as an American myself, BATTLEBOTS. To make a long story short, ABC had Sunday funday and I started watching it because the trailer makes it look cool. Destruction, robots, technology, fighting, so cool. And for every new season battlebots come out, I just have a heart attack, excited to see more robot combat. What makes battlebots fun to watch is not just destruction but the teams behind the bots. The fact that you can connect or like a bot, wanting to see them do good, makes me more engage into the show. Other than battlebots, I don't watch any other robot combat events nor shows, just youtube searches & recommendations. If I may ask, why make this video? What was the origin and motivation behind this?

This was fantastic! I grew up watching Battle Bots and Robot Wars, it's good to see the sport expanding beyond just the UK and USA.

Me "i must stop on spending money this year" RU-vid: Also me "guess i'll build an Ant robot for fun"

As a 20 year veteran of the sport I must say this is very well researched and accurate. Although you could have mentioned art bots. Not everyone builds spinners, wedges or control bots. You missed an entire style, they may not be as popular now, but people love to see bots like Psycho-Chicken and Buddy Lee Don't play in the Street. Aside from that omission this was well done.

I got Battle Bots and Robot Wars confused until recently. I would wonder why some shows would have house bots, and some wouldn't. This video sharpened what I already concluded as far as strategies go in how teams design their bots for combats in arenas. I find it AMAZING! It's no different with animals adapting to their terrain. Good video sir

Brilliant monologue. Exceptional research. Intoxicating subject. This is easily one of the best non combat related Battlebots videos I’ve ever seen. 2 beers and a Shnitzel to you, my friend. Awesome video

The amount of research here you did is outstanding, fantastic job!

That old Robot Wars logo brought back a couple memories. Thanks!

Really entertaining, informative and other algorithm words ;) But seriously, good job; you're improving every episode.

My man! Thank you SO much for this video! Literally a week ago I was looking for something just like this! INSTANT subscribe! Over the last few weeks I've gotten back into watching robot combat competitions after fifteen years. I didn't even know they were happening all over the world now. Great analysis and overview. Thank you again. Would also be awesome to see deeper dives into the evolution of various designs, strategies, and "metas" over the years!

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, great watch!

This was very informative. Thank you! Hope you had a good Christmas! Happy holidays from America.

Quite an impressive amount of research, and this was very well put together!

This video was quite enjoyable, thank you

While team panic is a team competing there, Adelaide robot combat has its own channel. I adore it tbh

cool video dude, thanks for all the hard work you put into it :)

Fantastic video, great breakdown of the sport

Would be interesting to see an outdoor battlebots arena or a mock outdoor environment recreated indoors. I'd love to see one with a shallow creek running through it, rocks, dirt, etc. Not a sterile smooth floor but actual terrain. Less floor-hugging wedge with a spinner an inch above the ground and more tank tracks and a giant pneumatic axe.

Good video! I would love it if there were some links or at least a list of names of all these shows. Because you asked for constructive criticism: Because this is such an information heavy video - maybe try having the important information (like show names, country, competing classes, etc.) Written on the screen as you're talking about it. I know it's more work editing, but it would help me absorb more information :) Also would help me be able to come back and reference this video when I'm looking for a new show to watch. Keep at it! You're doing great :)

Congratulations on 1K subs, all thanks to this video

Thanks, great vid! I'm an Aussie and didn't even know we had competitions here.

It was a really interesting video!

Really nice video, thanks for it. I just started getting into antweights!

Wow! I didn't know the Philippines had a form of robot combat. Also, thank you. I didn't know Battle Bots and Robot Wars had a history. I great up with Robot Wars UK on the tv

A few things that stood out to me maybe they could add terrain and hazards like ramps and speed bumps to the arena so you'd need to consider ground clearance a bit more. That way wedges would not be so prevalent. Has anyone's robot ever attempted to take advantage of opponents low ground clearance in some way like say trying to drop ball bearings or steel rods or similar onto the arena floor in front of opponents robot to jam them up. That could be cool to see.

Hi! Nice video! I know you're concentrating on the origins of the TV and commercial side of combat robotics, but I just wanted to say that my mates and I were building and fighting robots privately in the UK quite a while before the earliest dates you mention. We were RC model aircraft nuts who got fed up of the lousy British weather ruining our flying and of CB radios broadcasting on 'our' frequency band (27MHz) and causing interference and crashes, so we started making crude robots that we could mess around with indoors. I built my first machine in 1987. It was pathetic by modern standards, but great fun. We used 12v lead-acid car batteries, and everything else was scavenged from scrapyards - car starter and windscreen wiper motors, bits from junked electric wheelchairs, and huge clunky mechanical speed controllers. Frames were aluminium and wood. Nothing was armoured because we didn't have any weapons powerful enough to warrant it. Our budgets were tiny and there was no digital world back then - no internet or e-mail to publicise things - so it was all very much an amateur setup. Our combat arena was the concrete floor of an empty double garage. We decided that our robots could weigh a maximum of 100 lbs and cost no more than £100, so we called our unofficial club the Centurion League. It wasn't possible to build anything insect-weight or much smaller than 100 lbs [about 45kg] back then because there were no LiPo batteries or ESCs, and a worthwhile rechargeable NiCad pack would have swallowed the entire £100 budget. Weapons were feeble - just circular saws, spikes and slow lifters, but we had a lot of laughs. We tried to generate interest and publicise events, but finding and hiring venues was hard and getting adequate public liability insurance proved impossible. Meanwhile, back at your video... One other thing that might be worth a mention is what goes on in Japan. They build fully autonomous sumo robots which are - quite frankly - astonishing. It's combat, but not destructive combat. Definitely worth a look, although the bots really are autonomous so the action often happens faster than the eye can see. I'm surprised nobody's built a heavyweight sumo bot. But then again, why bother? It'd never make it onto BattleBots, would it. The autonomy would scare people to death, and anything so subtle as a sumo bot would be booed for being booooring, because all the little boys jus' wanna see toys get smashed. Sigh. Whatever. Thanks for the video. Enjoyed it! :-)

I enjoy your videos 👍🏼

Nice video. Loved it

CONGRATS ON 1K MY GUY

Having one of these as your guard dog would be the scariest thing on Earth. Or a rumba with a knife, that's scary and fits the budget.

Great video!

Great video

Very interesting. I think it’s interesting seeing how robot combat is developing in different countries . I hope we see a machine from Italy enter Battlebots. I’m think it’s cool seeing how robots have developed and improved over the years

Here is a little correction: there is a Korean heavyweight robot fighting contest. It is named: Robot Power (로봇파워).

Holy shit, weren't you like only 600 subs just last week? This video got so many views (I think RU-vid likes it so much they recommended to everyone) that your channel is growing fast

Thanks! I had heard conflicting accounts of where Robot Wars started, and why it was called Battle Bots in the USA, but it makes sense now.

Extremely well research hats off

Very interesting video well done on making it

I still want to see a robot combat world series, like one robot per country, like the Olympics but for robot combats

Good video, Thanks

This was a very interesting video, TBH, I have been fascinated with the Dutch scene. Dutch Robot Wars Series 2 I still stand by as being one of the best series of Robot Wars and some of my all time favourite robots come from the Netherlands, and other Dutch speaking countries (Gravity, Tough as Nails, Philipper, Scrap 2 Saur), I honestly think it is such a shame we never got a Dutch Robot Wars Series 3 as that could've been amazing! I also wish we got a German Robot Wars Series 2, the first German Robot Wars wasn't that great, but Series 7 Tsunami and Ansgar 3, robots that were built less than a year later, bursted onto the scene and proved to really good machines. It always makes me wish how the potential German Robot Wars Series 2 could've gone.

That point on the Russian style of competition is interesting. Perhaps there could be fixed leagues, based on price of bot within a certain range? If anyone has any interesting ideas, I'd like to hear of them.

Ivd gone back and watched a few robot wars fights recently after watching battle bots. Note: i watched robot wars years ago. At first, i missed the abundance of arena hazards and house bots watching battle bots. But i have come to appreciate that it shifts the focus more to the bots themselves; rather than getting bounced around by floor flippers, or pushed into a pit in the middle, or wrecked by a stray house bot at an inopportune moment. But the hazards battle bots have are still important and often come into play. Also, i feel like many entries in robot wars are comparatively junky in their builds a lot of the time...a few like hypnodisk stand out as beautiful and effective designs. But many seem to be boxes made of sheet metal waiting to get smashed

I wonder, how much automation is allowed in those fights? I mean, do you have to remote control everything or can you actually have autonomous systems onboard? I'm pretty sure you can fuck mercilessly with your opponent by having your bot dodge every attack with perfect precision by virtue of it having split-second "reflexes"

There's also an active combat robot scene in Estonia called "Robolahing" since 2017. There are two weightclasses: 30kg and 55kg

You earned a sub my friend

One of the more intriguing things I've seen in both the UK and US is that around the time of their robot combat shows' peak popularity, one or two other, more preset-challenge oriented shows sprang up alongside them. In the UK, that was Techno Games. Commissioned by Mentorn, the same production company that got the rights to the Robot Wars name, Techno Games featured quite a few presenters and teams from the erstwhile Robot Wars (such as host Phillippa Forrester, technical presenters Prof. Martin Smith and Prof. Noel Sharky and technical commentator Simon Scott), Techno Games instead featured weaponless robots adapted to compete in Olympic/athletic events such as slalom, long jump, sprints of different weight classes, high jump, swimming, football and tug-of-war. Techno Games ran from 2000 to 2003, but because of the diversity of the events, there weren't really that many robots that became the face of the show the same way that Razer, Chaos 2 and Hypno-Disc became the standard-bearers for Robot Wars. Two notable exceptions to this rule would probably be Skeletron, a technological marvel featuring articulated human limbs that always did well in climbing events and Knee Deep, undisputed king of the long jump setting two consecutive record distances of 8.7m and 12.6m (The latter jump clearing the 10m sand pit). Notable competitors in both Techno Games and Robot Wars include Team Make Robotics (Technomoth/Behemoth), Team Tornado (Storm Chaser/Tornado), Team Ixion (Sprocket/S.M.I.D.S.Y), Team Big Brother (Big Bro/Bigger Brother, also competed in BattleBots with Little Sister) and Team Firestorm (Snowstorm/Firestorm) Over in the US, that show was Robotica. Running for 3 series in the early 2000s, Robotica was broadcast by TLC and featured a few veteran builders from BattleBots including Jason Bardis (Team InfernoLabs, perhaps best known for Dr Inferno Jr and more recently Disk'O Inferno), Jeff Cesnik (Team Suspect Robotics, who entered Kritical Mass 2 in BattleBots and Manta in Robot Wars) and Christian Carlberg (Team CoolRobots, who entered Overkill, Toe-Crusher and Minion). Rather than have robots constantly duke it out, Robotica saw parallel contests of two teams compete against each other in a series of challenges reminiscent of The Trial stages of the first two series of Robot Wars. These included The Gauntlet, in which competitors had to push through increasingly strong walls and The Labyrinth, which saw robots navigate a tricky maze laden with obstacles. As such, optimal designs for Robotica tended to be low wedge or box designs such as Run Amok or Panzer Mk3, two champions of different Robotica series. Unlike Techno Games, however, Robotica did allow active weapons, and so we also saw designs like the vertical crusher Jawbreaker, the horizontal spinner Hands Off, and the vertical tri-blade spinner Kritical Mass.

This is a great vid! I loved it and super interesting

Wow. First time I've seen one of my bots featured in a compilation like this and you had to pick THAT one.

I would love to see what German, South Korean, and Japanese designers would build.

What we need next is flying robot combat.

Well done! My favorite was Robotica; short-lived.

1:02 that had to be a tough robot with that JET panel. My dads jet band saw is like twenty years old still works like new

I heard that Korean had a middle weight tournament in like 10 years ago which was dominated by spinners and wedgebots that has pretty unique design.

i always felt like flamethrowers were the most useless weapons you could possibly have but after seeing Complete control completely fucking fry Bombshell i was like "O..."

Really called out bronco with the “greatest flippers are made in the uk” lol. If only we can get the Apollo team in BattleBots

There was a Korean show that had 120lb robots. It was aired on the channel ESB, and they’re up here on RU-vid

I grew up as a kid watching translated robot wars on russian science tv, glad this has evolved internationally, its the first time i heard we have our own tournament now

Thank you

Cool vid 👍 surprised to see mine in there too so bonus 🤣

I remember robot wars as a child in UK, that was one of the coolest shows going! Love the Russian synopsis, something more relatable when it looks like made by someone in a shed. Constructive violence is always fun

Well"Clap"👏

Happy new year 🎉

Hey dude, nice video! Just a little correction: Minotaur and Black Dragon are indeed both from Brazil, but not from Brasília (wich is a state within Brazil). Minotaur is from Rio de Janeiro and Black Dragon is from Minas Gerais! Regardless, great video, cheers from Brazil!

Very nice research man. Didn't know that robot fighting was such a big thing. Btw what is the name of the thumbnail robot?

Really great video, should also mention Belgium Portugal Canada Sri Lanka Malaysia and maybe France (idk) are also in or have tried combat, and if you count other genres, there’s also Romania and Japan with sumo. And I have fair enough faith that combat may of happened in Egypt, Egypt have already dipped their toes in R-sports with RoboGames Egypt, so it would make sense if they tried out combat, unfortunately, I think R-sports in Egypt died with RoboGames, RoboGames Egypt was kind of its life source. I think there needs to be a community oriented organisation that aims to globalise R-sports, a bunch of countries good at engineering are missing out big time.

I'm fairly sure, according to wikipedia, there's something in Brazil. Also in your section about robots breaking the meta in the UK... see series 10 joint 3rd robot nuts 2. It's one mad machine.

Im brazillian and I hope it gets more popular here, but minotaur is a beast already

The new chomp is amazing way better than last years

“The greatest flippers in the world are built in the UK.” Hydra and Bronco- I’m sorry (pulls out gun) what did you say?

thanks

Happy holidays everyone 👋😷

that tombstone is extremely effective against most or all

Madcatter is looking hard to beat this year. If they do match up with Uppercut and win, I think they go all the way.

I'd like to see a low wedge, with a vertical spinner about halfway up. Drive under your opponent, to the point where they make contact with your spinner. Rinse, repeat.

Welp, kinda surprising Japan doesn’t have a large robot combat scene

I didn't know there were so many other international fighting robot competitions. There's enough to organize a Robot Olympics.

You know, I like your narration,.

Fun video and subject matter because i'd like battle bots and robot wars to become such a massive competition, opposed to the quazi cultish thing it is now. But maybe it would be too ruined by corporations so perhaps it's leveled off at a nice "slightly-under-corporate-radar" level. I find value in both types of arenas. For me i really want to see the robots fight though and every once in a while the house robots do things that to me basically ruin the battle in an unfair way. A perfect arena would be oval with blades all around, or fire jets actuated when pushed into. This would mean "stay away from the walls at all costs" or "push them into the wall" but i also like the idea of these hazards only coming out after about 2 minutes of battle which would force builders to still desire weaponry and DPS instead of pure ramp builds. The fog of war button is cool, hammer is cool. i do like having buttons in the ring bots can activate. and lower weight class bots are awesome to watch, cheaper for the folks to create, repair, improve, i support the growth of the lower weight bots. Cheers!🍻

Team Idris here :o) I had a lot of fun running the MFL beer meets in Stafford. Munchies until closing time and then heavy weight robots driving around the car park at midnight on a Saturday. ( Who is brave enough to ride killerhurtze ) I’m not sure twotoodo my featherweight would do well today, but it fought well enough in the noughties at Stoke and Newark.

Thumbs up;)

4:31 Hydra: let me introduce myself. Lol

Me: Who needs the Olympics when you can have this. *Releases the robot hounds* Me: RUN AWAY!

Razer is one of the best original robots from robot wars. Carbide is one of the best of the reboot with a heavy spinner.

Spoon is my hero a scrap bot with no business existing but here they are

Whenever I hear Battlebots or Robotwars say "that's not allowed for saftey reasons" my mind just explodes. One of the main reason people watch these shows is because they want to see cool explosions and massive hits. If the Arena can't take it then build a better fucking Arena and don't destroy your main selling point.

I want robot battles with no restrictions. I’d love to see multi-ton robots with rail guns and missiles battle

Nice video. I think Germany have a robot fighting scene too.

thanks for the video - i wish there was more heavy weight stuff going on, i just can't get interested in the insect classes

niceeee

_"One thing is for certain, and that is that the United States and the UK influenced the robot combat in other areas of the world"_ *[Windows error sound]* _"... Maybe a little too much in some ways"_ This cracked me. A golden moment that stirred up an otherwise great docimentary

I know some beetle weights in Canada, I hope I can build one sometime, also where can I find the video to Ominous?

Great video! I want to point out that on the picture of the robot "spoon" from Uganda there is a word "Билайн", which is a name of a russian company.

Iran's Mechatronic Research Laboratory (MRL) Team was and is pretty successful in the RoboCup Rescue and Small-Size leagues.

Dont forget the very tame DroneClash from the Netherlands lol :D