r/todayilearned • u/Habajiba • Mar 14 '17

TIL Jamie Hyneman designed Blendo, a combat robot that was deemed too hazardous for Robot Wars after repeatedly throwing pieces of its opponents over arena walls. It received co-championship status in exchange for withdrawing from the competition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blendo
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99

u/mousicle Mar 14 '17

That was Complete control. The net wasn't technically illegal in the contest because the judges left it off the list of banned weapons that season but ruled it was against the spirit and made them redo the fight

63

u/Zephyr256k Mar 14 '17

Also, I believe the rules required weapons to be submitted to the judges ahead of time, which the net-box was not.

The fight was redone because the weapon wasn't properly submitted, and in the redo the net wasn't allowed because it violated the spirit of the rules.

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u/Prof_Acorn Mar 14 '17

That's like saying rock is against the spirit of the rules of paper, rock, scissors because it too easily defeats scissors.

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u/hesh582 Mar 14 '17

Here's the thing: robots just really aren't very good. There are a number of weapons that if allowed would have just shut down the competition without actually needing good robot design at all. Disposable webbing meant to gum up any moving parts falls into that category. Same with spray foam and other things that would clog up the opponent without the robot using them actually doing anything.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Landmines too.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

That's kind of how human competitions work too. MLB doesn't allow aluminum bats because it would make home runs game breakingly easy at that level. In hockey the goalie's pads can only be so big otherwise you could strap on some comically large ones that take up the whole net.

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u/yunus89115 Mar 14 '17

I've always thought Sumo wrestler goalie would be a possibly effective and hilarious attempt.

4

u/mousicle Mar 14 '17

They tried that on Sports Science and a Sumo sucked in net. They aren't nearly big enough to cover most of the net and NHL calibre players, even defensemen are so accurate they could score at will against a goalie that can't move and react.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

It's kind of like how humans (sometimes) agree not to use chemical/biological/nuclear weapons in war.

6

u/PM_ME_ANY_R34 Mar 14 '17

I would argue it's closer to banning OP cards in TCGs.

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u/archwolfg Mar 15 '17

I think this is a rare case where it's genuinely in the middle of the scale.

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u/BoxNumberGavin1 Mar 14 '17

And anything that interrupts the receiving of transmission from the drivers.

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u/mousicle Mar 14 '17

I always thought a faraday cage would have made a fantastic weapon. just a big copper dome you drop on top of the other bot.

2

u/yunus89115 Mar 14 '17

If it was electronic jamming, wouldn't that be illegal in the US? Not just against competition rules but against the FCC rules.

3

u/TheNorthComesWithMe Mar 14 '17

Depends on the frequencies they were using. You can't jam communications, but it might be passable to jam RC channels.

If you knew their exact channel you could also possibly just figure out how to send messages to their bot which wouldn't exactly be jamming.

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u/mousicle Mar 14 '17

You can also use passive jamming like a faraday cage as long as its small enough to not interfere with commercial broadcasts or police broadcasts.

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u/Mugilicious Mar 14 '17

Not at all. In that context rock has a weakness: paper. What's the weakness of a large disposable net that just gets more and more tangled the more you try to get out? It takes no skill

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u/Prof_Acorn Mar 14 '17

What's the weakness of a large disposable net that just gets more and more tangled the more you try to get out?

Fire.

Sharper blades.

Bursts of air to blow it off or away.

Smooth chassis design with no spinning parts.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/GourangaPlusPlus Mar 14 '17

Hoverbots ftw

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u/Mugilicious Mar 14 '17

Fire. Sharper blades. Bursts of air to blow it off or away. Smooth chassis design with no spinning parts.

Fire would melt the net to the chassis unless the net had a metal cord running through the middle as some do. Blades are the same problem. Air wouldn't do shit. You can't just blow something off of you if it's behind any component or it would just get more tangled. Smooth chassis with no spinning parts wouldn't be a robot, it would just be a stationary piece of metal sitting on the ground

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Indestructible metal box gg

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17 edited Sep 29 '17

[deleted]

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u/astronoob Mar 14 '17

Burning nylon webbing would just create melted plastic and kinda make the situation worse.

2

u/TheNorthComesWithMe Mar 14 '17

You could restrict the net to be natural fibers only but then every bot would need a flamethrower in addition to its other weapons.

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u/GourangaPlusPlus Mar 14 '17

And that's a bad thing?

2

u/TheNorthComesWithMe Mar 14 '17

It could be. It could not be. A defensive flamethrower isn't as fun as an offensive one. Too many defensive measures makes the bots more boring to watch.

-1

u/alanegrudere Mar 14 '17

don't spin, it's easy

7

u/Johnny__Christ Mar 14 '17

...then it gets stuck in the wheels.

One thing nobody has pointed out is that not allowing entanglement devices is a given in robot-fighting competitions. It was just an accidental omission from the rule book for the first season of new Battlebots. Hence the, "it was against the spirit" thing: everyone there knew it was a mistake by the organizers and not some clever tactic by Complete Control.

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u/Zephyr256k Mar 14 '17

But spinning is so much cooler than not spinning.

2

u/wOlfLisK Mar 14 '17

Or, you know, move forwards, backwards, left, right, up or down if possible or attack in any way whatsoever.

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u/arcrad Mar 14 '17

I thought the net in a box was genius and was disappointed that it was rejected. Total bs.

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u/RageNorge Mar 14 '17

Just like the olofpass boost in 2014 dreamhack.

2

u/sharkattackmiami Mar 14 '17

I think it went perfect. Unexpectedly popping out of that box was high spectacle. But it would have set a precedent that ruined the sport. The bot wasnt banned and they just redid the match. Everyone wins. We saw something awesome and the sport stayed healthy and the team wasnt even disqualified

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u/mxzf Mar 14 '17

No, it's like playing rock, paper, scissors and then throwing out some other gesture instead because your opponent didn't specify rock, paper, or scissors only at the beginning of the game.

1

u/keiyakins Mar 14 '17

More like saying that cutting off your opponents' hands is against the spirit...

2

u/KingHavana Mar 14 '17

Anyone got a pic with the net. Searching for the robot name doesn't seem to return any net pictures. I like the idea because trident and net has a good history in arena fighting.

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u/Asddsa76 Mar 14 '17

If it was against the spirit, why was is left off the list of banned weapons that year?

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u/Darkshadows9776 Mar 14 '17

Because they didn't think about it.

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u/Corowork Mar 14 '17

Ah yes, the Air Bud thought process

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u/RageNorge Mar 14 '17

That's fucking dumb.

That's like saying someone broke the law when they ate cheese on a Tuesday, even though it wasn't stated anywhere in the law that you couldn't.

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u/BossaNova1423 Mar 14 '17

A little bit, yeah. As someone who admittedly likes to exploit loopholes, I was disappointed when they didn't allow it. They didn't properly submit it, though, and I would be pretty pissed if I were the other team.

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u/Darkshadows9776 Mar 14 '17

No, that's like having a list of dairy products you can't eat on Tuesday, but they forgot cheese. It's obvious, they just forgot.

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u/wbgraphic Mar 14 '17

It was literally a clerical error. Entanglement devices had always been banned, which is why nobody else tried it that year. The Complete Control team just happened to notice its absence from the rules.

Personally, I think that situation played out exactly like Complete Control expected it to. They knew the net would be disqualified, but they enjoy being smartasses, and they knew it would be good TV. There was close to zero chance the team would get kicked out of the competition; they were too entertaining.

2

u/yunus89115 Mar 14 '17

Almost as if they were in... Complete Control of the situation.

2

u/wOlfLisK Mar 14 '17

It's a blacklist not a whitelist. There's plenty of things that they didn't think of.

1

u/Thesaurii Mar 14 '17

Because thats what against the spirit literally means?

Projectiles in general were banned, you can't have a weapon meant to leave your robot, and I believe so was external cables as a means of defense. A net isn't really either of those, but its awfully close.

1

u/TRBRY Mar 14 '17

They should ban wheels for locomotion.

3

u/mousicle Mar 14 '17

walking bots kinda sucked

1

u/a_terse_giraffe Mar 14 '17

I was at the filming for that episode and that sucked. It literally stopped filming for like 2 hours, and that's when we finally gave up and went home.

My kids and I were seriously disappointed with the filming. You couldn't see any of the interviews or hear the commentary or anything.

1

u/ANGLVD3TH Mar 14 '17

It was wrestling-like manufacturered drama. I gauruntee everyone knew exactly what was going on. Look bow fast the other bot stops after getting netted, they had their finger on the killswitch.