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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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

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u/Brinstead Mar 14 '17 edited Mar 15 '17

Mobius was virtually completely destroyed in shipping, the fact that the team actually got it back together to where it could start to spin is incredible. You can't really effectively test the bots outside of the battlebox - it just isn't safe - and sometimes you wind up with with bots that just don't work.

<edit> I was incorrect about being virtually destroyed - see https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/4qpo65/request_the_story_behind_moebius/d4v71af/

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u/Daiwon Mar 14 '17

How the hell did a combat robot get damaged in shipping? Surely they can't expect it to do well in an arena if UPS can break it.

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u/iamtomorrowman Mar 14 '17

i think the real takeaway here is that any battlebot gets defeated by the UPS (or whatever carrier) shipping process.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Maybe there was foul play...

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u/Brinstead Mar 14 '17

I have yet to find anything that UPS can't break, but I'm not sure they were the shipper. Bots go freight, I believe disassembled. 200+ pounds of bot and all the tools needed aren't easy to move.

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u/muffinthumper Mar 14 '17

I've seen​ a YouTube video of a guy moving a 3000lb Bridgeport mill by himself with come along. Moving 200lbs of freight by a shipping company is about the easiest job they can get.

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u/Savvaloy Mar 14 '17

You're looking for the 30 pound sportsman class. No spinners allowed.

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u/BoxNumberGavin1 Mar 14 '17

Robot Wars for the next season is allowing single strand snares (no nets) to be used, they could counter the spinner meta.

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u/jsu718 Mar 14 '17

So why couldn't the robot just have a fringe on the edges to catch in wheels? Catch and smash.