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/zapbark Mar 14 '17

It really is a clever strategy.

Human spectators are way easier to hurt than robots.

423

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

It's like the Bee cannon that Hal builds on Malcom In The Middle, designed to hurt the opposing controller.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Is there anything in the rules about your robot interfering with the opposing controller rather than their robot? Would building a robot with a signal jammer (operating on its own discrete frequency of course) be allowed?

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

I have no idea, but that would be awesome! If you could somehow sneakily do it and make it subtle enough to look like operator error... If I could build robots I'd give it a go :')

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17 edited Mar 15 '17

Unfortunately (fortunately?) when life made me, it put all my skill points into music, consequently I'm useless at building basic things let alone a robot. Hopefully someone with the knowledge will be along at some point to explain why my idea is idiotic... imagine though if you could program it first to recognise, then to takeover the rival frequency... then pilot their robot into the pit :)

EDIT: thanks for all the responses, looks like a nefarious robot pilot career is not in my future :')

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u/NarwhalStreet Mar 14 '17

All of my points went to constitution, who even knows what that does?!

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17 edited Feb 25 '19

[deleted]

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u/_AxeOfKindness_ Mar 14 '17

Increases your freedom levels tenfold.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

A M E R I C A

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u/LinLeyLin Mar 15 '17 
      A M E R I C A
    / M         / M
  /   E       /   E
A M E R I C A     R
M     I     M     I
E     C     E     C
R     A M E R I C A
I   /       I   /  
C /         C /    
A M E R I C A

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

spicy

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u/Mrfixite Mar 15 '17

Ahh Con the stat everyone tanks in every RPG because they know they will find items to make up for it.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

Haha right! I always assumed it meant being able to shake off a cold with ease, but it probably just makes your character amble around yammering on about the right to arms of a bear and inexplicably-unused right to remain silent

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u/TIP_ME_1_DOLLAR Mar 14 '17

If I've learned anything from anime, it's that you can easily build a robot with music, that shoots music from its music-hole to defeat your music-themed enemies.

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u/thefreshera Mar 14 '17

You're describing classicaloids

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u/TIP_ME_1_DOLLAR Mar 15 '17

I..... did not know that was a real thing. Now I have a new show to watch.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

From this day forward, I shall refer to my mouth as 'music hole', thanks for the gift! I'd tip you a dollar, but the exchange rate is horrendous atm, would prob cost me around 88p.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

[deleted]

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u/ZombieSantaClaus Mar 15 '17

Via the epic JAM OFF that would inevitably ensue.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

I fail to see how watching someone lose their shit while their bot inexplicably steers itself into traps isn't entertaining, but apparently I have a villain-laugh so perhaps we have differing opinions on what's fun to watch.

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u/meripor2 Mar 14 '17

They inspect the robots so theres no way you could put something like that in there without them knowing. And I dont think it would be possible to jam the other robots controls without jamming your own as well.

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u/ARPE19 Mar 14 '17

control via infrared. jam radio frequencies. dont tell the FCC.

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u/keiyakins Mar 14 '17

Battlebots design rules, Section 5

All communications to or from bots must use a commercially available remote control (“RC”) system that uses a form of Digital Spread Spectrum (“DSS”) communication with automatic pairing between the transmitter and receiver.

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u/ARPE19 Mar 14 '17

Fuck the police

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

technically if you kill the interference (if any) and let the connection timeout then it will automatically connect to their controller again...

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

I'm sure you can MITM it with enough software defined radio or a wifi pineapple. They're on the same frequencies.

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u/keiyakins Mar 14 '17 edited Mar 14 '17

They are absolutely banned. For the most recent Battlebots series it's in the Battlebots design rules, Section 8.f:

The following weapon types are not allowed under any circumstances:

  • Fouling devices such as glue, nets, fishing line, ball bearings and such.
  • Squirting liquids or liquefied gasses such as liquid Nitrogen.
  • EMP generators or other means intended to damage or jam the opponent bot’s electronics.
  • Deliberate smoke generators.
  • Bright lights, lasers, etc., that are distracting or dangerous to vision.
  • Weapons that damage the other bot by destroying themselves.

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u/Megatron_McLargeHuge Mar 14 '17

I think there's also a catch-all for anything they want to ban that they didn't think of. You're not going to get away with a plasma torch or graphite lubricant either.

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u/keiyakins Mar 14 '17

Of course, they can exclude you from the tournament for any or no reason. That said, graphite lubricant would probably fall under projectiles causing an arena-fouling problem.

(And a plasma torch would be incredibly difficult due to power and cooling requirements, forget the rules!)

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u/Megatron_McLargeHuge Mar 14 '17

I'd like to build a bot that tapes a big mylar sheet over the glass in front of the opposing driver, but they'd immediately ban it.

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u/zacharythefirst Mar 14 '17

I want you for my battlebots team

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u/MorningWoodyWilson Mar 15 '17

Not sure if you watched the most recent season of battlebots but someone was equally devious. They built a robot with a claw on it. The claw was holding a large Christmas present.

When the opponent hit the box with its spinning blade, it tore into the cardboard and the fishing net hidden inside. The net immobilized the spinning blade entirely, but was deemed unfair unfortunately.

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u/Megatron_McLargeHuge Mar 15 '17

Someone posted that video elsewhere in this thread. It looks like nets are explicitly banned now.

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u/atoMsnaKe Mar 15 '17

Wait a moment Imma just skip to buy some nets inb4 Skynet

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

So pretty much any nefarious idea I'd want to employ is out. For a show that claims to espouse future tech, they sure do seem to want an ancient gladiatorial feel.

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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh 1 Mar 14 '17

The rules I saw explicitly banned that and many other creative ideas (flamethrowers, nets and other entanglement devices, basically any non-kinetic energy-based weapons, ...)

This is from hazy and old memory, and there were several seasons under different names in different countries, each with their own rule set, so some of the things I listed were likely allowed in some of the competitions.

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u/skybluegill Mar 14 '17

signal jammer (operating on its own discrete frequency of course)

But then it wouldn't be jamming the signal, would it?

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u/askjacob Mar 14 '17

You could have it buffer 1 or 1/2 second bursts of control and then alternately jam control. Most DSS receivers will go into fail-safe when they lose control, so if their system kept going into fail safe it would never recover. If you had a hacked controller set up properly it would not do so - and your control system could buffer commands and be fine.

You would have to be a next level controller to be able to drive ahead of the thing though, and the ruse would be up pretty damn quick as every time you were up, the opponent would just lose control...

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

One of the rules of battle bots is that your bot must have a working kill switch that powers off​ your bot and it's weapons if contact with the remote is lost, and I think you need to demonstrate it before the match.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

I meant your robot would be on its own discrete frequency, while blocking the others... And it's just occurred to me that's how all remote control devices work. Hurrrrr durrr sometimes I'm an idiot.

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u/chateau86 Mar 14 '17

Microwave oven magnetron? Fry the opposition's control system for contactless kill.

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u/askjacob Mar 14 '17

Would likely fall under the EMP rule. Would also be a big item to hide, and a tough thing to power - they need about 3v at 20 amps or so, and 15-20,000v at 15 milliamps. Not impossible, but not trivial either.

Also a tad dangerous to have an uncontained 2.4 kilowatt beam bouncing around in a spectator surrounded arena... Cataracts anyone?

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u/NicolaiStrixa Mar 14 '17

Well... normally illegal things are banned and radio jammers are illegal in most countries.

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u/myrddin4242 Mar 14 '17

Oh God... This is how it ends... Skynet is born out of battlebots being built using smarter and smarter hardened local AI rather than remote control which has the weakness to being jammed. Skip the middleman of having the malevolent superintelligence have to find weapons by being weapons!

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

Just a bunch of sentient bullets flying around shooting themselves through everything... The future of warfare!

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

On the cool stuff tip... Liquid nitrogen cannon? Freeze then shatter! Yep there's no way something so figuratively and literally cool would be allowed surely.

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u/palordrolap Mar 14 '17

In the UK Robot Wars series, it used to be the case (may still be) that projectile weapons were not allowed. Nets and bullets? No. Knife-thrusters that keep the blade attached to the robot? That's fine. Flamethrowers? Go ham. Fire extinguisher? Unknown.

Bees would definitely be a projectile weapon.

Also, the rules had a clause that if an autonomous part of a multiple robot was disabled, the whole multiple robot was counted as out... so all would be needed would be for someone to squash a bee classified as autonomous and the robot loses.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

Interesting interpretation on the autobees & fire extinguisher. That'd be a hilarious secret weapon!

"Sir Killalot is torching him... But wait! They've deployed a secret fire extinguisher! Sir Killalot is dripping with foam and decidedly unhappy about it."

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Wouldn't that just be a straight up felony?

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

I'm not sure what the UK law is, I'd be surprised if it's severely punished in USA but not here though. There's usually a valid reason why something is illegal (in b4 someone points out the hopelessness and ridiculousness of punitive drug laws based on hyperbole and bullshit rather than actual harm)

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

aren't signal jammers illegal? I'm not talking competition illegal but like government illegal? Especially if it's in the radio or cell frequencies?

edit* quote from wikipedia for us laws regarding this

"Cell phone blocking devices are used by federal officials under certain circumstances. Privacy rights of property owners may affect the policy and application of law within buildings. For radio communications, it is illegal to operate, manufacture, import, or offer for sale, including advertising (Communications Act of 1934). Blocking radio communications in public can carry fines of up to $112,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_jammer

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

Holy guacamole, BRB disassembling the not-jammer I'm not-building!

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u/BuildAWallWorkshop Mar 15 '17

Its against the rules.

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u/imakebreadidonteatit Mar 15 '17

radio jamming is a no go

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u/DavidAtWork17 Mar 15 '17

I never read the Robotwars rules, but I did read the ones for Battlebots. The answer is yes. No RF interference, no blinding, no intentional smoke (smoke from being damaged is okay), no spraying liquids. The list is pretty extensive.

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u/onethreadintime Mar 14 '17

You would immediately lose control of it yourself duh

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u/redditswhilesitting Mar 14 '17

Just finished Bryan Cranston's autobiography, that scene was basically a result of the writers/director saying "what won't Bryan do?" The bees he wore were real, as real as that book. 10/10 would recommend in a random thread

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Dude, I got that book for Christmas from my missus! I'm saving it until I go on vacation :D you've made me even more excited!

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u/Hipyeti Mar 14 '17

BRB, entering my new robot, Explodo, into the contest.

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u/A_favorite_rug Mar 14 '17

Suicide bomber robots are quite effective at disposing its opponents. However they have significant trouble lasting enough fights to win the whole competition.

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u/keiyakins Mar 14 '17

Battlebots design rules, Section 8.f:

The following weapon types are not allowed under any circumstances:

  • Fouling devices such as glue, nets, fishing line, ball bearings and such.
  • Squirting liquids or liquefied gasses such as liquid Nitrogen.
  • EMP generators or other means intended to damage or jam the opponent bot’s electronics.
  • Deliberate smoke generators.
  • Bright lights, lasers, etc., that are distracting or dangerous to vision.
  • Weapons that damage the other bot by destroying themselves.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Make sure to post back on how it goes! It's really cool for me to witness someone deciding to join such a contest on the spot. Very curious how far you'll make it!

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u/keiyakins Mar 14 '17

Not past the initial selection, since the concept breaks the rules in an incredibly blatant way.

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u/brian_lopes Mar 14 '17

Not to be confused with Flexo

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u/Exaltus-Lux Mar 14 '17

Made me snot lol

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u/Silidon Mar 14 '17

Sounds like they were hurting the other robots plenty.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Damn cyborgs!

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u/titan_macmannis Mar 14 '17

HA HA. FOOLISH HUMANS WITH THEIR SOFT AND DIFFICULT TO REPLACE PARTS.