I am thinking of a new concept for water based robot combat (apologies if this has been done before). Floating robots (probably no larger than Antweight) would fight it out in a paddling pool sized arena and win by disabling their opponent (including sinking) or pushing into a “pit” area. I think the arena should be open and so spinners would not be permitted. Would you like to take part in such an event in the London area and do you have any suggestions regarding class rules, boat construction or arena design?
I think that this could be interesting. However, as you don’t have a traditional floor to push off of, traditional flippers and lifter wouldn’t work. And since there would be no spinners, I think that this greatly limits the weapon choice.
This was done at robomerd one year. Some really novel approaches. Hopefully one of the people who ran that competition or knows more about it will chime in.
I guess there could be alternative weapons that aim to push down on the opponent to capsize the vessel or attack the propulsion system.
It’d be pretty expensive, what with LiPos being lithium and you know… electronics, so that’s probably why it isn’t common.
I would love to have a go, although like anything it’s finding the time.
I still want to make the sandbots thing happen one day, and maybe a hybrid (beachbots) would be even more fun…
Wasn’t there like a Bots on Ice kind of thing at one point too?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEb5eL25v-plqeEv6omWRoMYeZaLnnXll
This is what was tried out at RoboNerd in 2019. Sadly never really took off and we didn’t run it again.
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I can kinda see why 