Servo - September 2007

B ASHB ALL!

BotBash returns with a new game, a radically

updated “Active Arena,” and a different approach

to extreme robotic sports.

by Steve Judd

What the Heck is BashBall?

BashBall combines the visceral excitement of one-on-one robot combat with the strategy of team play in a fast-paced ball game requiring speed, skill, and brute force.

Two teams of remotely-operated robots vie for points by scoring goals, ejecting opponents from the arena, disabling opponents, or all three in any combination. BashBall is played in an enclosed arena with transparent walls featuring pneumatically operated pits, flame jets, and “death blossom” pistons that pop up from the floor. Scoring goals in this environment is not easy, and every match is sure to feature plenty of exciting action!

Why Invent Another Robotic Sport?

Since the introduction of fighting

robots in 1994 at the original “Robot Wars” in San Francisco, CA, combat among remote controlled robots has followed the same basic format: one-on-one combat on a flat floor. There have been some variations along the way, but in the end the winner is usually decided by single combat, with the results based on damage caused.

The natural evolution of fighting robots following this format has produced two dominant designs: very destructive robots with kinetic energy (KE) weapons, and low, wedgy bricks designed to survive these weapons. With few exceptions, “robot fights” today follow one of the following scenarios:

• Two highly destructive KE robots clash briefly in a hail of shrapnel, reducing both to ineffective pushy bots for the remainder of the tournament.

• A low, wedgy brick wedges a highly

destructive KE robot around the arena for three minutes.

• Two low, wedgy bricks wedge each other around the arena for three minutes.

• A novel design is reduced to a pile of scrap metal by a KE weapon in the first 60 seconds (often less).

• A novel design is dominated by a low, wedgy brick for three minutes.

There are exceptions and variations of course, but the general direction is clear — if you don’t want to make a KE weapon or a low, heavily armored brick, you can expect to have two losses and go home, often with your robot in shards. While this format continues to appeal to some builders, there are many others who want something “different.”