Isn’t It Violent? No, It Isn’t.
As a veteran BattleBots builder’s wife and former BattleBots
employee and a mother of two boys,
I’m thinking that some mommies out
there hesitate to jump on the fighting
robots bandwagon because they think
“it’s violent, and we don’t allow
violence.” When I started posting
news about the new BattleBots show,
I saw a lack of Facebook “likes” from
a certain demographic. The mom
demographic.
So, let me say to them what
we’ve been saying for, oh, about 18
years. Battling robots are not violent,
but they are destructive. Why promote
that?
Well, what did your toddler do
with every block tower? They
KNOCKED IT DOWN. Blocks
everywhere. And then what did they
do? They BUILT IT AGAIN. AND
AGAIN. Even if the blocks were all
over the room.
Now, let’s talk about culture
today. Everything is disposable. You
don’t fix it; you throw it away.
Appliances, relationships, you name it.
Why bother to salvage anything?
This sport — and we do consider
it a sport — involves people using all
of their tinkering, engineering, and
imaginative skills to apply math and
science (or maybe just a good
working theory) to bring a machine to
life.
After working on it for hundreds
of hours, they know it is going to get
destroyed in some way, shape, or
form. They know it is not going on
the shelf to be displayed and
preserved.
So, they bring their
creation into the arena where
something destructive
inevitably happens to it. It gets
its armor shredded, frame
bent, maybe expensive
electronics go up in smoke and
flames, etc., in an attempt to beat the
opponent. You win some, you lose
some.
Do you throw away your robot
afterwards? No. You rebuild it.
Sometimes with only a short
timeframe before the next match, you
need to improve your bot and quickly
learn from your mistakes.
You look for design flaws and
ways to beat your next or most
formidable opponent. Sometimes your
bot literally limps back into the arena
to advance to the next fight, and you
head back into battle.
It can be nerve wracking. I often
find myself shaking, a lump in my
throat, adrenaline off the chart when
I see my husband’s robot in the
BattleBox before the start of a fight.
But is it violent? When I worked
in the BattleBots office, I fielded fan
emails and phone calls. I will always
remember the communications I got
from parents saying, “My kids were
watching wrestling and jumping off
the couch trying to kill each other.
Now, I can’t get them away from their
LEGOS, because instead, they’re
designing fighting robots! Thank
No, it’s not violent. And schools
have caught on. Robotic combat
programs are alive and well in high
schools. Our current online store
( www.robotmarketplace.com) is a
supplier for these schools, so I know
firsthand. I personally believe that the
combat element is more impactful
than say, building a robot to complete
a task.
There is deep, intense emotion
involved in seeing your creation get
broken or mangled, and that helps
you deal with the inevitable tragedies
in life differently than say, the
disappointment in scoring low points
on a task.
You have to sort out all that raw
emotion and salvage what you can of
your robot from sometimes literally
pieces of scrap. Hopefully, you come
back stronger.
That’s not violent, that’s a life
skill. It holds incredible life lessons. So,
let your kids watch the battling robots
because it will only spur them on
towards imagination, engineering,
science, and hands-on tinkering.
If they knock down the block
tower, they will always want to rebuild
it. SV
by Erica Smentowski
Post comments on this article at www.servomagazine.com/
index.php/magazine/article/august2015_Appetizer.
• Bot wife and widow since
Robot Wars 1997
• Former BattleBots employee from
Comedy Central era
• Currently co-owner of www.
robotmarketplace.com with
husband, Jim Smentowski of
Team Nightmare (BattleBots)
SERVO 08.2015 81
Battling Robots