Home Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Final Report
BattleBots Day 1, Thu, 24 May 2001

Hello everyone,
Here's the update from Day 1 (Thursday) of BattleBots. Today’s events, rounds 1 and 2 of the preliminary tournament, were between all the new bots. The action was not filmed; only the bots advancing to round 4 get to go on TV and compete against the veterans. T-Wrex had one bout in round 1. Omega-13 got a bye in round 1 and had one bout in round 2. While the bots are supposed to be matched randomly, the number of well-matched bots was uncanny. The quality of bots was varied from extremely well built to ones that did not move or caught fire when hit the first time.
Team Regan Designs had a successful day. T-Wrex went first with Alain at its controls. The opponent was a bot named "Scrap Metal" (picture 1). Scrap Metal had problems with its radio receiver early in the game and was a sitting duck. After delivering a number of crowd pleasing shoves and tail whacks, T-Wrex was declared the winner via a knockout. Scrap Metal was quite solidly built and we were disappointed at how little damage was done to it. As much as Alain was itching for a real fight, we will take a victory any way we can get it.
In contrast, Omega-13's first fight was a nail biter. Omega-13, with Brent at its controls, was up against a well-designed and well driven British bot called Scallywag (picture 2). Both bots pushed, shoved and hit each other incessantly. While the other bot was more aggressive and was able to lift Omega-13 a couple of times, Brent was able to inflict a lot of damage, including a piece completely broken off, a severely bent ramp (picture 3) and a deep gouge in its ramp (picture 4). It was the damage that won the day for us and we won the bout on a split decision of 23 to 22 points. The crowd simultaneously cheered and booed the decision. Once again, we will take the victory any way we can get it. The extent of damage to Scallywag’s 1/4" thick aluminum indicates the ferocity of the action.
After the bout Brent noted that Omega-13 appeared sluggish towards the end of the bout. The post fight inspection revealed two dead motors. Further investigation pointed to burnt motor drivers. What was causing this problem? We were not sure. Thinking back, Brent correlated the onset of sluggishness with a head-on shoving match with Scallywag, but wasn’t sure. Could it be that the high current during the shoving match caused the motors to blow? During development we had tested the motors in the lab at higher currents than we were now using, so that did not make sense. In the end we decided to replace the motors, reduce the current limit and see what happens.

Tomorrow Alain starts the day by taking on a large bot with a flipper in front. We are hoping this will be an easy fight as the opponent is slow and unmaneuverable, while Alain is driving the nimble T-Wrex at its full potential. If we win that bout, we will be up against the winner of two fairly popular bots. We are optimistic that we can beat either of them, but if the fight is even remotely close, we will be in trouble with the judges due to the popularity of the opponent. If we win both these bouts, T-Wrex will be on TV!!!!!

Later in the day, Brent takes on a large unwieldy bot with two hammers. A few solid blows from Omega-13 should do a quick number on it -- we just need to avoid getting hammered too many times. If we win that bout, Omega-13 will be on TV!!!!!

Stay tuned for an update tomorrow night. Hopefully it will be just as full of good news.

Hamid