How to Build a BattleBots Robot Like a Pro

How about building a visually stunning combat robot that can survive an entire BattleBots tournament, create those classic hits, and thrill the audience? Whether it’s a humanoid, pusher, horizontal/vertical spinner, or a flier, you need to be strategic and follow a design process to build a bot that can become a brand and win in the BattleBots arena.

But how to build the best Battlebots robot that can help you kick butt in breathtaking mechanical warfare? Let’s unpack a brief guide of the design and building process of a BattleBot the world has never seen!

What is a BattleBot?

A BattleBot is a combat robot that a group of roboticists or qualified engineers specially build to participate and battle in BattleBots – a popular TV series currently telecast on the Discovery Channel where robots fight head-to-head and create a great deal of mayhem, havoc, and carnage. 

BattleBots TV show, an offshoot of the British series Robot War, currently produced by the Whalerock Industries and BattleBots Productions, has been telecast since 1999. 

Getting broadcast on Comedy Central for five successful seasons, the show encountered a small hiatus and made a tremendous come-back with its 6th season on ABC in 2015. From 2018 to now, the show has been broadcast on Discovery Channel. 

This American competitive show is now on its 11th season. It was filmed in Las Vegas, and premiered on January 4, 2021. 

What are the rules of BattleBots?

BattleBots robot combat show is like the UFC of robots, and proper precautions are taken to ensure no human is injured by flying shrapnel, conflagration, charging robots, or anything. The contestants can apply for the tournament by submitting their robot layouts, sketches, and CAD designs via the BattleBots official website; no entry fee is charged. 

Let’s go through the show rules:

• The selected teams, through their bots, compete in a series of rounds of 3-minutes. The robots are remotely controlled by their owners when they duke it out against each other in a 48’ x 48’ Battle Arena to come out as the ultimate winner of the Giant Nut Trophy. 
• The ultimate goal of this adrenaline-packed robot-to-robot face-off is to destroy and knock down the opponent. If a bot remains immobilized after a 10-second call, it automatically gets knocked out. If neither of the bots is destroyed or immobilized, the decision lies upon the judging panel of 3. Each judge marks the battling robots from 1-5 based on the fighting tactics, attack, damage made to the opponent, and the team hitting the higher point is declared the tournament winner.
• Though the previous seasons ran following a single-elimination format, for the latest 2021 series, the show has changed to Fight Card matchups, and only the last 16 finalist teams will get the chance to battle for the World BattleBots Championship trophy. 

How to Build a BattleBots Robot?

The BattleBots team encourages contestants to build original robots of interesting structures having new weapon types, unique types of mobility, and attack and defense techniques. You can also go online for a layout and twist it to stun the audience. But first off, go through BattleBots design rules carefully.

Let’s dive deeper into how to build a BattleBots robot like a pro:

Step 1: Select the Bot Size

The foremost step to kick off combat robot construction is to decide its size. While the machines of the previous season could be categorized into four different weight classes (60-340 lbs), in the latest 11th season, bots can weigh no more than 250 lbs. 

If you are up for constructing a ‘Flybot,’ its maximum weight can be 10lb. If you have just stepped into robotics, building a midweight or lightweight machine would be a wise choice as the price racks up with bot size and weight. 

Step 2: Fix Your Budget

The unspoken rule of thumb is that per pound of a BattleBot will cost you $100. So for a 250lb bot, you may need to invest around $25000. 

Again, it’s just a rough estimation. The amount you have to spend on your combat bot can vary depending on various factors – robot skeleton, chassis and armor material, electrical components, prototyping, etc. 

Unless you have an in-house prototyping setup, electrical components, or can find a sponsor, the expenditure can be as high as $50000. So do proper analysis and make a rough budget estimation – leaving building your long-dreamt BattleBot for money is the last thing you can afford.

The essential components to build a fully functioning combat robot are:

• Power supply source
• Armor and Chassis material
• Wires
• Motors
• Drive train
• Axles and shafts
• Wheels
• Weapons
• Fasteners, nuts, and bolts
• Radio controller system for signal transmission and receiving
• Speed controller
• Switches
• Spare parts

Step 3: Initial Design and Sketches

You can obviously bypass this stage, but hand-made sketches, initial designs, and research on the machines of identical functionalities can facilitate the development of the final layout and 3D drawing for machining. 

Consider the following things to gain bigger success in the BattleBox:

• Ensure your bot design is unique and includes a ‘wow’ factor
• Think about how easy this machine would be to regulate, control and maintain remotely. For instance, would you be able to change components and get back in the battleground in a short time? Must you dismantle the whole device to reinstall a motor? 

Finally, prepare a rough layout indicating the dimensions counting on the weights of your robot subsystems. 

Step 4: Select the Bot Components

Now it’s time to get into the real work – component selection:

• Most BattleBots are battery-driven. However, using ICE or pneumatic systems is also fine. Select a battery that can be charged promptly during the breaks (20 minutes). For a pneumatic system, you must use gaseous nitrogen. 
• Invest in a lightweight yet robust material like titanium or aluminum for armor – it acts as a shell when the opponent attacks your machine. 
• Make sure you use a strong, protective, and lightweight material for the chassis that can hold your bot components together efficiently.
• Investing in a bulletproof drivetrain is a plus – don’t forget that a broken drivetrain means you end up with a DEAD robot.
• You cannot skim on the motor – the equipment that produces motion in your bot, and sometimes power the weapons. Mainly DC motors of voltage around 3-72V are used in battle bots. The factors that can impact your choice for bot motors are weight, torque, size, and voltage. As a rule of thumb, you can opt for a motor that can provide maximum torque. Most robot motors are of 12V DC. If it’s not the case, use other electrical components that comply with your motor’s nominal voltage.

Step 5: CAD Drawing

CAD layouts can save time and help avoid budget overrun by enabling you to visualize how well the robot parts will fit together before you really start manufacturing them. 

You have plenty of CAD tools with free licensing and ready-to-go templates available today – Solidworks, Autodesk, AutoCAD, etc. While doing 3D rendering, ensure you use correct dimensions and accurately size components. 

Step 6: Bot Parts Manufacturing

You have a handful of options to get this step done – full CNC, hand toolkits, milling machine, manual lathe, and more. 

If you rely on hand equipment like a saw, small vise, etc., (preference of most roboticists with tight budgets), ensure having a full-scale CAD design, pasting it on the material, and cutting the components accordingly. 

However, a lathe or mill can ensure your robot parts are more precise than light-power instruments. 

For an expert up for building a complex combat robot, full CNC can be the ultimate choice. In this case, he ensures having a top-notch and highly accurate CAD illustration in hand.

Step 7: Assembling the Bot Components

Your robot parts may require some tweaking to precisely fit together depending on the manufacturing method you employ.

Step 8: Controls and Wiring

BattleBots requires you to have a system in place to control your bot motors and supplementary systems remotely. You can install a microcontroller or a Radio Control system based on your bot’s unique functionality. 

Let’s go through the standard wiring system of a battle bot:

• Each motor is wired with separate speed controllers that receive a PWM signal from the radio controller receiver. They get linked to the power supply via breakout board/switch unique for each speed controller. The function of the PWM signal is to feed the correct voltage to the motors.
• Pick the best battery pack based on your equipment specifications and the gross power supply your bot would require – any commercially available battery goes fine with BattleBots robots.

Step 9: Testing and Tweaking

You might not get things right in the first shot. It is rigorous testing, modifications, and tuning up the design and system that ensure your robot functions the way you require.

Try to test and backtrack each subsystem individually. Thus you can effortlessly figure out issues without scanning the whole system.

Don’t forget to test the control system and hone your BattleBot driving skill to ace this competition of robotic skill, enthusiasm, and wits.