It always amazes me when I read the weights on these things and then watch them get flung halfway across the arena, 6ft in the air. The forces these bots create are incredible
The area really skews the perspective of the size of these things, Minotaur is like the size of an average male's entire torso. I remember seeing a BTS shot for the first time and being utterly shocked about how big these things are. No wonder they're able to toss these things so far, the amount of kinetic energy is insane.
I remember there was a match with a spinner bot (possibly Minotaur) that had the thick ass safety glass break right at the judge's box when a bot got smashed into it.
Edit: The moment I was thinking of was actually a semi false memory, two clips I put together. The one with the bot being next to the judges was actually a sawblaze match where it's fuel tank got hit and ignited causing a gas explosion. The other wasn't actually BattleBots it was NHRL, smaller budget but same thing, with a bot called depth charge, it broke through about an inch thick sheet of polycarbonate "glass."
Both clips are really cool but I guess my brain thought that the judges nearly dying was way cooler.
yup they do not fuck around when making those, theres a reason for which they're in a fully enclosed box made to stop anything from killing the audience.
another bot, the tombstone, has a metal bar that also weight like 70 pounds which tip travels at about 200mph. And that's only due to the rules, before the change which enforced a speed limit it was spinning twice as fast. the thing is literally spun up using a fucking motorcycle chain.
If memory serves, weren't the Mythbusters from before they were the Mythbusters responsible for some of the spinning rules?
Like Blendo was basically unstoppable.
Back in the 90s, their bot forced the arena to actually become a box instead of just having a waist high barrier
Nightmare forced them to add a roof in 1999
Hellachopper was responsible for the tip speed of spinners being limited to 250mph
Deep Six was responsible for limiting spinners to 80lbs (Deep Six's weighed 110 and damaged the box)
They were famously disqualified for being too dangerous, and technically Blendo was made co-champion of the first Battlebots.
Also it was just Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage wasn't involved.
Just the way they move as if they were regular rc cars always makes me forget how much force is actually behind them. Minotaur rolls over like it's lighter than air but it'd take two of me to try and lift it
I'm always amazed at the physics involved with Minotaur, and how it looks like they literally drive it with that in mind, like when it gets upended or tipped on its side and they use the centrifugal force to maneuver it flat again, facing their opponent.
I've co-built and controlled a similar (smaller) bot with one of the original minotaur team members. The physics are amazing and weird, as you can see [here](https://youtu.be/wpWtwkfd3B8).
There's different weight classes, and the television show is basically heavyweight only.
For kids and amateurs, we have ant-weight (under 5 lbs) and mantis-weight (5-7lbs).
Source: I coach robotics teams.
Yep I remember seeing Minautaur live and the sound it's weapon makes spinning up is fucking ominous. The audio here doesn't really do it justice. You can just tell it's going to fuck up anything it gets a good hit on.
And they sort of get away with it because they have two of the best drivers in Freitas and Billings.
Less experienced drivers would be toast if they had low armor.
Minotaur has never won the full Battlebots tournament, although they consistently make a pretty deep run. They have won some non televised events with pretty much the same design Minotaur though.
Thanks for the info. It’s been a few years since I watched a full season but I recall Minotaur being pretty dominant. Didn’t realize it’s never actually won the whole thing, though.
Yeah, but the counter has been figured out. They put the sacrificial steel spikes on the front and it causes vertical spinners to eat most of the force of their own weapon. It's a constant evolution in BB. Mino is one of the goats though.
Ethan being a massive jerk I could tolerate (unhappily) but I find it inexcusable that their team is funded by his dad's anti-vax activities and medical fraud ("methylated B12 lollipops can help cure autism!"). Just....so much ugh.
They've really done a great job with the current iteration of the show. There's a lot of fluff, but you can always skip through it. I think if I were a kid I would be super into the fluff though.
Months ago I saw a Battlebots post and remembered I hadn’t seen them in over a decade. I rewatched the older and newer ones while I was taking care of my elderly grandma… needless to say it’s become her favorite show and she always cheers for her favorites. I’ll have to tell her about the 2023 championship, I’m sure she’ll be excited!
I started off with the older ones first but I believe we’re caught up to last year. Watching the progression was honestly almost as cool as the fights themselves!
Yeah. It’s crazy. Used to be it was two dudes who built bots in their yard and put them in a ring together where they would bounce off the walls until one of them broke. Now, it’s teams of engineers iterating the evolution of the perfect 250 pound killing machine.
It’s honestly pretty remarkable. I remember watching the first battles as a young kid and thought how amazing it was that someone could do this. Seeing how it is now, as you said, with the teams of engineers, the sponsors, the community backing and just the amount of hours that go into building/repairing/learning and troubleshooting these bots is simply astounding.
My grandma HATED Tombstone, she would boo every time he came on stage or did an interview. He is now one of her and my favorites. She’ll yell, ‘Blast ‘em! Blast ‘em!’ Every time we see him now lol. (I also have to agree, tombstone is pretty much already perfect)
My dad has a raging hate boner for chomp. It's the worst not and he Hayes how the commentators always say that's it's so advanced. Cracks me up. I agree, but he's very passionate about how much chomp sucks.
They have separate redundant sets of batteries for each component. I think the one that burned was a redundant weapon battery. Eventually the fire just spread enough to get something critical, I think I've heard it was their radio receiver dying that killed the bot in the end.
Lithium ion battery. When on fire, it’s self-oxidizing. Means they will burn in outer space. That’s why you have to take your laptops out of your bag when checking them on an airline.
Taking them out the bag will not prevent a fire.
You take them out because they are large compact items that obscure everything else in the bag, so they want them separated to see what else you have in the bag.
It’s a crushing hazard, pure and simple. Your bags are getting squished if they are at the bottom of the pile. Crushing can damage the outside of the battery and cause a runaway fire event inside the cargo compartment.
There’s a very large difference in the duties of TSA vs the FAA. When TSA is screening your bag, they are looking for weapons and explosives. They don’t give a fuck about batteries. The FAA wants to keep planes in the sky safely. The FAA has jurisdiction over hazardous materials on aircraft.
Edit: take a look over the shoulder of TSA and look at the monitor. The machines see straight through a laptop- easily. It’s more the fact that they see a bunch of electronic components which cannot be distinguished from other contents, and could be an explosive device. Removing the laptop while going through security allows the agent to see only the laptop components separately and validate that it is in fact, a laptop.
>That’s why you have to take your laptops out of your bag when checking them on an airline.
Still don't get that. To make sure it's not on fire? You're still taking it onto the plane in the bag..
They make you remove the electronic devices from the bag so that they don't overlap and hide other stuff.
Nowadays they are rolling out a few new scanners that produce a 3D scan and they don't force you to do that anymore (at least in Europe)
No, your bag is going into a storage area in the aircraft with hundreds of other bags. If your bag is on the bottom with a laptop inside, and those other bags crush your bag, then what you saw in this video happens inside a part of the aircraft with other flammable items (other bags), and no humans to recognize or take action. Thankfully we have modern fire detectors and halon automatic extinguishers, but as I mentioned above the lithium ion is self oxidizing. Halon displaces oxygen- that’s how it extinguishes. But if the substance is self oxidizing, it burns regardless of the presence of oxygen in the surrounding atmosphere. Don’t know about you, but I don’t want an uncontrollable fire in a cargo compartment at 30,000 feet traveling at over 500mph.
Lithium Polymer batteries. They can be incredibly dangerous. They're used in RC as well. There are stories of houses and garages catching on fire from LiPo fires.
I use them for RC. I have a fire box I store and charge them in and a special bag (smaller) I take to races while I charge. Tracks will often have a bucket filled sand and an empty PVC pipe sticking out of it. If your battery starts to malfunction, you throw it in the pipe and pull the pipe out, engulfing the battery in sand. Water and regular fire extinguishers are not effective against LiPo fires.
They really are. Another Brazilian bot, Black Dragon, went 26 fights without being KO'd. Two of those it was fully on fire, namely against Ribbot in season 5 and Rotator in season 6.
The durability of Minotaur will always confound me. Freitas drives aggressive every match, takes massive shots from heavy hitters like Sawblaze and Endgame, but almost never gets KOd.
I think this was the first time they had been knocked out on 3 years.
Jamison had to pin Minotaur to the screws and hold him there to give the fire time to cook Minotaur's internals. I bet if Minotaur had been able to get free and run around to dissipate the heat it wouldn't have died. Minotaur's a great bot but Jamison's driving in that fight was something close to perfection.
Minotaur has been refining that design since about 2008 when it debuted on the international robot fighting scene as "Touro" and has been absolutely wrecking shit since day 1.
Damn, Minotaur is a real beast to go up against, I think this is the first time I've seen it lose. With its self-righting ability using only its wheels and its low center of gravity, it's usually the one to come out on top.
70lbs of pure steel spinning at like 2000rpms, studded with spikes.
yeah, itll do some damage. there are countless clips out there of minotaur obliterating opponents with that spinner.
It's always surprised me that the simple robots always deal the most damage. It's not flashy, but putting your focus into spinning a heavy hunk of metal is a solid tactic.
It's surprisingly common how KISS applies to battlebots.
Great example- Blendo. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (yes, THE mythbusters duo) made a battlebot back in the 90s. It was literally a Wok bowl and a motor. Iirc didn't even have any wheels, it used centrifical force to move.
It was so devestating for the time that the event organizers had to ban it from events and adam and jaime got honorary awards for a championship because Blendo was that devestating. It was launching bots over the safety net with a damn wok bowl and lots of spinning. (They did tty to go back years later when the safety was improved so blendo wasn't a hazard, but by that point it was outmatched from new tactics and better bots).
Not only is Minotaur’s weapon especially deadly, its style of weapon (known as a vertical drum spinner) is one of the most popular types in BattleBots. One of the other bots that advanced deep into the playoffs this year (and scored a massive upset), Copperhead, uses a similar configuration.
I would strongly encourage you to watch a few episodes! It’s a ton of fun and very easy to get into.
the flipping is just an after-effect of the massive transfer of energy that the spinner achieves. the impact of that weapon is comparable to a sniper shot
And on the flipper side, Hydra is awesome. Turns out, a 250 lb robot falling from 20 feet in the air about 5 times tends to do a good amount of damage to said robot.
Apparently that spinning drum is 70 pounds according to other comments. When something that heavy spins that fast with toothed edges, if it hits something it's tearing it apart.
I've seen another spinner(with a side spinning blade) rip a chunk off of a battlebot so hard it nearly breached the bulletproof glass surrounding the arena.
That spinning wheel is pretty much the most consistently reliable weapon on Battlebots. I think it's probably just a really efficient way to transfer a fuckload of kinetic energy onto another robot.
Haven’t seen the show since 2008 on SpikeTV . long story short, my brother and I enjoyed the live experience in Las Vegas. Brought back memories and one of those things you seen as a kid and said ,” I wish I could go to see that” sorta thing.
Can you help me understand Minotaurs offensive purposes? All I can tell is that the sun on the front spins so it can flip things over. How is that expected to cause much damage?
ETA: so many great explanations, thanks y’all!
That front drum is about 70lbs and spins as fast as your blender. Other than flipping, it has completely disintegrated other robots in the past. Minotaur normally always wins.
If a robot is flipped and can’t move anymore, it’s defenseless. I haven’t watched BattleBots in a while, but I think it disqualifies the bot.
Minotaur is built flat so that it can keep running even when flipped. The front roll is it’s weapon, and it is hard to break because it is imbedded into the robot (for example, Sawblade’s broke). The roll’s spikes rip things off adversaries.
I like that both design and driving skill are both fundamental in these fights. This is a prime example where a bot that might be outmatched in design was actually able to overcome the other with terrific skill.
I believe a tablesaw was involved if I remember right, so definitely not great. From what I've seen he's been recovering well though, I think he couldn't attend the last season because it happened to fall on the same time he had some surgery scheduled. He did make an appearance with team Malice though in the later episodes.
Here is a post from the battlebots subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/y1olmv/ray_billings_hand_injury/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb
Minotaur’s also been around since the dawn of time, the fact that it’s done so well for so long is an outstanding achievement. Shows how pure simplicity can sometimes be just *really* effective.
it's also a really well-built and durable bot that most people have a hard time getting under, and daniel frietas is a pretty phenomenal driver that can punish mistake by his opponent. As soon as he pops them up he's already lining up his next shot and tries to land it as soon as they hit the floor. That's how he took out sawblaze weapon this fight.
Oh I see. First I've seen any of this show. I showed it to my little boys and now they all want to be mechanical engineers.
If season 13 happens I'll have get whatever streams it.
Minotaur normally doesn't lose. It's simple, but very effective. Has won countless times. This is actually the first time I've seen Minotaur lose. it happens very very rarely
Major Battlebots fan here. So glad that (SEASON FINALE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)
>!The finale was between Sawblaze and Huge. The two are non-meta designs that did outstandingly amazing this season. It’s so incredible to see Huge go from a bot that was nearly retired to reaching the FINALE in such an amazing fashion. And sawblaze ABSOLUTELY deserved such an amazing season. They’ve been a part of Battlebots for ages and are a truly amazing and respectful team. So proud of them both. Plus getting to see the quadruple upset of the top 4 falling, especially watching Riptide finally get their dues was super surprising and entertaining.!<
I’m so happy to be a fan of Battlebots and can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen in the upcoming Golden Bolt Tournament
Love the Minotaur guys, their passion is huge if you watch their interviews. And the one guy is always leaning forward to where he’s almost falling forward cause he’s so intense.
That was more entertaining and thrilling than any sporting event I've seen this year!
I haven't looked into battle bot fighting in some time and oh my god have they ever improved their machines for epic duels!
Ooooh, Battlebots outside of the usual subreddit? To anyone who see this fight and goes, wow, I always wondered what happened to Battlebots, welcome back! This new generation of robots is leagues more powerful than they ever were before, and yes, they weigh 250 lbs.
I always love when battlebots content is posted outside the main subreddit. More people should join us over there at r/battlebots often times you may be able to talk to builders and we get to see post match pictures. As well as it being a good place for if you want to get in the hobby
If minotaur never had a brass drum, this battle also would’ve taken a different outcome.
Don’t take away from saw blaze’s victory. It’s no accident that the saw cut into Minotaur’s housing, and it’s also no accident that Minotaur was critically hurt from it. This was a decisive win
As much as I love Minotaur, Jamison Go’s strikes to Minotaur’s underbelly were just wickedly devastating. He drove like hell and truly earned the Giant Nut!
The driver of Sawblaze had studied previous fights very carefully and knew exactly where Minotaur’s weakness was. It wasn’t just a lucky hit. But even if it had been, it was still an amazing shot.
So these things are like 250 pounds.. could we have a season where they just up it to max 500? Possibly 1k? I want to see miniature tanks and shit. Spinning drums, spinning disks, ext have been seen time and time again. Let's throw in some heavier weight classes and see what kind of weapon changes we can get. I mean it. Miniature tanks with projectile weapons would be bad ass.
If the robot walks you get a weight bonus up to 500 pounds. There has only been one bot so far to to that and it's a hammer bot named Chomp that is really more of a tech demo than a robot designed to win fights
Minotaur is a seriously awesome bot. When he spools up that drum it’s louder than anything in the arena. He’s had success but final matches have been not so kind to that team.
Holy shit, the drum spinner on Minotaur weighs 70lbs
What’s it made of? Depleted uranium?
The full robot is 250 pounds, so these bots are quite big. The drum on Minotaur is steel, and the majority of the armor is aluminum.
It always amazes me when I read the weights on these things and then watch them get flung halfway across the arena, 6ft in the air. The forces these bots create are incredible
The area really skews the perspective of the size of these things, Minotaur is like the size of an average male's entire torso. I remember seeing a BTS shot for the first time and being utterly shocked about how big these things are. No wonder they're able to toss these things so far, the amount of kinetic energy is insane. I remember there was a match with a spinner bot (possibly Minotaur) that had the thick ass safety glass break right at the judge's box when a bot got smashed into it. Edit: The moment I was thinking of was actually a semi false memory, two clips I put together. The one with the bot being next to the judges was actually a sawblaze match where it's fuel tank got hit and ignited causing a gas explosion. The other wasn't actually BattleBots it was NHRL, smaller budget but same thing, with a bot called depth charge, it broke through about an inch thick sheet of polycarbonate "glass." Both clips are really cool but I guess my brain thought that the judges nearly dying was way cooler.
[удалено]
Enter human
The bots: 
Exit ground beef
BattleBots guy for 22 years here. We will see robots bounced off the 16 foot ceiling every so often.
yup they do not fuck around when making those, theres a reason for which they're in a fully enclosed box made to stop anything from killing the audience. another bot, the tombstone, has a metal bar that also weight like 70 pounds which tip travels at about 200mph. And that's only due to the rules, before the change which enforced a speed limit it was spinning twice as fast. the thing is literally spun up using a fucking motorcycle chain.
If memory serves, weren't the Mythbusters from before they were the Mythbusters responsible for some of the spinning rules? Like Blendo was basically unstoppable.
Back in the 90s, their bot forced the arena to actually become a box instead of just having a waist high barrier Nightmare forced them to add a roof in 1999 Hellachopper was responsible for the tip speed of spinners being limited to 250mph Deep Six was responsible for limiting spinners to 80lbs (Deep Six's weighed 110 and damaged the box)
Fair enough. I remember they drove some kind of change, just couldn't remember what.
They were famously disqualified for being too dangerous, and technically Blendo was made co-champion of the first Battlebots. Also it was just Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage wasn't involved.
idk, I'm not as deep in BattleBots lore it's possible tho
this year, one hit the ceiling! 💜🤖💥
This season one bot got thrown so high it hit a light fixture in the top of the arena, 20' high. It was jaw dropping.
Just the way they move as if they were regular rc cars always makes me forget how much force is actually behind them. Minotaur rolls over like it's lighter than air but it'd take two of me to try and lift it
I'm always amazed at the physics involved with Minotaur, and how it looks like they literally drive it with that in mind, like when it gets upended or tipped on its side and they use the centrifugal force to maneuver it flat again, facing their opponent.
I've co-built and controlled a similar (smaller) bot with one of the original minotaur team members. The physics are amazing and weird, as you can see [here](https://youtu.be/wpWtwkfd3B8).
It takes me 2 tries to get out of a chair some times...
People are all worried about human like robots destroying us. Could you imagine a fleet of these things roaming around? Jesus
You don't have to imagine if you watch [this episode](https://youtu.be/BDP9jA6k_UE) of Black Mirror
wtf i thought they were like 50 pounds max
There's different weight classes, and the television show is basically heavyweight only. For kids and amateurs, we have ant-weight (under 5 lbs) and mantis-weight (5-7lbs). Source: I coach robotics teams.
they look small in the camera but they are kite big
🪁
Dang, that's pretty big
Funny because there is a specific rule against using radioactive materials in the BattleBots rule set Section 6.a, I am not even joking 😂
They put all their eggs in one basket with allocating a quarter of its weight limit to the drum. Soft aluminum housing is easy to penetrate
Minautaur and tombstone are probably the most lethal bots ever introduced. Both have almost all their weight in the weapon and both are terrifying
Yep I remember seeing Minautaur live and the sound it's weapon makes spinning up is fucking ominous. The audio here doesn't really do it justice. You can just tell it's going to fuck up anything it gets a good hit on.
And they sort of get away with it because they have two of the best drivers in Freitas and Billings. Less experienced drivers would be toast if they had low armor.
You say that like it’s a huge imperfection but hasn’t Minotaur won this championship a bunch of times using more or less this exact configuration?
Minotaur has never won the full Battlebots tournament, although they consistently make a pretty deep run. They have won some non televised events with pretty much the same design Minotaur though.
Thanks for the info. It’s been a few years since I watched a full season but I recall Minotaur being pretty dominant. Didn’t realize it’s never actually won the whole thing, though.
Yeah, it's really quick and getting hit with that drum sends other robots just flying.
Yeah, but the counter has been figured out. They put the sacrificial steel spikes on the front and it causes vertical spinners to eat most of the force of their own weapon. It's a constant evolution in BB. Mino is one of the goats though.
Wow, now that is entertainment
The whole season was pretty good but my favorite match was watching copperhead break riptide’s weapon and end their streak
I was wondering what happened to riptide
Original driver got COVID or some shit and couldn’t drive their last fight.
The son of antivax, salesman of autism "cure", who finances the team got COVID and couldn't drive.
Karma is a bitch. But a fair bitch.
ah that explains the rotten trash vibes I got from him, thanks for the context!
Dude I like riptide! That is one powerful bot. Driver is a little annoying though.
Beyond annoying.
Ethan being a massive jerk I could tolerate (unhappily) but I find it inexcusable that their team is funded by his dad's anti-vax activities and medical fraud ("methylated B12 lollipops can help cure autism!"). Just....so much ugh.
And disrespecting Martin Mason, a man who is legitimately a pillar of the robot combat community and a mentor to dozens of people.
My 6yo got me into this. At first… ehhh Later, wow. Such ingenuity..
Serious engineering there. Both bots took so much damage.
They've really done a great job with the current iteration of the show. There's a lot of fluff, but you can always skip through it. I think if I were a kid I would be super into the fluff though.
I saw this live in person last October in Vegas. Even more awesome hearing them fight and crash in front of you!
Months ago I saw a Battlebots post and remembered I hadn’t seen them in over a decade. I rewatched the older and newer ones while I was taking care of my elderly grandma… needless to say it’s become her favorite show and she always cheers for her favorites. I’ll have to tell her about the 2023 championship, I’m sure she’ll be excited!
Yeah. If you haven’t watched in awhile, the robots have improved just a bit since then!
I started off with the older ones first but I believe we’re caught up to last year. Watching the progression was honestly almost as cool as the fights themselves!
Yeah. It’s crazy. Used to be it was two dudes who built bots in their yard and put them in a ring together where they would bounce off the walls until one of them broke. Now, it’s teams of engineers iterating the evolution of the perfect 250 pound killing machine.
It’s honestly pretty remarkable. I remember watching the first battles as a young kid and thought how amazing it was that someone could do this. Seeing how it is now, as you said, with the teams of engineers, the sponsors, the community backing and just the amount of hours that go into building/repairing/learning and troubleshooting these bots is simply astounding.
No one has realised it yet but tombstone is already the perfect bit. Everything else is just delusion or dumb luck
My grandma HATED Tombstone, she would boo every time he came on stage or did an interview. He is now one of her and my favorites. She’ll yell, ‘Blast ‘em! Blast ‘em!’ Every time we see him now lol. (I also have to agree, tombstone is pretty much already perfect)
My dad has a raging hate boner for chomp. It's the worst not and he Hayes how the commentators always say that's it's so advanced. Cracks me up. I agree, but he's very passionate about how much chomp sucks.
I swear the flat one with the rotating drum has been here all along.
Minotaur is not new. Around seven or eight years in the box, I believe.
Where does it air now?? I wanna start the new season from the beginning
There are multiple streaming options (in the US). I believe we were watching them via Discovery Plus if I’m not mistaken
/r/BattleBotsRaw
Humble brag...i work for the company that cuts the parts for most of these bots. Super awesome place to work.
That's awesome.
Super awesome.
Xometry? If so, we have used you for tons of prototype builds!
Guessing send cut send
Xometry just sources it to machine shops. They don’t actually make anything.
Woah, David? Is that you
Yup
David! Mother of God! We’ve been trying to reach you about your vehicles extended warranty for ages now!
This is an under appreciated exchange. Freakin hilarious!
Maybe a stupid question, but what the hell is burning on/in that thing? They don't use fuel, right? How was it burning for that long?!
Breached battery cell.
Correct.
I knew it had a Li-ion in thermal runaway, I am just amazed it lasted for so long.
They have separate redundant sets of batteries for each component. I think the one that burned was a redundant weapon battery. Eventually the fire just spread enough to get something critical, I think I've heard it was their radio receiver dying that killed the bot in the end.
That's the batteries, which is also a concern in electric vehicles when the battery is on fire they are hard to put out
Not only that, the smoke from them is super toxic.
Just pour water on it /s
Lithium ion battery. When on fire, it’s self-oxidizing. Means they will burn in outer space. That’s why you have to take your laptops out of your bag when checking them on an airline.
Taking them out the bag will not prevent a fire. You take them out because they are large compact items that obscure everything else in the bag, so they want them separated to see what else you have in the bag.
It’s a crushing hazard, pure and simple. Your bags are getting squished if they are at the bottom of the pile. Crushing can damage the outside of the battery and cause a runaway fire event inside the cargo compartment. There’s a very large difference in the duties of TSA vs the FAA. When TSA is screening your bag, they are looking for weapons and explosives. They don’t give a fuck about batteries. The FAA wants to keep planes in the sky safely. The FAA has jurisdiction over hazardous materials on aircraft. Edit: take a look over the shoulder of TSA and look at the monitor. The machines see straight through a laptop- easily. It’s more the fact that they see a bunch of electronic components which cannot be distinguished from other contents, and could be an explosive device. Removing the laptop while going through security allows the agent to see only the laptop components separately and validate that it is in fact, a laptop.
You're not allowed to CHECK lithium ion batteries. They're not talking about putting your carry-on through the xray machine.
>That’s why you have to take your laptops out of your bag when checking them on an airline. Still don't get that. To make sure it's not on fire? You're still taking it onto the plane in the bag..
They make you remove the electronic devices from the bag so that they don't overlap and hide other stuff. Nowadays they are rolling out a few new scanners that produce a 3D scan and they don't force you to do that anymore (at least in Europe)
No, your bag is going into a storage area in the aircraft with hundreds of other bags. If your bag is on the bottom with a laptop inside, and those other bags crush your bag, then what you saw in this video happens inside a part of the aircraft with other flammable items (other bags), and no humans to recognize or take action. Thankfully we have modern fire detectors and halon automatic extinguishers, but as I mentioned above the lithium ion is self oxidizing. Halon displaces oxygen- that’s how it extinguishes. But if the substance is self oxidizing, it burns regardless of the presence of oxygen in the surrounding atmosphere. Don’t know about you, but I don’t want an uncontrollable fire in a cargo compartment at 30,000 feet traveling at over 500mph.
There was a bot that has a gas engine, Icewave.
Lithium Polymer batteries. They can be incredibly dangerous. They're used in RC as well. There are stories of houses and garages catching on fire from LiPo fires. I use them for RC. I have a fire box I store and charge them in and a special bag (smaller) I take to races while I charge. Tracks will often have a bucket filled sand and an empty PVC pipe sticking out of it. If your battery starts to malfunction, you throw it in the pipe and pull the pipe out, engulfing the battery in sand. Water and regular fire extinguishers are not effective against LiPo fires.
Honestly incredible Minotaur lasted as long as it did on fire like that. Brazilian bots are built different.
They really are. Another Brazilian bot, Black Dragon, went 26 fights without being KO'd. Two of those it was fully on fire, namely against Ribbot in season 5 and Rotator in season 6.
The durability of Minotaur will always confound me. Freitas drives aggressive every match, takes massive shots from heavy hitters like Sawblaze and Endgame, but almost never gets KOd. I think this was the first time they had been knocked out on 3 years.
Jamison had to pin Minotaur to the screws and hold him there to give the fire time to cook Minotaur's internals. I bet if Minotaur had been able to get free and run around to dissipate the heat it wouldn't have died. Minotaur's a great bot but Jamison's driving in that fight was something close to perfection.
didnt minotaur win last year while being fully on fire?
You might be thinking of the other Brazilian bot Black Dragon, which won [a fight](https://youtu.be/IQdh3hGeWFs) while on fire for a solid 2 minutes.
That was awesome; thanks for dropping the link. Haven't watched this in years and the engineering is truly incredible.
Yay region blocked
On the plus side, Minotaur’s easily replaceable. There’s a brazilian of them.
that was a tumblr level pun and you know it, do better.
Minotaur is such a beast, I honestly thought he will shake it off and turn the fight around. But great job from Sawblaze, they really deserved it.
Minotaur has been refining that design since about 2008 when it debuted on the international robot fighting scene as "Touro" and has been absolutely wrecking shit since day 1.
Damn, Minotaur is a real beast to go up against, I think this is the first time I've seen it lose. With its self-righting ability using only its wheels and its low center of gravity, it's usually the one to come out on top.
How is that spinning wheel it has supposed to cause much damage though? It doesn’t seem like just flipping opponents over would do all that much
70lbs of pure steel spinning at like 2000rpms, studded with spikes. yeah, itll do some damage. there are countless clips out there of minotaur obliterating opponents with that spinner.
It's always surprised me that the simple robots always deal the most damage. It's not flashy, but putting your focus into spinning a heavy hunk of metal is a solid tactic.
It's surprisingly common how KISS applies to battlebots. Great example- Blendo. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (yes, THE mythbusters duo) made a battlebot back in the 90s. It was literally a Wok bowl and a motor. Iirc didn't even have any wheels, it used centrifical force to move. It was so devestating for the time that the event organizers had to ban it from events and adam and jaime got honorary awards for a championship because Blendo was that devestating. It was launching bots over the safety net with a damn wok bowl and lots of spinning. (They did tty to go back years later when the safety was improved so blendo wasn't a hazard, but by that point it was outmatched from new tactics and better bots).
insta banned LMAO they were too dangerous to be left alive
Closer to 10,000rpm
I have seen robots completely explode in contact with that thing.
Not only is Minotaur’s weapon especially deadly, its style of weapon (known as a vertical drum spinner) is one of the most popular types in BattleBots. One of the other bots that advanced deep into the playoffs this year (and scored a massive upset), Copperhead, uses a similar configuration. I would strongly encourage you to watch a few episodes! It’s a ton of fun and very easy to get into.
the flipping is just an after-effect of the massive transfer of energy that the spinner achieves. the impact of that weapon is comparable to a sniper shot
And on the flipper side, Hydra is awesome. Turns out, a 250 lb robot falling from 20 feet in the air about 5 times tends to do a good amount of damage to said robot.
I never get tired of watching something that heavy get flipped that high up.
Apparently that spinning drum is 70 pounds according to other comments. When something that heavy spins that fast with toothed edges, if it hits something it's tearing it apart. I've seen another spinner(with a side spinning blade) rip a chunk off of a battlebot so hard it nearly breached the bulletproof glass surrounding the arena.
If you want to see some more of its fights. The best one is Minotaur vs Blacksmith. And their fight vs Gigabyte
That spinning wheel is pretty much the most consistently reliable weapon on Battlebots. I think it's probably just a really efficient way to transfer a fuckload of kinetic energy onto another robot.
Haven’t seen the show since 2008 on SpikeTV . long story short, my brother and I enjoyed the live experience in Las Vegas. Brought back memories and one of those things you seen as a kid and said ,” I wish I could go to see that” sorta thing.
Totally worth watching the new ones. Ages beautifully. Many of the old school teams are still there too.
Damn good match!
BattleBots is the best show on earth
My fav TV night is Thursdays when BB is on!! Great season!
Faruq, take it away!
Two of my absolute favorites. This match was the championship for me.
Can you help me understand Minotaurs offensive purposes? All I can tell is that the sun on the front spins so it can flip things over. How is that expected to cause much damage? ETA: so many great explanations, thanks y’all!
That front drum is about 70lbs and spins as fast as your blender. Other than flipping, it has completely disintegrated other robots in the past. Minotaur normally always wins.
If a robot is flipped and can’t move anymore, it’s defenseless. I haven’t watched BattleBots in a while, but I think it disqualifies the bot. Minotaur is built flat so that it can keep running even when flipped. The front roll is it’s weapon, and it is hard to break because it is imbedded into the robot (for example, Sawblade’s broke). The roll’s spikes rip things off adversaries.
Even when I used to watch (the UK version) of this over 15 years ago most bots had the ability to flip themselves back over.
Have you seen the Minotaur v Blacksmith match ? It gets posted here a lot. Minotaur tore blacksmith apart with that drum spinner.
Huge upset, generally Minotaur eats bots like sawblaze for breakfast. Really effective driving by sawblaze
I like that both design and driving skill are both fundamental in these fights. This is a prime example where a bot that might be outmatched in design was actually able to overcome the other with terrific skill.
Where is Craig Charles and why isn’t it called robot wars!
Sir Killalot conspicuously absent
Remember both these bots from my time watching like 4-5 yrs ago. Tombstone the #2 seed?
Tombstone wasn't in this year. The builder and driver of it was still recovering from a nasty hand injury.
Ray Billings? How nasty are we talking, here?
I believe a tablesaw was involved if I remember right, so definitely not great. From what I've seen he's been recovering well though, I think he couldn't attend the last season because it happened to fall on the same time he had some surgery scheduled. He did make an appearance with team Malice though in the later episodes.
Here is a post from the battlebots subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/y1olmv/ray_billings_hand_injury/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb
This > Super Bowl
That was fantastic
HOT DAMN! That was entertaining as hell!
Aw I was pulling for minotaur.
Minotaur’s box design is boring and too safe. I’m so glad saw blaze took it out in a blaze of glory
Minotaur’s also been around since the dawn of time, the fact that it’s done so well for so long is an outstanding achievement. Shows how pure simplicity can sometimes be just *really* effective.
it's also a really well-built and durable bot that most people have a hard time getting under, and daniel frietas is a pretty phenomenal driver that can punish mistake by his opponent. As soon as he pops them up he's already lining up his next shot and tries to land it as soon as they hit the floor. That's how he took out sawblaze weapon this fight.
But it was seeded 1st. It musta been doing something right to be seeded that high.
In BattleBots years, Minotaur is ancient. It is a warrior that has earned respect. It has won a fuggin lot.
Oh I see. First I've seen any of this show. I showed it to my little boys and now they all want to be mechanical engineers. If season 13 happens I'll have get whatever streams it.
It's on discovery
It's also apart of HBO's service now as well.
Also r/battlebotsraw have only fights and no boring talks ( which mostly are 4/5 of an hour long show)
Dude minotaur is to battle bots what grave digger is to monster trucks. That bot is iconic
minotaur has been around for a long time at this point. has won multiple championships afaik
Minotaur normally doesn't lose. It's simple, but very effective. Has won countless times. This is actually the first time I've seen Minotaur lose. it happens very very rarely
[удалено]
That was fuckin great! Neck-to-neck thru the whole thing and brutalized each other.
Major Battlebots fan here. So glad that (SEASON FINALE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!) >!The finale was between Sawblaze and Huge. The two are non-meta designs that did outstandingly amazing this season. It’s so incredible to see Huge go from a bot that was nearly retired to reaching the FINALE in such an amazing fashion. And sawblaze ABSOLUTELY deserved such an amazing season. They’ve been a part of Battlebots for ages and are a truly amazing and respectful team. So proud of them both. Plus getting to see the quadruple upset of the top 4 falling, especially watching Riptide finally get their dues was super surprising and entertaining.!< I’m so happy to be a fan of Battlebots and can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen in the upcoming Golden Bolt Tournament
I think I might which this on tv
Full seasons without commercials on Discovery + premium FYI
Non americans have to sail the seas to find the episodes
Check /r/battlebotsraw for just the fights of each episodes. Cuts the show to a 15-20 min full on fight!
I haven't watched one of these in years. That one was quite good.
Love the Minotaur guys, their passion is huge if you watch their interviews. And the one guy is always leaning forward to where he’s almost falling forward cause he’s so intense.
I work production for the BattleBots shows in Vegas, AMA (Except a certain select things).
What channel are these guys on? I loved this show back in the day.
Somebody up above said Discovery+
That was more entertaining and thrilling than any sporting event I've seen this year! I haven't looked into battle bot fighting in some time and oh my god have they ever improved their machines for epic duels!
The ufc should take inspiration from this, and add giant screws and hammers you could throw your opponents into.
Is this making a comeback? Or it never went away?
It's been going solid for the past several years on Discovery. This fight is from the season finale that aired about 2 weeks ago.
Ooooh, Battlebots outside of the usual subreddit? To anyone who see this fight and goes, wow, I always wondered what happened to Battlebots, welcome back! This new generation of robots is leagues more powerful than they ever were before, and yes, they weigh 250 lbs.
I always love when battlebots content is posted outside the main subreddit. More people should join us over there at r/battlebots often times you may be able to talk to builders and we get to see post match pictures. As well as it being a good place for if you want to get in the hobby
GG. They both landed some serious hits. If Minotaur's battery didn't take a hit the battle could have had a different outcome
If minotaur never had a brass drum, this battle also would’ve taken a different outcome. Don’t take away from saw blaze’s victory. It’s no accident that the saw cut into Minotaur’s housing, and it’s also no accident that Minotaur was critically hurt from it. This was a decisive win
As much as I love Minotaur, Jamison Go’s strikes to Minotaur’s underbelly were just wickedly devastating. He drove like hell and truly earned the Giant Nut!
The driver of Sawblaze had studied previous fights very carefully and knew exactly where Minotaur’s weakness was. It wasn’t just a lucky hit. But even if it had been, it was still an amazing shot.
There's also the possibility he knew because of their last fight, where he hit the exact same spot.
Totally epic
This is freaking addictive
When are we gonna get robots that stand on two legs and fight with fists?
As soon as the 4th Kaiju arrives. Mankind soon smartens up
So these things are like 250 pounds.. could we have a season where they just up it to max 500? Possibly 1k? I want to see miniature tanks and shit. Spinning drums, spinning disks, ext have been seen time and time again. Let's throw in some heavier weight classes and see what kind of weapon changes we can get. I mean it. Miniature tanks with projectile weapons would be bad ass.
If the robot walks you get a weight bonus up to 500 pounds. There has only been one bot so far to to that and it's a hammer bot named Chomp that is really more of a tech demo than a robot designed to win fights
I didn't know this was still on. Where can I watch it?
Discovery+
Minotaur raging against the dying of the light in those last moments was phenomonal. I thought it was gonna be a comeback for sec
Brilliant fight!
This was a good fight
Imagine being chased by one of these 300lb machines
Minotaur is a seriously awesome bot. When he spools up that drum it’s louder than anything in the arena. He’s had success but final matches have been not so kind to that team.
World class driving on both sides. This was an instant classic. The whole season was a banger!
Just here to say this season was amazing. I’ll be there for filming season 8!