This year marks 20 years of Battlebots - the legendary TV show where teams of highly skilled technicians and designers create state of the art remote control robots and battle them to the death (or at least, the near robot death) in order to take the grand prize. The show airs on the Discovery Channel in America and 150 more countries around the globe, but enthusiasm for robot fighting isn’t limited to the show and its following. There’s a whole universe of bot battling in America alone, with local leagues and mammoth conventions and competitions, like the annual RoboGames.
Robot fighter Zachary Lytle came up through these competitions himself as a teenager, going onto become a seven time winner of the World Robotics Tournament, and to start Bot Bash Parties, which inspires kids’ interest in science and engineering through exciting combat robotics. He is also a long time competitor on Battlebots and this season he is captain of team Skorpios, who are sponsored by XPRIZE. Alongside Zachary, are teammates Bennett Funk, Diana Tarlson, Shannon Tobin, Leslie Shafton, Ben Shafton, Bennett Funk, Micah Leibowitz, Dan Chatterton, and Rob Wisecarver.
Below, to mark the 3 December premier of a new season of Battlebots, we caught up with some of the team to talk about building and battling during COVID-19, the future of AI in Battlebots, and the skills it takes to succeed in the arena.
Hi everyone! To start, can you explain Battlebots for anyone who hasn’t seen the show?
Ben: I think of Battlebots as a really balanced sport, there’s all this intricate building and these specific things you have to do, then in the battle everything goes out of the window! So having the two together makes it really balanced and fun and honestly quite an addictive sport.
Bennett: It’s about trying to control chaos to some extent. There’s something strangely enjoyable about seeing what you’ve built and put so much hard work into being torn apart in three minutes and knowing that you have to go back and rebuild it. It’s very fun and entertaining.
Zach, tell us a bit about your background and how you got into Battlebots?
Zach: When I was a kid I was constantly building things in the garage. I felt very out of place – I didn’t like sports and the stuff other kids liked, so when I first saw Battlebots on TV – the original version on Comedy Central, it really appealed to me. It was like: ‘Wow, I get to design and build things and put them in the arena and test them?’ It was everything I ever wanted. When I was 13 I went to my first competition and had everything destroyed. At the end I was a little down, but Dave Wiley came up behind me and slapped me on the back and congratulated me. I said: ‘Why are you congratulating me? I lost!’ And he said: ‘Yeah but when you came here you were just a builder, now you’re a robot fighter! Welcome to the club.’
I was a very dyslexic kid but after I got into building these robots I started ripping through physics textbooks at school. At first I was competing on the 1lb level and then up to the RFL – Robo Fighting League, then later The RoboGames. So there’s a whole community of people who do robot fighting outside of the TV show but the TV show is where most people see it.
What kind of skills does it require?
Ben: Diligence, a willingness to learn, and a willingness to fail. I’ve learned a lot from my failures. My first competition, I had my robot ready, I lost my first and second battles, then I fixed the robot and competed again, and lost again. So then I redesigned the robot and actually won a battle.
Bennett: I would use the word ‘resourcefulness’ – work out what’s wrong, and how to fix it.
Where do you learn these skills?
Bennett: By finding robots with a similar design to you. Or just figuring out what was hit, destroyed, or what failed, and then a design so it won’t do that next time.
Shannon: There’s a lot of Zach in all these kids – Ben and Bennett met him at birthday parties thrown by Bot Bash, he mentored them, and they became teammates. There’s also Vex and First, school programmes that are huge. Vex is actually the largest competition in the world. Bennett participated in Vex and at his current school they do First robotics.
Zach, what makes a good team?
Zach: I would say good communication and people with varied backgrounds.
You’ve been sponsored by XPRIZE for two seasons – why is XPRIZE a great fit?
Shannon: XPRIZE has an innovation week where they decide what their prizes are going to focus on – from avatars to cyber security to clean water. At that time they also do a kids camp. My daughter went to the camp and she got a chance to talk to the people at XPRIZE about how an avatar could work better. Now, this was a kid’s point of view but because she was young she didn’t have any of the filters that the adults had. All of a sudden I noticed a similarity between XPRIZE and this world of robot battling. If you see what Ben and Bennett can do with the help of someone like Zachary you see that it’s not age or experience related it is capability-related, and that’s the same attitude at XPRIZE. There’s also a similar way of thinking about challenges. What’s the problem and how do we solve it? What does this robot need for us to battle it? That’s why XPRIZE is a great sponsor for Battlebots.
How much tech advancement have you seen over the years, Zach?
Zach: It’s been growing by leaps and bounds! When I started lead-acid batteries were the primary thing to use and in a heavyweight robot you’d have 50lb of batteries. Now we’re using lipos there’s less than 8lb of batteries, so that 40lb can go into weapons and armour. There’s also a new system of motors called brushless motors that are starting to overtake the old trusty etechs and mag motors we’ve all considered the top of the field for the last five years. It feels like every day there’s an advancement in a different field and it’s interesting to see how teams choose to use those in their robots.
Ben: Yeah, it feels like there’s always something new. If you look back at the old episodes, the radios have like 4ft antennas. You think: ‘How did they deal with that!’
Will people be using more AI in the robots they send into the arenas?
Zach: I was always told by Terry Slokam, the gentleman who got me into this sport, that in order to win you need a good build, a good driver, and good luck. But things are changing!
What Zoe Stephenson has done is incorporate AI into her robot so that the computer takes over in those split second moments. She’s one of the first people to use AI in the box. People thought ‘that’s never worked before!’! But she got put in a match with a returning champion and her computer calculated a swing to hit a 2 inch by 2 inch target on the back of the robot. It was a one in a million shot but the computer calculated it, made the hit and won the match. It made all of us go: ‘Wow, AI is eventually going to take this sport over!’
What do you love about battling robots?
Bennett: The clash of ideas.
Ben: Community. If you go online there are all these different communities on Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, everywhere. Everyone is always helping each other with building and asking for tips. It’s super friendly. You’d think everyone would want to kick eachother’s butts but everyone wants to help out. A good example is that, the night before the show this season, we realised we were missing a gear in the gearbox, we put something in the builder group and our opponent replied and said they had this one specific gear and that we could use it. They said: ‘we want a good battle with you!’ Everyone wants to help each other put on a good show and have fun!
Coming back to this year, how have things been different – because the show was recorded during the pandemic .
Zach: One of the big things that happened this year is Ben and Bennett had to do the majority of the work on the robot while our other team members – like Chewy who does fabrication and welding, and Rob who does 3D printing and modelling – Zoomed in and showed them their expertise. Ben’s father told me he felt like he got a college education this Summer trying to build Skorpios!
The set was different too. Typically with Battlebots we share a lot of tools, but there was social distancing in place, there were a lot of protocols and testing. I’d say this was the most explosive season though because with everyone being so divided everyone was coming up with new tricks and new ways to fight. Competitors had to bounce through multiple countries and quarantine for weeks to compete, meaning that people put everything on the line to be here for this event. Every team brought everything they had to do this competition. It was the most impressive year.
Finally, what can you tell us about Skorpios – sell it to us!
Zach: It’s one of the most durable robots in the field. Some robots might be flashy but our robot will take a hit, take another and go back for ten more. We’re made from American steel and all the angles are designed to help us deflect or absorb. We move fast, and we take hit after hit.
Bennett: Plus, we have an overhead saw that will land the perfect blow.