RoboBattle - How Did It All Start?

RoboBattle - let's make the impossible possible

Although the first smaller competition took place on May 7, 2017, the biggest show for a wider audience took place on September 28, 2017 in the former military aircraft hangar in Raadi, Tartu.

16 teams participated in the first RoboBattle whilst 300 spectators watched their robots battle it out. A year later the number of robots and teams stayed the same but almost 700 people came to watch the competition in the hangar. As the event grew rapidly, it was necessary to find a new location in Tartu to accommodate both competitors and spectators.

The newly renovated Tartu Kammivabrik agreed to host our event on the surface of its 1900 square meter factory building. More than 800 people watched the RoboBattle of 2019 on the spot and 20 robots, both light- and heavyweight, took part in the competition. For the first time, entertainment was introduced during breaks for both adults and younger children.

In 2020, there were big plans - about 1300 spectators were expected. But the whole world was rattled by Covid-19. Due to restrictions, spectators were allowed to have only 50% of the total capacity and 650 visitors had to watch the event. It was also an extraordinary year for the competitors. A record number of 35 different teams registered for the competition, 20 robots reached the battles. The organizers were able to prove that even during a pandemic, it is possible to organize events safely for everyone.

Robot Wars - The British join the battle!

Robot combat started when an american Marc Thorpe tried to invent a remote controlled vacuum cleaner... . As you can guess Thorpe's invention did not become a vacuum cleaner but his idea grew into being the first robot combat machine. With the new robot came an idea to invite other enthusiasts to build similar machines and make them fight each other.

After a long search for participants and sponsors the first official robot combat competition took place on 20th August, 1994. The combat event series was called Robot Wars. 18 robots took part in the first competition with nearly a 1000 spectators. The event was a success and continued taking place for four more years until it came to a stop due to legal battles between the original creators of the event.

The British TV channel BBC decided to bring robot combat to TV screens. The first series of Robot Wars aired in 1998. Like the name, the whole event was very similar to the event in the USA.

The first season was presented by Jeremy Clarkson who is known from the TV show Top Gear. The second season was presented by Craig Charles. The TV series ran on the BBC for seven seasons. During its peak time the series was viewed by 6 million Brits and aired in 45 countries.

The production of Robot Wars had a longer pause until 2016 when it was brought back to TV. Now the series is presented by Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon.

The present version of Robot Wars has robots fighting in a 400 m² arena which is 7 m high. In addition to built-in obstacles there are also so-called house robots. These robots indiscriminately attack combat robots that move into the Control Patrol Zones which are located in the corners of the arena.

BattleBots - The most spectacular!

The BattleBots came first on TV screens almost 21 years ago on the 30 August, 2000 on Comedy Central. Competition had 4 different weight categories:

• Lightweight - 27kg
• Middleweigh - 54kg 
• Heavyweight - 
• 100kg Superheavyweight - 154kg
  

The competitions took place in a 214 m² arena which was designed to protect the participants and spectators. Robots were directed to the arena through a doorway and teams were able to control them next to the closed arena with remote controls. The purpose of the participating teams was to damage or incapacitate the opponent's robot.

Despite the success and number of viewers of the BattleBots series the show was taken off the air in 2002. By that moment the series had also surpassed the viewer numbers of the famous animated TV show South Park. There is speculation that channel Comedy Central had got tired of the format of the BattleBot series and decided to remove it from their programme.

The BattleBots did not forget their fans and the series was revived on the 21 June, 2015 on the channel ABC. The sixth season of the series had both old and new robots with their teams.

In the beginning, the revival was met with a lot of scepticism. There were doubts if BattleBots could reach its former glory. It turned out that it could! Presently, the series has lasted for at least seven seasons and the new series has provided the same amount of thrill as it did back in the day. The difference is that technology is now more advanced and the designs of the robots are more complex. What could be more interesting than seeing two robots built with great effort incapacitate each other in an arena filled with obstacles?