What exactly does a BattleBots competitor do?
Quite a bit, actually. You have to dream up an idea for beating other bots, which usually involves thorough TV and Web research of competitors’ bots. Then, you have to figure out how to make your dream real and set aside copious amounts of time and money for the project. Making parts and assembling the bot takes most of your time. You usually see a lot less of your family and friends. In the process of building, you’ll inevitably need to go through several redesigns and rethink some parts (something or other is bound not to work out perfectly the first time around). You should practice driving your robot, even though half of the new competitors don’t. Most fights seem to come down to driving skill. Practice will not only improve your technique, but also identify weaknesses in your bot before the competition. Once at the competition, you will most likely discover that your bot is overweight when weighed on the official scale. A drill or file comes in handy to remove some material, and y
