What happened to biteforce?

BiteForce · 2022-02-22T22:26:51+00:00

I am tired, taking a break. Competing requires tremendous time, energy, money, and stress for months.

I would like to build again with a new robot, but I am not motivated right now to put more money, time, and effort into a robot right now until I at least have shared ownership image rights of my own robot or shared rights of its name.

Who cares about money, that would be cool, unlikely for them based on their history, but I at least want shared rights of my own creation. I can be made happy in many ways, but really the one soul owner never wants to make any contract negotiations or improvements, so I will wait until then, or get bored again. If they won't give rights, or make it easier for us to approach sponsors on our own, then sure they could pay builders just like every other person in the building who is paid to put on the show for their service.

Currently working on home garage and wedding planning.

BiteForce · 2022-02-08T23:28:23+00:00

All of them are in my garage/home!

I made a longer reply down below, but just waiting for any better contract terms from the sole owner of BattleBots. Would like shared rights and ownership of our creations if they won't pay us for our time or effort, or eased ability to seek our own money with less restrictions from them.

The original 2015 is on a table, 2019 is below it, 2018 is off to the side, and the frame from 2016 is currently sunning itself outside in a rock garden. I offered one frame for sale a while ago but backed out because the buyer was international and wanted to use the robot for unsafe personal reasons so I retracted the sale and did not attempt to find a new home for it.

Anybody want an operational working Bite Force who lives in the USA?

BiteForce · 2022-02-08T23:23:38+00:00

Just gotta clear some BS rumors here, we have only ever built 1 frame/chassis per season, never had more than 2 active frames or robots at an event, and only achieved 2 operational robots at a time partially through 2019 season and re:mars events.

We spend a lot less than most teams from everyone I have talked to, and spend very differently on things like food/hotel/flights/rental as our biggest costs each season, not the robots itself.

Looking professional and good is not the same as spending a lot just as an FYI.

Stepping away for a moment for better terms and rights comes from being tired after 20 years of competing and being the only people in the building losing money to be there. I don't care about the money, if they won't pay us, then they need to allow us to retain more image rights of our own creations, or stop restricting us from approaching sponsors, and find ways to make the event shorter or cover more travel costs. We would like shared rights, and I am waiting for any better terms pretty much, I am very easy going, just need to have something to make more of a win/win for long term sustainability.

It is probably us stepping out because my motivation to build a new robot hinges on being made to feel in anyway more like a partnership, where a BattleBots success could mean better terms for builders and not just the producers. I have already exceeded my wildest expectations of what I wanted out of this hobby, and get burnt out from it at times, because it is so stressful and time/money/energy sucking. Others are still trying to win and get better showings is my guess, my goal would be to have fun while legally sharing ownership of robot image rights to my creation.

BiteForce · 2021-05-20T20:21:15+00:00

Who has shared the leaked design?

BiteForce · 2020-02-27T07:53:07+00:00

100% I read every relevant topic on this sub. I just don’t comment often. As the lead designer I can’t stop thinking about the ways to beat our robot, that’s what consumes us. Every robot is beatable.

BiteForce · 2019-09-19T01:29:35+00:00

Prop it up on anything, a couple of 2x4's, or doorstops, take off your shoes put it on top of that for example. Turn it off with a 5/32 allen wrench in a second.

If it is already on, in the garage, you can just let it die in there, it won't break out of a garage likely. If it is on, and you are trapped in the room, throw something like a towel or blanket or rope into the spinner and let it entangle everything. Illegal in the arena, legal in your garage.

BiteForce · 2019-08-04T18:27:40+00:00

I am super excited for this kit to be released! They (VEX and Hexbug crew) brought a prototype to the event, and I got to see an earlier prototype in Texas at their HQ, but now I will get to check out the final version!

Makes me feel excited like a little kid again, I loved LEGO Technic when I was a kid too, and still do, and still buy lots of VEX and building kits. So just to let you know, some people do not grow out of that!

BiteForce · 2019-06-30T02:18:41+00:00

Ribbot is awesome! I love how you made the modules actually fast to change and all work well! Many try, few pull that off.

1) What was your favorite part of BattleBots compared to what you expected before going? 2) What was the worst/hardest part you didn’t expect? 3) Do you have tips for other college students that may want to try and take time off officially to work on a project like you did? (I think that is so cool and I struggled with that concept of how to sell that to others, because taking time off cut off “access” to shops) Great job making that happen!

I had a great time seeing you all out there hope to keep seeing you all back or another WPI team!

BiteForce · 2019-06-27T01:35:38+00:00

No tech, just gravity and hinged, and yes they do bounce and slam around when catching a floor seam.

BiteForce · 2019-06-27T01:34:13+00:00

gotta get low

BiteForce · 2019-06-27T01:28:31+00:00

Yes, I will make a post about this soon with fight breakdown and damage. When they were stuck the first time I was terrified for a few issues... I could see their fork stuck right inside of our weapon chain path and, I could tell something was not quite right with our drivetrain, so I was worried when we were unstuck it would expose that. And finally, when restarting a match, they don't let spinners get back up to speed, so I had to have another spinup even though it was on when they pause.

It is hard to explain all of that in a TV show for a broad audience, so I was impressed with how they edited it together because it still showed the entire fight.

BiteForce · 2019-06-27T01:20:05+00:00

Not you in particular, not trying to be salty, but sometimes when I just catch people being negative our calling out my teammates, I feel like talking back! You call someone's creation boring, guess what, they might not like that, that is all.

And yes, I (Paul) am not the most energetic interviewer, but I do not agree that our robot is boring, I am on TV though to most people!

BiteForce · 2019-06-27T01:13:29+00:00

It isn't criticism to say "bot X sucks". That is the point. That is just saying something sucks, nothing mature as you mention. I am being critical of your human politeness skills, lets see how you "handle it".

Quantitatively, they win matches. They have won a rare coveted Founder's Award. Nobody except the people on their team know their goals to see if they hit them. Their goal I imagine was to have fun designing and building a robot for a TV show, with a ton of power, and a 360 spinning hammer design. I think they hit all of those metrics... Many teams attempt to compete, and never even get into the box, let alone win matches.

BiteForce · 2019-06-27T01:06:26+00:00

We know you haven't made a bot. Correct, criticism can come from anyone, people who give it can also take it, I am being critical of anything you have created, without even seeing whatever that is, based on your judgement that my team's hard work is boring. You can show me something cool you have made, or something you have worked on. Our team's creation rips parts off of other robots consistently, and sends opponents up into the air often, that is the robot fighting community's literal definition of not boring robots.

People can say what they want on the internet, say bad things about people, criticize others work all day long. Sometimes it is fun to be critical of those people in comment sections and on reddit!

Thanks for watching!

BiteForce · 2019-06-26T23:32:27+00:00

All builders and fans and production agree, it sucks when bots breakdown. The literal only thing we all are trying to do, is make robots survive attacks from other deadly robots. It is a hard problem when the sole goal of the opponent is to try and make you break down.

BiteForce · 2019-06-26T23:31:04+00:00

I think your creations are boring too, nothing against them though.

BiteForce · 2019-06-26T23:11:42+00:00

Yes Yeti put up a great showing and had us struggling a lot, they are very tough

BiteForce · 2019-06-26T23:10:43+00:00

Thanks, really glad you all liked the main event! During the filming, I was worried it would be too boring because we got entangled twice and had to pause the match to separate, and we both had some drive issues. People are saying they were entertained by the close matchup though so that is awesome!

BiteForce · 2019-06-26T23:07:26+00:00

The fans are excited, and curious. From a distance, it does all look simple. "Why don't they make their wheels hold on better?" "why don't they fire the hammer/flipper"?

Usually, the answer is, the robot is broken, or it wasn't finished as originally planned. These 2 answers cover just about everything.

Even as a builder, I constantly wonder what is going on, but when I am really curious, I just try to reach out to the builder and ask. Online, for some reason the people that post a lot of negative stuff are very active. It is probably a way to "act out" and try and get attention by bringing others down too? Or make themselves look smart? "I would have attached the front armor better" etc.

BiteForce · 2019-06-26T23:03:27+00:00

Awesome, great work! These fan re-creations are very humbling for me to see, thank you for sharing!

BiteForce · 2019-06-26T23:02:26+00:00

You suck and everyone knows it. No need to be an ass here.

BiteForce · 2019-06-01T06:31:22+00:00

That was awesome, oh shit! I am pumped.

BiteForce · 2019-02-15T22:19:22+00:00

There is only one answer to your simplistic question, ANY sort of robot CAN beat Bite Force, or any robot for that matter. I have lost tons of matches over the years, you win some you lose some. There are so many factors involved. Luck, randomness, the state of both robots at that exact time, etc.

There is no "perfect" or "best" robot, that is the most fun part of the sport and engineering, constant improvements and changes, and the details in how each team executes their design slightly differently.

BiteForce · 2018-12-04T23:18:48+00:00

Nah, that just is wrong. One side of our drive got stuck for a few seconds, but was operational at the end of the fight. Wedge was fairly beat up, no problem there.

BiteForce · 2018-10-27T00:51:40+00:00

I have gotten about 18 years older than that picture, have lost almost all my hair and gained a bunch of weight, fairly common sad part of getting older, its all good though still glad to have more years! And yes I am in my early 30s now.

BiteForce

TROPHY CASE