may i interest you in a robot fighting competition known as battlebots?

I would be hesitant to enter a 1.5kg beetleweight into a competition for 250lb heavyweights. The bot pictured here is ArcticFurno.

i personally haven't seen any 1.5kg beetles but i mean i dont live in a country where metric is that prevalent maybe they exist somewhere

idk isopods or somethin

It's just the name for the weight class. In robot combat the conventional class names were taken by much larger weight classes - Heavyweights were originally 220lbs but eventually bumped up to 250lbs (the UK version of the weight class started at 80kg, then 100kg and now sits at 110kg), middleweights sit at 120lbs (60kg in the UK), lightweights are 60lbs (30kg in the UK) and featherweights are 30lbs (13.6kg in the UK, 15kg internationally). There's also hobbyweights at 12lbs as a mostly US-exclusive class. As a result, classes smaller than hobbyweight took insect names, except for the 150g class in the US which is referred to as "fairyweights" (this class is known as the Antweight class in the UK, since they don't have a 1lb class equivalent).

Love me some lower weight bracket bot combat. Way faster development of tech and, at least for some, far more brutal than the 250lbs monsters.

That said, excited to see the new rebuilt Skorpios X.

Oh yeah, beetleweights are definitely super-brutal. You can thank the square-cube law for that, they're big enough to pack some serious KE but still small enough to get tossed around all over the place.

Been following a few teams on youtube, but the one that seems to be scoring some of the more amazing fights lately is Team Thagomizer's Strikepoint. That bot is freakin' nuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5L9FMCQU94

And a lot cheaper to build and fix too ;)

Largest class you can get away with FDM 3D printing for structural parts as well, which helps save even more money (although it does require specialized filaments).

Nice. I was at a panel Frey hosted about battlements. Was really cool.

Thanks! Was it the one at Furcation last year, or at this year's Scotiacon?

Scotiacon! Fun to see your art on the bots too, really gave it pwrsonality!

Thank you <3 Yeah the Scotiacon one was the better one, better room and more things to show!

It will destroy the dust bunnies!

Ok, I was not expecting to see this. I recognize that bot, that's ArcticFurno from various live events in the UK. I'm online friends with the builder of Ray, another fox-themed bot from those same events, and I've competed in events in the southeast US myself with Melanistic Leopard, Shadow Leopard and Kernel Panic.

Very nice :) both Arcticfurno and Ray made the top 16 at Battle In The 'Burgh 3 last month, with Ray doing very well in the side competitions too.

Get those dust bunnies, boy! >:3

Battle Bots anyone?