They mentioned in the videos that the biggest improvement in the past decade has been batteries. Li-Ion batteries are smaller, lighter, and more powerful meaning that you can have heaver and stronger weapons while still fitting into the 250lbs limit.
I'd imagine that also the availability and affordability of precision machining of more sophisticated alloys has also enabled a lot of designs that were unfeasible in the past. Interestingly I didn't see anything about arduino or other microcontrollers. Probably too sophisticated and too fragile. There are more than a couple bots with flame throwers that would fry the circuitry real fast. There is one walker robot that you'd typically see controlled by something like an arduino, but it's all mechanical for these reasons I'd assume.
I don't think 3D printing is quite there yet for BattleBots. Too weak, strong and simple wins the fight. There was an article posted a few days ago about a steel 3D printer, and I've also seen a Kevlar printer, but these aren't widely available yet.
.//edit
Here's another Tested video about a Carbon Fiber/Kevlar composite printer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiPQpiE4_qY
Depending on how you layer the materials you can make a very ridged form which is stronger than steel.
It must have been a decade since the last shows were popular. This is exciting stuff, and I bet the bots are much improved.
They mentioned in the videos that the biggest improvement in the past decade has been batteries. Li-Ion batteries are smaller, lighter, and more powerful meaning that you can have heaver and stronger weapons while still fitting into the 250lbs limit.
I'd imagine that also the availability and affordability of precision machining of more sophisticated alloys has also enabled a lot of designs that were unfeasible in the past. Interestingly I didn't see anything about arduino or other microcontrollers. Probably too sophisticated and too fragile. There are more than a couple bots with flame throwers that would fry the circuitry real fast. There is one walker robot that you'd typically see controlled by something like an arduino, but it's all mechanical for these reasons I'd assume.
I think its safe to say that 3d printing is going to have an impact on these bots as well.
I don't think 3D printing is quite there yet for BattleBots. Too weak, strong and simple wins the fight. There was an article posted a few days ago about a steel 3D printer, and I've also seen a Kevlar printer, but these aren't widely available yet.
.//edit Here's another Tested video about a Carbon Fiber/Kevlar composite printer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiPQpiE4_qY Depending on how you layer the materials you can make a very ridged form which is stronger than steel.