Robot Tanks Live takes the Venture Bot tank competition off the screen and onto the floor. Students program real robot tanks that hunt each other through a physical arena and score hits with infrared cannons, the same way laser tag works. Nothing gets damaged, and every hit counts.
Each tank runs the team's program on board. Nobody drives. The program reads the tank's sensors, decides where to go and when to fire, and the arena keeps score.
A small tracked robot with a rotating turret. The cannon is an infrared emitter, the same kind of light a TV remote uses, so it's safe in a classroom. Sensor panels around the hull register incoming hits, and each tank's shots carry its own code so the arena knows who hit whom.
A floor mat with walls and a few obstacles to hide behind. An overhead camera tracks every tank's position and heading during the match, feeds the scoreboard, and records the replay so teams can review the match afterwards, just like the simulation.
Two tanks start in opposite corners. A landed hit scores points for the shooter and costs the target energy. Energy also drains as a tank moves and fires, so a team that sprays shots runs dry. When one tank is out of energy, or the clock runs down, the match is over and the points decide it.
The live arena is designed to accept the same program a team wrote for the simulated tank competition. The tank sees its position, heading, energy and what's in front of it, and sends back the same kinds of commands: turn, move, aim, fire. Teams can build and test in the simulator for as long as they like, then load their code onto a real tank and find out what the sim didn't tell them.
That gap is the lesson. Motors don't turn the exact number of degrees you asked for, sensors are noisy, and batteries fade by the fourth round. Teams that planned for all of that in their pitch tend to win on the floor.
Everything Robot Tanks teaches carries over: reading a situation, anticipating an opponent, defending a budget. The live arena adds the lessons that only show up when software meets hardware.
Advanced high school teams and intermediate to advanced college teams, ideally ones that have already competed in the simulated tank arena. The hardware adds real complexity, and it rewards teams who already know the game.
Infrared is the same invisible light a remote control uses. There are no projectiles, no lasers and no contact. Tanks are small, slow enough to catch by hand, and the arena has walls.
Robot Tanks Live is in development. We're building the tanks and the arena now and planning pilot events with select partners. If you'd like to be one of them, get in touch.
Same four beats as every other arena. Here's what changes when the tanks are real.
Roles, budget, language, strategy, as always. The budget now buys physical options: faster drive motors, a quicker turret, extra sensor coverage, a bigger battery. Each has a weight and a cost, and heavier tanks burn more energy.
The team explains its configuration and its plan to the judges, then the configuration is final and published. Because the equipment is physical, this is where the trade-offs are most visible, and judges will press on why the team chose what it did.
Code is submitted by the deadline and loaded onto the tanks. Matches run live in front of the room, every team against every team, with the scoreboard on a big display.
Every match is recorded from overhead and lined up against the tanks' own logs. Teams can see where the plan held, where the hardware surprised them, and what they'd change for the next round.
In the simulation, a configuration is a set of numbers. On the floor, it's a heavier tank that drains its battery faster, or a cheaper sensor that misses hits from the side. A team that can stand up and say "we bought the fast turret and skipped the armor, and here's why" is making the same argument an engineering manager makes for real.
Judges score how well the team explains those choices. The floor tests whether they were right.
We're planning pilot events with select partners. Tell us about your program and we'll keep you posted.
