Photo: Screenshot from Facebook
If you're a fan of BattleBots, you've probably looked at a wheel loader at one time and thought to yourself, "That would make a near-perfect machine in case the famous TV show decided to branch out with full-size fights as well."
You wouldn't linger too much on it, though, as the whole idea seemed idiotic. For one thing, somebody would have had to make the loaders radio controlled, because nobody would be crazy enough to sit in the middle of a huge construction equipment while another similarly sized and shaped machine was trying to... well, kill it, one way or another.
The safety issues raised by this prospect would be enormous, and so would be the costs. Large vehicles such as these don't come cheap and are definitely harder to repair than a robot the size of an autonomous vacuum cleaner. They would probably bring greater audiences, but are the lives of a few men and some considerable sums of cash really worth it? I believe the former part of the argument is enough to offer an answer: "no."
Still, there are some people who don't seem to be bothered that much with safety. They're called "construction workers" and they laugh in the face of the protective helmets they're supposed to be wearing while on the site. They also don't seem to think that the prospect of a ten-tonne heavy piece of equipment falling over them is something to lose too much sleep over, so with access to the keys from a few wheel loaders, they decided to replicate the BattleBots fights.
In all honesty, we have no idea what made these people act this way, but judging by what can be seen in the footage, we tend to think it was all planned. Two loaders are the first to lock buckets in a scene that reminds us of how wild hippopotamuses fight.
Then, as one of them makes the fatal mistake of turning to the side and is toppled over - somebody should have yelled "finish him!" at this moment - one more loader shows up, and takes over from where the fallen comrade left. And then two more appear, one after the other.
It is reported that the police in Xingtang, the place where it all happened, are now investigating the case. Whatever they find out, we hope they've got a very skilled wheel loader driver, because these guys don't look like they'll go down without a fight.
The safety issues raised by this prospect would be enormous, and so would be the costs. Large vehicles such as these don't come cheap and are definitely harder to repair than a robot the size of an autonomous vacuum cleaner. They would probably bring greater audiences, but are the lives of a few men and some considerable sums of cash really worth it? I believe the former part of the argument is enough to offer an answer: "no."
Still, there are some people who don't seem to be bothered that much with safety. They're called "construction workers" and they laugh in the face of the protective helmets they're supposed to be wearing while on the site. They also don't seem to think that the prospect of a ten-tonne heavy piece of equipment falling over them is something to lose too much sleep over, so with access to the keys from a few wheel loaders, they decided to replicate the BattleBots fights.
In all honesty, we have no idea what made these people act this way, but judging by what can be seen in the footage, we tend to think it was all planned. Two loaders are the first to lock buckets in a scene that reminds us of how wild hippopotamuses fight.
Then, as one of them makes the fatal mistake of turning to the side and is toppled over - somebody should have yelled "finish him!" at this moment - one more loader shows up, and takes over from where the fallen comrade left. And then two more appear, one after the other.
It is reported that the police in Xingtang, the place where it all happened, are now investigating the case. Whatever they find out, we hope they've got a very skilled wheel loader driver, because these guys don't look like they'll go down without a fight.
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