Do you know what a Boxbot, Flipper, or Thwackbot is? They are types of robots that are built to fight one another on television. BattleBots is an American company that hosts these robot competitions. It is also the name of a robot-fighting television program. Robot-fighting programs like BattleBots and Robot Wars have become popular all over the world. Millions of fans watch these programs.

Teams of engineers design and build robots that can cost up to US$50,000 and enter them into those television contests. They give their machines scary or silly names like Vlad the Impaler, The Judge, and Cereal Box Killer. In a BattleBots competition, competitors bring remote-controlled, armored robots armed with weapons and put them into an arena to do their best to destroy each other. The robots use whatever means are available in the fight.

In a match, the robots fight for three minutes. If one robot cannot move for 30 seconds because it has been damaged or is stuck, the other robot wins. If both robots survive the fight, three judges choose a winner. They judge based on which robot has gained the higher score according to three categories: aggression (how bravely a robot fights), strategy (how well a robot attacks the other robot's weaknesses, protects its own, and handles danger), and damage (how much damage a robot can inflict upon its opponent while remaining intact itself). Players can call a "tap-out" if their robot is about to be destroyed. This means that they lose the competition but save their robot from destruction.

The popularity of BattleBots in the United States is not as strong as it was in the beginning, but it remains popular in many other parts of the world.

你知道什麼是 Boxbot、Flipper、Thwackbot 嗎？它們是專門在電視上對打的機器人。「機器戰士」（BattleBots）是一家主辦這些機器人大戰的美國公司，同時也是一個機器人大戰的電視節目名稱。像《機器戰士》和《機器人大戰》這樣的機器人戰鬥節目，已在全世界廣為流行，觀賞節目的影迷已有好幾百萬。

工程師團隊設計打造出價值可高達五萬美金的機器人，送去參加電視比賽。他們會為自己的機器人取一些駭人或無厘頭的名字，像是「弗拉德穿心魔」、「法官」和「麥片盒剋星」。在機器人大戰的比賽中，參賽者帶來可以遙控、配有武器的裝甲機器人，將它們放入比賽場中，盡全力摧毀對方。機器人在比賽中的手段可說是無所不用其極。

機器人一場比賽要對打三分鐘。如果其中一個機器人因為被毀壞或被困住，30 秒內動彈不得，另一個機器人就獲勝。如果雙方在比賽中都未陣亡，將由三位裁判選出獲勝者。裁判們將根據三個項目的高分者來決定勝方，依序為：侵略性（機器人勇敢奮戰的程度）、策略（機器人如何攻擊對方的弱點、保護自己，和處理危機），以及攻擊力（機器人如何攻擊，同時自己毫髮無傷）。如果我方機器人快要被摧毀了，參賽者可以喊出「投降」，那麼他們將輸掉比賽，但是可以保住機器人免於解體。

雖然機器人大戰在美國受歡迎的程度已大不如前，但在世界其他國家仍有其支持群眾。