Have you noticed Autodesk Fusion 360 at BattleBots? Check out this article to learn more about the show and our exciting partnership.

If you’ve been keeping up with this season of BattleBots, you may have noticed something different. That’s right—Autodesk Fusion 360 is a sponsor! We sent a team out to BattleBots taping earlier this year to get in on the action (COVID-19 safety precautions in place). Our team set up shop with Haas Automation to run what we called the “Haas-pital”—a machine shop where our team of experts fixed bot parts live during fights using Fusion 360 CAM software and Haas machines.

“Being part of this season of Battlebots has been a pleasure and joy for everyone at Autodesk who participated,” says Paul Sohi, Product Marketing Manager, Fusion 360. “Seeing how the teams built their robots and how much power the bots had was nothing short of breathtaking.”

Peter Abrahamson used to compete in BattleBots until 2015 when he was recruited to work on the production side of the event. He now has an on-air role analyzing battles live. He also works behind the scenes on tasks like rules, safety, bot selection, fight selection, and data gathering for other on-air hosts. Abrahamson even garnered the official title “Bot Whisperer” based on his knowledge when analyzing complex, fast-paced live fights.

We had a brief conversation with Abrahamson to learn more about the show and the Autodesk team’s involvement during taping.

What makes BattleBots unique as a competition and a TV show?

Adaptation. The need to adjust your strategy and robot to the match-up is one thing that makes BattleBots unique. The Rock/Paper/Scissors aspect of robot design drives the builders to adapt. May times those adaptations happen in the BattleBox itself! The chaos of a fight might require the driver to completely change tactics mid-fight. A beautiful example of this was Whiplash vs. Son of Whyachi. Whiplash had his front left armor panel ripped off, and Matt Vasquez adjusted his driving of Whiplash to only present the right armor panel to Son of Whyachi’s nasty spinning weapon.

What was it like working with the Autodesk Fusion 360 team during filming?

The Autodesk team provided CAM and CNC machining services during the tournament. It was like working with superheroes! Modern robot combat is extremely destructive. The ability of the Autodesk team to take a builder’s 3D model or napkin sketch of a robot part, calculate the tool paths with Fusion 360, then CNC the part with a Haas mill or lathe was invaluable. They also helped reproduce core bot parts that were destroyed in battle and created new parts so teams could adapt their strategies after their first fights. Being able to get robots repaired and ready during the tournament not only helped the builders but the production schedule as well.

Why should people tune into this season of BattleBots?

Out of all the robot combat I’ve seen, I have never seen so many teams operating at this professional level before. Everyone has stepped up their game. This season has some of the best fights I have ever seen. Fire! Destruction! Tactics! Showmanship! This show celebrates ingenuity, creativity, teamwork, and the evolution of design and engineering. Robot Darwinism. Adapt or be scrapped!

After reading this interview, how could you not want to watch robots fight? Tune in to tonight’s (January 27, 2022) episode of BattleBots, starting at 6 pm EST on Discovery Channel. Keep an eye out for our team while you watch!

And if you’re ready to take your design process to the next level, try a free Fusion 360 trial today: