Robot Combat - Prohibited Weaponry

Prohibited Weaponry

Since the first robot combat competitions, some types of weapons have been prohibited either because they violated the spirit of the competition or they could not be safely used. Prohibited weapons have generally included:

• Radio jamming
• High voltage electric discharge
• Liquids (glue, oil, water, corrosives…)
• Open combustion (fire, explosives…)
• Un-tethered projectiles
• Lasers above 1 milliwatt
• Visual obstruction
• Halon - a specific fire extinguishing gas effective as a weapon in stopping internal combustion engines. Note that current rules do not specifically ban Halon as it is no longer commercially available.

Individual competitions have made exceptions to the above list. Notably, the Robotica competitions allowed flame weapons and the release of limited quantities of liquids on a case-by-case basis.

Arena hazards have also been granted exceptions to the list of prohibited weapons. Robot Wars in particular used flame devices both in the stationary hazards and on some of the roaming "House Robots".