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Revenge of the Battle Bots
Richard Finney writes "The Village Voice does a good article on 'Battle Bots.'" I've attended a Robot Wars event, and these things are a lot of fun, even if you haven't entered a weapon of mass destruction. Highly recommended.
If this Battle Bot thing interests, you should check out Survival Research Labs at www.srl.org. These guys are way over the top.
I've been waiting for the past few days now for something like this to come up. Too bad Rob or Jeff would probably never post it...
Some of you may or may not have heard of the FIRST Competition. It is a robotics competition which involves High School students, along with their corporate partners, Universities, or what have you. This year's competition was just released on Saturday. FIRST's Competition homepage is here. This competition is far superior to almost any other. There will be ten regional events this year, and the National Competition will be in EPCOT Center in Disneyworld, FL. There is no other robotics competition with such spirit or fire behind it as this one. Please check out the Homepage and support the FIRST cause in any way possible. The competition has grown from 28 teams in 1992 to over 380 teams this year. There are teams from all over the USA, Canada, and even a team from Brazil.
Some of you were wondering about mindstorms... They have a Mindstorms Competition called FIRST Lego League! Check it out here!
General Information on FIRST can be found at www.usfirst.org
speaking of helping out, a lot of teams need not only money, but real engineering help both in EE, programming, design, and construction. I was a member of the Gunn High School team (GRT -- we won animation a few years ago, seeded 5th two years ago, and made it at least to the semis last year) and now mentor a team from Berkeley High School which is run entirely by high school students and college mentors.
the Berkeley team has exactly 0 engineers helping and exactly $0 besides the entrance fee (which NASA is sponsoring). I know there are other teams in this situation, so if you can't help a team with your time, talk to your company and see if they will sponsor a team with money, tools, or by assigning engineers to work with the team. it's an investment in the future -- I know several very talented engineers who lacked direction until this competiton. many teams lack even the most basic tools, liability insurance (I won't pretend this isn't dangerous: a student from Palo Alto High School got his hand caught in a belt sander last year, and several bay area students almost cut off fingers. another good reason to have trained engineers to teach), and a place to work.
if you'd like to help the Berkeley team, contact me at chialea@uclink.berkeley.edu. I can also put you in contact with a team in your area.
it's very rewarding and exciting work, and the competition is going on right now, so don't delay -- it's 6 weeks of excitement, plus the regional competion, plus the main competiton in Florida, which is braodcast on ESPN2. so, please, sponsor a team.
Lea
Since the article did not contain links to the web sites that have some pictures and movies, here are some of the well-known sites:
- www.battlebots.com
- www.robotwars.com (look at the History section)
- www.botbash.com
- www.robotrumbles.com
- www.dangerousmachines.com
- www.sorc.org (Society of Robotic Combat)
- www.robohoo.com (a Yahoo-style index of all things robotic)
Have fun!-Raphaël
Some of this years entrants have been really quite impressive, and might acheive parity with the US creations in the 180lb division. We haven't had any really good walkers yet though.
I enjoy the programme, Robot Wars, on UK TV, my only worry is the definition of a robot.
Maybe I have been reading too much Asimov; but I do belive that a remote control toy has very little to do with any normal meaning of the word robot.
I would be far more interested in genuine robots fighting, a much better test for geeks - as this would involve both hardware and software hacks!
These things are really great, I've seen them on TV. It blows my mind to see people put a tremendous investment in time and money on the line in a battle that could destroy their bot.
You can check out the offical site for Battle Bots here.
PS I am not associated with Battle Bots in any way.
That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
The BattleBots are coming! Soon, one of these techies are going to do such a good job that the bots will not only battle successfully, but will learn how to reproduce! Then, it is obvious that the robots will decide that they don't need man anymore, and start killing everyone.
Within a year or two, civilization will lie in tatters! Our cityscapes will look like something out of Terminator's future. Escape now, while there is still time!