The ROBOlympic Games

Roland Piquepaille writes "The first International Robot Games, or ROBOlympics, organized by the Robotics Society of America, will take place on March 20th and 21st, 2004 in San Francisco, California. There will be competition for combat and non-combat robots, a World Cup Soccer game, and even a robo-triathlon. More than 400 robots are registered for this robotics competition. And the winners will receive hard cash. Nature tells us the story in 'Robolympics contestants shoot for gold.' More details and references are available in this overview which also includes a very nice photo of two robots, the larger one either fixing or rocking the smaller one. And for your information, ROBOlympics is not sold out. So if you are near San Francisco, it's still time to buy tickets. They cost $15 to $25. Entrance is free for children under 7."

Comments

Combat robots

[AssProphet]

There will be competition for combat and non-combat robots

Does it disturb anyone how much effort is put into building robots designed for distruction? I mean I understand building robots that solve puzzles, and robots that overcome obstacles, but the idea of designing robots primarily for violence kind of bothers me.

Maybe this is a little off topic, but it's an interesting thing to think about.

Re:Combat robots

[JW Troll]

yeh it really disturbs me that all this effort is going into the destructive capabilities of these machines. the article should read "free admission for kids under 31"

Re:Combat robots

[$ASANY]

Disturbing? C'mon!

Humans thrown into a boxing ring for the sole purpose of delivering injury on each other might warrant that label. Save the angst for something worthwhile.

Robotic combat gets people like teenager Lisa Winters (BattleBots seasons 1 & 2) to craft machines that try to solve a really difficult and dynamic engineering problem with pretty limited resources. Designing a rope-climber is a static and relatively simple problem, and it doesn't inspire in the way that only gourmet robotic destruction can. Who gets juiced about hopping machines and the like?

If you want to inspire kids into pursuing engineering careers, throw this mega-problem at them. We've seen extraordinary innovation (the real kind, not the marketing type) in this arena and the bots out there today are light years beyond the successful designs of only a few years ago. Before Comedy Central stopped showing BattleBots (huh?) the number of entrants exploded, and now there are robotic combat competitions all over the place. That'll continue unless the only broadcast of this remains that abysmal RoboWars disappointment.

The gladitorial nature of this is simply taking a potentially harmful human characteristic and channeling it into something that creates a positive outcome. If you try to supress this all you end up with is the more easily created gladatorial contests that actually take human lives. Robot fighting is far better than humans trying to tear body parts off of each other. And if the way you do it improves education, heck, the question then becomes why we're not subsidizing it or making attendance and particpation mandatory!

Well..

[hookedup]

One event called Ribbon Climber, in which robots race up a carbon-fibre ribbon, was designed to inspire 'space elevator' technology that might one day lift satellites into orbit.

It's nice to see they added this event in to draw a little more attention to the space elevator. I personally would rather build a robot to compete in that competition than the fighting ones. It may be a little easier, plus, you're helping towards a cause that would benifit us all, not building a robot purely to smash other things (which is still pretty cool).

Same Old Same Old

[superpulpsicle]

These fight competition with robots are getting boring. We all know the bot with the lowest gravity, widest wheel, flatest body always win.

We need some more creativity. Like a robot that makes coffee while in battle. Or a robot that talks trash.

Re:Same Old Same Old

[duckpoopy]

Or a robot that is not just a remote-controlled car, but is truly autonomous.

let me guess

[Anonymous Coward]

it will be a radio controlled wedge shape with a flipping device
it will be low to the ground and built from 2 sheets of 8mm hardened steel with the electronics and servos from a 1993 radio control car

yeah "robotics" but is it really ?

Autonomy is the key

[SiliconEntity]

It's not a robot if it's remote controlled. It's an RC toy. A robot should be autonomous and use AI to control itself. That's a totally different technological problem.

Re:Autonomous Robots???

[riedquat]

Ok, the cost isn't such a great boast. But steel wedges are not the winningest designs, certainly not in my experience. I haven't even seen such a design on the UK robot circuit for years.
Working steel isn't a particularly challenging job but designing the chassis certainly is. One needs to design a drive train which can support a 100kg robot and withstand other 100kg robots falling on it, sometimes from several metres in the air.
Getting good radio reception inside a steel shell with several large electric motors and no protruding aerials is challenging.
Controlling motors which draw hundreds of amps is challenging.
Designing weapons which will cut through 5mm plate steel is challenging, although many exist.
Doing all this while keeping the competition safe for roboteers and audiences is very challenging.

Identifying targets and not falling down stairs certainly is challenging, no doubt about that. But please don't write off ROV builders' efforts as "remote-controlled cars".