Muse back!
June 20, 2006 / Tuesday
RoboGames 2006
Aaron and I headed to Fort Mason on Saturday for RoboGames 2006. My first impression was that it was smaller than I expected, both in terms of area and attendance. I spent the first half hour there hoping it wouldn't suck. It cost $20 each to get in, and that would have been a lot to pay for robosuckage.
After a quick survey of the hall, we settled into the bleachers to watch the combat events. The first couple fights were boring; little speedy wedge robots zipping around and at each other make me yawn.
But then came a wedge with a spinning sawblade on the back. Its opponent was a plastic bucket with a wooden arm. I'm not sure what possessed the creator of plasticbucket bot to choose the materials that he did, but it sure made for an amusing match. Bit by bit, the sawblade bot found and shredded the plasticbucket bot, flinging bits of plastic and wooden bot all over the ring. The arm went first, followed by the bucket, and, finally, the wheels. Bye bye, plasticbucket bot.
That certainly got me going. I wondered what could top watching plasticbucket bot get shredded.
I got my answer soon afterward, when I watched a 220+ pound wedge bot get torn to shreds by Megabyte, best described as a big spinning thing with a snout. Megabyte systematically tore off each of the wedge's wheels, then finished the job by ripping off the entire wedge. Someone Flickred a couple good shots of the match. Wired posted a few even better shots.
What could possibly top that match? We took a break and ate at the park nearby, where we got to see a bunch of tourists on an organized Segway outing.
We got back in time to watch the top two 340 pound division bots face off: Ziggy vs. Sewer Snake. The match was short, but wow, what a finish. Sewer Snake found itself on the business end of Ziggy's fully charged (read: ridiculously powerful) arm-o-mad-thrust and wound up getting launched several feet into the air and out of the ring.
Here are some pictures of Ziggy and Sewer Snake facing off. I'm not sure whether they're from the match we saw, but they should give you a good idea of what Ziggy's arm looks like. It's pneumatically powered and thrusts forward and up. Hooah!
We wrapped up our time by the combat arena with a Megabyte vs. Showbot match. Showbot was essentially a Robosapien with superglued bling. Needless to say, Megabyte shredded it all over the ring. Destruction is fun.
A couple other things of note:
- a couple steam powered bots
- a Connect Four playing Lego bot
We stopped at Citizen Cake for dessert afterward. Yum.