Servo - October 2010

EVENT REPORT: PA B t Blast 2010

● by Zac O’Donnell

July 17, 2010 fighting robots in four weight classes invaded the Columbia Mall in Bloomsburg, PA for the third annual PA Bot Blast. This event has always been very enjoyable and exciting. The prizes and trophies are fantastic, the eight-foot-square arena is top notch, and the organizer Jeremy and his team create a very entertaining atmosphere.

Registration this year totaled 28 machines — as many as the previous year — and there were even a few entrants that were not registered in advance. There were at least four different teams that were running three or more robots this year. A pleasantly surprising number of machines with active weapons were still fully functional late in the brackets. The effort required to keep the show entertaining for an extended period is nothing short of heroic.

With the exception of Scurrie, all robots in the 12 pound Hobbyweight class were new to this venue. Sparty and Hobo Vengence from Team Rowdon looked like they had competed before but the other Hobbyweights were brand new. Several robots in the other weight classes were veterans of many competitions in Pennsylvania. After all of the machines in each weight class passed safety and the short meeting for the drivers was done, the brackets were created and the fights started.

In the first round of Hobbyweight fights, Scurrie and another 12 pound robot named Seppuku were both granted a bye. Hobo Vengence fought the underweight AC-130 and Sparty fought the vertical thresher named Scavenger. Approximately a minute into each of their matches, the machines from Team Rowdon

PHOTO 1. AC-130 after the first

Hobbyweight final against Scurrie.

started to become sluggish and unresponsive. Unfortunately, their battery packs were beyond their useful life. Luckily, a quick replacement in the pits put them back in the tournament. As with many issues in fighting robots, diagnosing the problem with the damaged batteries was more difficult than actually fixing it.

Despite weighing only approximately seven pounds, AC-130 continued to rampage through the winner’s bracket, beating Scavenger and Seppuku to land itself in the Hobbyweight final. Scurrie had a tough loss in the second round against Scavenger when the weapon stopped working about a minute into the fight. Scavenger went on to beat Seppuku and Sparty before eventually losing to AC-130.

Scurrie fought its way through the loser’s bracket, eventually facing Scavenger a second time, but this time Scurrie’s weapon worked for the whole match. Scavenger remained mobile until the end of the match, but the judges voted in favor of Scurrie so it went on to fight in the finals against the undefeated AC-130.