Clash of the B ts 3
● by Andrea Suarez
Motorama Carolina Combat Robotics hosted its third Clash
of the Bots on July 14 at the Schiele
Museum of Natural History. Builders
traveled to Gastonia, NC from across
the country with almost 40 robots in
three combat weight classes (Flea,
Ant, and Beetle). As we approached
the venue, the first thing that caught
my eye was the "Clash of the Bots
TODAY" on the museum's LED sign
near the main road.
We were the first competitors to
arrive at the event, and the venue
had a sort of calm-before-the-storm
feeling. All the pit tables were
perfectly organized with our
competitor packets nicely laid out.
The arena sat in the dark, ready for
action. Chuck Butler recalls: "Four
years ago, I received a message from
Christie at the Schiele Museum in
Gastonia looking for someone that
could do a robot presentation for a
group of 100 Girl Scouts. We took
on the task, and the girls were
surprisingly very interested in the
destruction, especially when it
involved a Barbie doll vs. a combat
robot. We had been looking for a
suitable venue and when the
museum decided they would like to
try a robot day it was a perfect fit,
and Clash of the Bots was born with
an average of over 500 visitors at
each event."
FIGURE 1. Schiele Museum.
FIGURE 2.
Sam
McAmis
does some
last minute
weight
adjustments
to his new
Fleaweight
bot, iKid.
FIGURE 3. The Clash of the Bots staff.
(Photo by Yong Ye.)
FIGURE 4. Algos
vs. Saifu.
FIGURE 5. Jen Villa, Duke Robotics President,
watches as teammate Caleb competes his first
bot, Shaka Zulu. (Photo by Yong Ye.)
FIGURE 6. Caterpillar vs. Pissed Off Unicorn.
SERVO 10.2012 35
