Humdinger versus Pox. Guess which
of these bots is having a bad day?
SUMO and Edge of Madness
pause to ponder one another.
class spread starting with the cute
‘n cuddly ant weights (one pound)
and ending with the “that just
might rip your leg off” featherweights ( 30 pounds). As for fight
structure, the 15 pound student
Battle Bots IQ (BBIQ) class fought
in classic bracket style, while the
remaining classes fought round
robin.
Taking center stage was the
BBIQ half of the tournament where
teams of students — some coming
from as far as Williams, AZ —
displayed their prowess in
mathematics, science, and
engineering by vigorously applying
it to their opponents in the form of
stored kinetic energy. When
comparing the tournament
designations of “student” versus
“professional,” one might be tempted
to assume that the “student” class
was somehow inferior. That would
be the thought of someone about
to be resoundingly beaten by
something conceived of, designed,
and built by a 10th grader.
Even the schools that opted to
stick to the “classic” concepts of
robot combat (wedges and bricks)
managed to bring something new
to the table. Billet — a simple brick
bot to the untrained eye — featured
magnets to increase its tractive
effort. Another bot — dubbed
Catapult — boasted the most James
Bond worthy weapon. What I mean
is they opted to forgo powering
their flipper with a mere tank of air
and instead chose to mount a
complete working air compressor
right on the robot so they could
recharge on the go. Frankly, I still
have no idea how that whole
apparatus worked, but it did. Either
way, enough about the event. Let’s
talk about results.
The ant weight battles were
less of a tournament and more of a
one-on-one brawl for supremacy
between ANTI (vertical spinner) and
the peculiarly named Under WHERE
(horizontal spinner). It was a friendly
rivalry, and there were only two of
them; thus, they opted to pummel
each other on an exhibition basis.
Moving on to the beetle
weights (three pounds), third place
went to Rampage Productions’
wedge bot, Screw U, which might
now hold the title of “bot name
that gets the most snickers when
announced over the PA.” Second
place went to Team Bobbing for
French Fries’ wooden wonder, Boxy
Brown, a wooden box with a dowel
on the front and a driver with an
affinity for trash picking. After Boxy
took a bit of a beating from the first
place finisher, his driver disappeared
for a bit and, upon his return,
proudly declared he had found a
plastic bottle in the trash and
commenced attaching it to the
remains of his bot’s keep-away-stick.
First place went to team Python
and their bot, Strychnine, which
can be best described as three
pounds of precision machined, bar
spinning death.
Studley Do-Right versus a distressing
amount of kinetic energy (Murder-Go-Round).
ANTI versus
Under WHERE —
two tiny brushless
spinners enter.
Only one leaves.
SERVO 08.2008 31