Last month, I did a brief report about how my two sons and I built their first "real" combat
robots — "Angry Bot" and "Scary." This
month, I want to discuss how they did
in their matches. You may be a bit
surprised by the result.
Our first event with these robots
was going to be the Battle at Maker
Faire, which took place in conjunction
with the Orlando Mini Maker Faire
at the Orlando Science Center, in
Albuquerque, NM (Just kidding. It
was in Orlando, FL).
Saturday was the big robot fight.
Both boys were very excited. Daddy
was very nervous. We got to the
event and I was already exhausted.
The emotional fatigue of being proud,
nervous, excited, and anxious easily
took 10 years off my life.
We got to the space, and I
started getting everything ready for
the event. The boys went around and
checked out all the robots that
"weren't as good as theirs." They
especially enjoyed the robots that
"they were going to smash into
the pit."
The two of them barely spoke to
anyone during check-in at the Faire,
but they were talking the ears off the
other builders. We got both of the
boy's bots ready and took them over
for weigh-in. Ethan's Scary came in at
15. 3 oz and Cayden's Angry Bot came
in at 15. 6 oz. Great! We didn't need
to worry about drilling holes in our
pretty robots.
We let the boys do a little
sparring in the big arena and practice
driving around the much larger 8' x 8'
SECR-FL Insect ring. They had fun, and
got a little more time on the sticks.
We put both bots back on the charger
to top them off.
The boys went out to explore the
Faire, while I stayed and finished
troubleshooting electrical problems in
my bot.
Fight 1: Angry Bot vs.
Cheese Wedge
Cayden was the first of us to get
to fight. He had a very competitive
fight going, but got flipped over onto
his back and got stuck. I knew this
was a problem, but in my haste to get
the bot ready with the new spark
gearmotors I forgot to cut the back
supports so it would flip back onto its
wheels. The driver of Cheese Wedge
was an amazing sport. He pushed
Cayden's robot back over, so he was
able to continue fighting.
It was a pretty good match.
Cayden definitely needed a few more
weeks of practice, but overall it was
EVENT REPORT:
The Adventures of Scary and Angry Bot
● by Matt Spurk
SERVO 01.2014 35
Photo 1: Angry Bot delivering Cheesie Wedge to the pit
as time expires.
Photo 2: Ethan and Scary preparing for fight #1
against One Night.