SERVO 03.2016 25
meetups were harder and harder to
organize.
The final straw came in January
2011. Floods decimated south east
Queensland and submerged the club's
Featherweight and Antweight arenas
for the better part of a week, literally
washing away future public events.
The Featherweight arena was
severely damaged, parts were missing,
and the entire Antweight arena was
lost. The last active state in the
country only had a handful of builders
left and no arenas. This looked like
the end of robot combat in Australia.
From Little Things,
Big Things
Grow
It was going to be a
long road back. However,
the few remaining
builders hatched a plan.
The idea was to start it
with Fairyweight events.
The small 150 gram bots
were cheap to make,
took up less time, and
were easy to organize
with limited people and
resources. The plan was to have
smaller more frequent events in the
hope people would
drop in and see
robots they could
make with just a few
simple tools.
Slowly through
lots of events, the sport started to
grow again. Over the next few
months, dozens of new Fairyweights
and Beetleweights emerged all over
Australia. This reinvigorated old
builders, and reached out to a new
audience who didn't have access to a
workshop.
This wave of activity prompted
the first ever public event in Sydney:
Robot Serial Killers. Sydney had long
been a hub of combat builders in
Australia, but the events and
competitions had lurked in the
backyards of builders. This was the
first time the Insect robots were on
display, and the event was a great
success.
In just a few short months, there
were more Insect robots competing
than Featherweights left in the whole
country.
The Nationals
Despite the success, there was still
something missing for the
builders. The Insect robots
were fun, but they didn't
have the same sound or
excitement. Sadly, the
original Robo Wars event had
finished in 2010, and no
other big Featherweight
competitions had replaced it.
Over the years, events
had come and gone, but
nothing seemed to be a
good fit for the hole this had
left in Australia’s annual
robot calender. Every other sport
seemed to have a national title, and
so the Australian Robo Wars Nationals
was born. This was to be an annual
event for the best Featherweight
robots in Australia to fight it out.
The Nationals started small with
just eight robots in a hackerspace
shed with a few dozen spectators, but
quickly found a home at the Ipswich
Art Gallery. It has grown every year,
and in the last few years has attracted
thousands of spectators. It showcases
the very best of what Australian
combat robotics has to offer, and is a
key part of the Australian community.
RoboWars 2015
Building on this
foundation, 2015 was
one of the biggest years
for Australian robot
combat. In May, we had
the opportunity to run an
event at Vivid Sydney: an
annual festival of lights,
sound, and music. This
could best be described
as crazy, awesome, and
exhausting.
The team set up, ran
the event, and packed up the entire
show in one day, cramming in over 30
Featherweight Sportsman fights,
almost 14,000 spectators, and a
bunch of Featherweight demo fights.
This was the biggest event we
have ever run. We had an awesome
The packed venue at Vivid
Sydney with the Sydney Opera
House in the background.
Glen Rose repairing an
unscathed Decimator
after the fight.
The
veteran
robot,
Badger
was bent
so badly it
was forced
to retire
after the
first round.
