Do you care to watch expertly designed robot bankrupt and travail each other to bits ? What about watching them compete to solve mazes , or bring home the bacon a game of association football ? If you ’re a normal person and said yes to all these questions , then you involve to be atRobogames — and it ’s coming up next weekend .
photograph by Dave Schumaker
After a few yr hiatus , Robogames is back in the San Francisco Bay Area from April 3 - 5 , in San Mateo . The event brings together amateur and professional robot - building teams from all over the world , who compete in destructo - panache fight , as well as games of attainment and intelligence activity . It ’s the double-dyed topographic point to see two jumbo machine slit each other to bits ( behind safe , slurred plexiglass walls , which you ’ll be thankful for when 500 - pound burn robots are thrust at them ) . Several events are just for kids , too , so it ’s a great place for a family expedition . Also , it ’s good for dates ! lawful fact : I met my spouse at the Robogames , because there is nothing more romantic than the sense of smell of burned metal .
The brainchild of robotics expert David Calkins , president of the Robotics Society of America and a consultant with NASA , Robogames have been a mainstay for automaton fans since 2004 . This year , Calkins is joined by hosts Grant Imahara ( Mythbusters ) and Dr. Kiki Sanford ( This Week in Science ) .
Though the death lucifer between bots may be the most theatrical element of the Robogames , the real merriment comes from walking around and talking to the robot builders . It ’s one of those events where the pros go to swop cognition , but everyone is felicitous to learn newbies about the joys of robots . You will come home smarter , and with a grin on your face .
Organizer David Calkins sent us the relevant facts about Robogames :
671 bots total
215 teams
21 land : Australia , Brazil , Canada , Colombia , Costa Rica , Egypt , Estonia , Germany , Hong Kong , India , Indonesia , Japan , Korea , Mexico , Mixed , Nepal , Panama , Phillipines , Poland , UK , and USA
- 725 meatbags from those 21 nation who recollect they check the robots . Silly meatbags .
All form of crazy poppycock take place at these event . calk describes one of the highlights from recent years :
At the last event , the Brazilian robot “ Touro Light ” was the # 1 ranked lightweight ComBot going into the tourney . Driven by 26 year quondam Ph.D. candidate Daniel Freitas , it seemed invincible and was intemperately favored to take the gold . Yet it was vote down in the quarter - final round by Hannah Rucker , who was only 8 years erstwhile at the fourth dimension . That ’s not a misprint for 18 . She was eight . And she knocked him out – eliminating the “ animal from Brazil ” from the medal rounds . She then went on to come through the bronze . She ’s now ten years old and returning with both a lightweight and a heavyweight ComBot .
If you ’ve ever wanted to see robots in combat — and teach tiddler about technology in the unconscious process — then Robogames is your ticket for next weekend . Gizmodo will be there , too ! We ’ll bring you along via the cyberspace even if you ca n’t make it in meatspace .
Get $ 5 off both tag prices and advance DVD / BluRay sales event pricesif you use the voucher computer code “ Gizmodo ” at checkout .
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