To do in the Bay Area, Oct. 23-24: COMBOTS, Combat robot sporting event

Heads up on a forthcoming event in the San Francisco Bay Area: ComBots, the coolest robot combat sporting event in the world, returns to the San Mateo Fairgrouds on Saturday and Sunday, October 23-24th 2010. Even if you're not local, this is an event worth traveling for.

"This is the fifth annual big prize money event, with teams from around the world competing in 10 different weight classes," explain the ComBots folks. "With all the best heavyweight robots competing for the glory of the ComBots Cup, this event is sure to blow you away! Every year, the robots keep getting better, the crowds keep getting bigger, and the fights keep getting bolder."

The event is a blast, I've seen the brutal 'bot magic these guys put together—in fact, we shot an early episode of Boing Boing TV at one of their events. There's nothing like it.

More here. Our pals at Make have a ticket discount thing going, but prices are already very affordable.

(via BB Submitterator, thanks MissySB)

• [schip666]

  <RANT>
  I really can’t understand why people think radio-controlled cars are “robots” and that they should be forced to fight. Actually I take that back: it’s the lowest level of evolution and easy entertainment for the masses. These are machines being directed to do violence to each other by their human masters, just like slaves in the Roman Colosseum.

  Can’t we, as a culture, try to bump up the evolutionary tree a bit and make some machines that play and interact and have lives of their own rather than being forced to destroy each other? I’ve been trying to do such for the last ten years but when I tell people that I build robots they still ask, “Do they fight?”. No they don’t.
  </RANT>

  ps…I just tried to make a login so I could be non-anon, and failed miserably for no apparent reason…So I hope moderation is applied moderately.

  • [Trent Hawkins]

    fighting or fucking. Those are the only practical applications for robots.

  • [MissySB]

    Hey Schip666,

    I’m the combat referee, and I understand where you’re coming from. We get that complaint all the time. The thing we like to point out is that there are lots of things that are robots and yet are remote controlled. The Mars rovers, for example. They are given all their commands from far away, but it doesn’t change the fact that they are most definitely robots. Also, bomb robots are RC. Also, some combat robots have had semi-autonomous weaponry.

    However, that’s not the actual thing we are trying to pull here.

    The insidious thing about combat robotics is that while they are fun and loud and bashy and reminiscent of the bloodthirsty gladiatorial shindigs of yore, you still really have to be good at engineering, physics, machining, electrics, etc to have a really good contender.

    We get a lot of kids (and adults) absolutely clamoring to build a robot or get involved in their school robot club after going to see the robot fights. Then, after a while, they know how many amp hours their batteries are good for, and how many pounds of force their motors and weapon need to move a 200 pound object at high velocity, and how many pounds per square inch it takes for a 55lb tool steel horizontal spinning blade to bust clean through 1/4″ cold rolled steel arena floor (thanks Last Rites! (jerk)).

    As one builder once put it to me, “I don’t know algebra, I just know these two things about my robot and I am using that info to find out this other thing I don’t know about my robot.”

    Add to that our builders are always super excited to talk to anyone who will listen about how their machines work, how long they have been doing this, and you have something way more accessible on a personal level than monster trucks or baseball.

    So yeah, under our veneer of chest thumping, gorilla screaming, wall pounding, glorified remote-control-car-first-impression-giving deranged sports fan lies the coldly beating heart of a Science Technology Engineering and Math after-school program teacher (which I am).

    For other machines that don’t fight, we also have RoboGames (robogames.net), which is like the Olympics for robots. But the thing is that the people, they come for the fighting. They *stay* for the 5-a-side autonomous robot soccer, but the combat gets ‘em in the door.

    • [schip666]

      The Mars Rover actually has a lot of autonomy, even if it is directed from home. Predator drones do not, they are purely remote controlled killers. Which would you rather have kids build and operate?

      I agree on the building aspect, anything to get the little buggers interested in non-video games. However there is so much more to our modern machines that gets lost in the pseudo-blood-lust. Robot soccer is a “better” alternative, and of course way harder to do. I understand why it’s difficult to advance beyond the RC car when you’re still welding the frame on the day of the show. But as I said, my guiding mantra is: Give them a life of their own.

      One of my alternatives can be seen here. The whole presentation is probably too turgid to go through, suffice it to say that they’re a set of 5 autonomous cars that develop a dance step together over the course of about an hour:
      http://www.etantdonnes.com/ROBOCAR/Collective/
      It’s not very exciting because they don’t know where they are or who exactly they are partnering with. I’m working on that now.

      On the other hand I do have 4sqft of surplus 1/4″ hardened steel plate that I’ve never put into service…

      • [MissySB]

        Neat Project.

        So yeah, what you said, there are tons of shades of gray with regard to R/C vs. autonomous, and killer war machines vs. interesting implementations of semi autonomous adaptability and machine learning.

        Showcasing the neat stuff robots do is why we throw RoboGames.

      • [dcalkins]

        “The Mars Rover actually has a lot of autonomy, even if it is directed from home.”

        No, they don’t. None. NASA won’t allow it.

• [optuser]

  I miss the Comedy Central show BATTLEBOTS. I know it was due to “low ratings”, but really, is it worse than any other basic cable shows? Production costs? Really?

• [schip666]

  You forgot feeding…

  pps…huh, it has me logged-in now after all, so the whinging about failures was moot.

  • [chroma]

    Robots fighting is entertaining.

    If you think you can make robots entertaining in some other way, you’re welcome to do so.

    • [optuser]

      I think Trent Hawkins^^ has the other idea.

    • [schip666]

      Entertainment is the opiate of the mindless…

• [Xeni Jardin]

  Mmmmm, the other way around, actually.

• [mdh]

  Robor Wars was the last reality TV show I actually enjoyed. I wish it would come back.

• [Xeni Jardin]

  Really was a great show, agreed.

• [schip666]

  I beg to somewhat differ…

  While human drivers direct the objectives, it turns out that the rovers have some direct control over their obstacle avoidance and path planning behavior. That control has also been enhanced during their time on-planet. Here’s a list of JPL pubs, in which the word “autonomous” frequently appears:
  http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/projects/projectPublications.cfm?Project=1
  Specifically: “Overview of the Mars Exploration Rovers’ Autonomous Mobility and Vision Capabilities,”
  http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/publications/Mark_Maimone/mer_autonomy_icra_2007.pdf

• [Anonymous]

  If you’re into this kind of thing and are in Boulder this weekend you might want to check out the Antimov competition: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce//news.php?id=439

  “Basically, it is a robotics competition that is designed to be completely atypical. We want you to violate Isaac Asimov’s ‘Rules of Robotics’…”

  I think there’s plans to stream it.