RoboGames 2009: Mech Warfare
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 16 of June , 2009 at 4:54 am
Okay, so here’s the good news: the first ever Mech Warfare competition did take place at RoboGames this year. The bad news, however, is that there was no hardcore class and in fact only a couple robots were reliably operational. I know, I know, I can feel your dejection from all the way over here. I’m sad too. But, you have to remember that this was the very first Mech Warfare event in the history of robomanity, so there were bound to be some kinks to work out.
That said, the limited amount of combat that did take place was pretty cool to watch. There were a couple quads that worked well enough to get in the arena and fight each other, and the scoring system was usually registering hits and keeping things lively. Video:
My hope is that this proof-of-concept event will, at the very least, get the idea of Mech Warfare well off the ground. The next step is going to be refining the rules, putting together additional events, and of course getting more robots involved. As always, we’ll keep you posted.
[ Mech Warfare ]
Comments (7)
Category: Competitive
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
Comment by Log1c
Made Tuesday, 16 of June , 2009 at 10:31 am
I saw 3 different robots, was that all that ended up making it on the field?
The mech-warfare site showed quite a few more in development.
Pretty cool for a first run of things. I’d love to compete if I had the time (and a bit of extra funds laying around).
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Tuesday, 16 of June , 2009 at 11:34 am
To be honest, the schedules over the weekend kinda went out the window, and I was trying to get video of combat and hockey AND Mech Warfare all at the same time. I think there may have been 4 quads that spent some time in the arena, but the two that you see in the majority of the video were the only ones that were working even somewhat reliably. I didn’t personally see any working bipeds, but there may have been one? Trossen Robotics was taking video of the entire event, and when they’ve got it put together, I’ll be reposting it here if I can.
Comment by Andrew Alter
Made Tuesday, 16 of June , 2009 at 5:10 pm
Thanks for the video and the pictures Evan!
Overall we had a blast. I’ve said from the beginning that Year 1 of Mech Warfare was going to be our learning year. With as much that was required to work well to make the event even happen, I’m just happy that we got out there and did it. Bottom line is, we had a lot of fun and we learned a TON. We’re using everything we took in from this year to make next year even better, and hopefully by then we’ll have more bots up and running…
We demonstrated Murphy’s Law perfectly though! :D
Comment by Michael Ferguson
Made Wednesday, 17 of June , 2009 at 1:41 pm
I’ve posted a video of the on-board view from my bot Issy (the white robot in the video above) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmABWJHq-0w
-Fergs
Comment by shkirman
Made Thursday, 25 of June , 2009 at 9:17 am
There were a couple quads that worked well enough to get in the arena and fight each other
Comment by ethan454
Made Monday, 29 of June , 2009 at 2:32 pm
This is pretty cool. Cept may I recomend mini paint balls instead of airsoft pellets? Ya, it might be a pain to clean it up later, but i think the audiance would realy enjoy it. It doesn’t have to be paint, just something that leaves a mark…
Comment by computer repair connecticut
Made Wednesday, 23 of November , 2011 at 8:27 am
Kudos to that!
