RoboGames Kickstarter

[ChrisKazoo]

There's a Kickstarter fundraiser to fund RoboGames next year and they want to produce online episodes. This is a great opportunity to get robot combat back in the public eye and there are even options for buying a ticket for an at risk child to go the show and inspire and promote science and technology to the next generation. Please support and share!


From https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...to-your-screen


"Help us fund this project, and you'll get to watch it at home as often as you want! DRM Free!

Instead of just bringing this back for people who miss the EPIC battles, it is important for us to create something that expands the community we've built over the last decade and perhaps have it touch the lives of people who didn’t think the world of science and engineering are a place for them.

This is a time when the DIY science community is inspiring a whole new generation of tinkers, and what better way than through exciting, exploding, metal-grinding science!

Do you want to reach out to widen and deepen our community? You can support us by buying a ticket and let us give it to an at risk child instead. You just might be the person that blows some kid’s mind and changes their life, helping them to realize that science can actually be pretty badass.

If you're feeling especially generous, you can even sponsor an entire team of robot makers who couldn't otherwise afford to come, giving them the opportunity of a lifetime."

[john_frizell]

I've made my pledge. Robogames is the best event I've ever competed in other than Robot Wars. It would be great to bring it back.

[john_frizell]

And it's back! The Kickstarter raised US$ 46,600, over the goal of 40,000. If you have never been to Robogames, think about going. It is brilliant. Long way to go but worth it.

[JamesDavies]

Excellent news!

[overkill]

Is anyone thinking of competing at Robogames? I was super disappointed when featherweights were dropped and now RG is back I am looking at a lightweight.

[razerdave]

If my funds will allow I want to go, they compete with the insect classes there, so. If I can only afford one, I'll probably go to Motorama instead, all the smaller classes, feather included, are competing.

[john_frizell]

Motorama is a 2 day event, mostly motorsport related, at which robots are one of 7 attractions. There are 8 kinds of robots, 6 combat [150 g, 1lb, 3lb, 12lb, 30lb Sportsman and 30 lb feather] and 2 non combat.

Robogames is a 3 day event, all robots, with about 70 types of robots, 8 combat [150 g, 1lb, 3lb, 1lb autonomous, 3 lb autonomous, 60lb, 120lb and 220 lb], not including sumo, mech warfare and bot hockey. If you have two people you can bring a pair of feathers and run them as a 60 lb cluster - there is no requirement that they enter the arena joined together. Robogames does not provide CO2 - they do not use it a lot in the US. Have a look at the Robogames website for the amazing diversity of robot categories you can enter.

[overkill]

John is right; there is nothing like Robogames - seeing the heavyweights in videos doesn't come close to seeing them up close & personal! After looking at the RG 2013 lightweights, I don't think there are many feathers that will stand up to the US and Brazilian bots - I just started my first lightweight with 10mm armour; its going to be needed!

[john_frizell]

'seeing the heavyweights in videos doesn't come close to seeing them up close & personal!' So true. And there are a lot of good robots, in all 3 classes [60 lb, 120, 220] and about half of them are spinners.
'After looking at the RG 2013 lightweights, I don't think there are many feathers that will stand up to the US and Brazilian bots - I just started my first lightweight with 10mm armour; its going to be needed!' In 2012 I built Oakheart, a 6 wheeled pusher that was built entirely out of wood. I wound up fighting a very good Brazilian drum spinner and when we hit, head on, there was a shower of chips and splinters but Oakheart kept going. The Brazilians won but afterwards they all came to my bench. Every time they had hit another robot head on in the past, the upward spinning drum had launched it into the air and they were puzzled as to why it had not happened this time. I had screwed an extra piece of 2x4 onto my front bulkhead and it had absorbed most of the energy while being shredded. The 2x4 was chewed up but the underlying bulkhead was untouched. Took a redesigned version of Oakheart to the 2013 games and had fun but didn't win.

[Eventorizon]

I don't think there are many feathers that will stand up to the US and Brazilian bots!

You mean our best Feathers like 720, NST, Beauty 2, Little Hitter cant take on any of the US and Brazilian feathers?

[RogueTwoRobots]

No, he means they'd struggle against the Brazilian and US lightweights, and I can easily believe that. Even if two UK feathers went as a cluster, they'd still be taking on a bot twice their individual weight.

[john_frizell]

I think he was referring to my suggestion of using two feathers as a lightweight clusterbot at Robogames. There are some very powerful lightweight [60 lb] spinners. Still ... it would be interesting to see.

[overkill]

Not putting any of the UK bots down; they would be up against very powerful spinners weighing TWICE as much as the smallest class is lightweight and your bots would have to compete as cluster bots. Also the US arena really doesn't favour flippers. On the other hand, there are not many good featherweights left in the US as there are so few events for them - Motorama is possibly the only regular featherweight event left.

[Eventorizon]

Not putting any of the UK bots down; they would be up against very powerful spinners weighing TWICE as much as the smallest class is lightweight and your bots would have to compete as cluster bots. Also the US arena really doesn't favour flippers. On the other hand, there are not many good featherweights left in the US as there are so few events for them - Motorama is possibly the only regular featherweight event left.

Ahhh, that makes more sense!

It is a bit worrying that the US is dropping feathers, its preventing most of the UK from going over and competing/supporting their events and visa-versa. Europe and AUS seem to be the only ones running them in earnest.

I am not sure why they are happy to run machines that are double the weight or half the weight but not 30lbs! Why has it been abandoned as a class?

[overkill]

There are several reasons that I heard over the years: For RoboGames, Dave decided that A) small bots in a huge arena were not exciting enough (the insect weight bots have their own small arena), B) there were scheduling problems and C) he didn't have the extra staff or funds to run that many classes in the main arena. I don't agree with any of that but its Dave's show.

For the other events, the main problem is a lack of a large enough arena. I don't know who owns the arena at Motorama and the other featherweight event is the USATL in Florida which uses the RoboGames arena and may not run each year. It would be great if the Motorama arena was used for other events but it doesn't seem to be happening