Sabrina is the Maker Faire Program Director. She works on stage content for the flagship fairs (Bay Area & New York), and also runs Maker Faire's global licensing program for locally and independently produced Maker Faires. She also co-creates the East Bay Mini Maker Faire in her town, Oakland, CA.
Teams have gathered from all over the globe this weekend in San Mateo, CA to compete in 50+ categories at the 9th annual RoboGames . Various theaters of combat are arrayed across Fiesta Hall at the San Mateo Convention Center (also the site of Maker Faire Bay Area), featuring a whole range of environments, like MechWars (armed humanoid robots shooting it out amidst a few highrises in some spare cityscape), Robot Soccer, and Sumo (a pushing match in a ring).
There’s also a nice array of ArtBots on display (try playing the computer-controlled foosball table game).
Of course, the center of attention is the Lexan-encased combat arena, a rugged see-through cage surrounded on three sides by packed bleachers, where the various weight classes of combat robots take each other on. Backstage, an unassuming looking announcer sits ringside, expertly chronicling every interaction. Next to him stands the black and white shirted ref (and RoboGames co-producer Simone Davalos), who manages both start and stop times, the logging of the match results, and overseeing the orange-clad safety crew. Three judges are crammed in there too, notepads in hand, evaluating machines for performance, ready to call a winner if the machines failed to complete a knock-out within the allotted three minutes.
And yes, the wedge is a dominant design, but at least 2/3rds of the combots have some very entertaining weapon design, blades generating sparks, wild noise, or other good machine drama.
The event itself is a great experience. Interesting to see the spectrum of the community, with its clearly welcoming entry-level categories (great for kids) through hardcore experts, with everyone—including Robogames rockstar, the Sewer Snake team—really accessible to the audience.
If you’re in the Bay Area, RoboGames continues today through 7pm at the San Mateo County Events Center.
13 thoughts on “RoboGames 2012 Report”
miroslava von schlochbaumsays:
Some might say: that if it comes down to the “…driver, driver, driver… it can’t compare to a good operator.” then this isn’t a contest of robots so much as a human against human contest (with virtual finger extensions). …some might say that.
So if all that is true, isn’t purely autonomous robot robogames the only recourse?
David Langsays:
Fun! Wish I could have made it!
RobotGrrl (@RobotGrrl)says:
Hey what about the RoboBrrds that were there too! :p
Report from RoboGames 2012 - Hack a Daysays:
[…] staff could make it this year, but luckily [Sabrina Merlo] from the Make: blog was able to provide a full report of the spectacle of fire, sparks and pierced metal this […]
Report from RoboGames 2012 « Hackaday « Cool Internet Projectssays:
[…] staff could make it this year, but luckily [Sabrina Merlo] from the Make: blog was able to provide a full report of the spectacle of fire, sparks and pierced metal this […]
Report from RoboGames 2012 | Share Blogsays:
[…] staff could make it this year, but luckily [Sabrina Merlo] from the Make: blog was able to provide a full report of the spectacle of fire, sparks and pierced metal this […]
.NET i jiné ... : Odkazy z prohlížeče – 5.5.2012says:
[…] MAKE – RoboGames 2012 Report – pár obrázků, celkem zajímavé souboje robotů – destrukční […]
miroslava von schlochbaum said “isn’t purely autonomous robot robogames the only recourse?” There were two categories for fully autonomous fighting machines and there were some hard fought matches.
Morgan Tilfordsays:
David Caulkins was appointed the head of a League. He then immediately in all function disbanded that league. – He uses thuggery and exclusionary practice to keep this an elitist and functionally racist enterprise. – Do not Attend this event. It’s owned and run by dishonest and abusive people. – What do I know? Gee. Alot. – I helped found this event and volunteered for many years. When I tried to later compete. My refusal to volunteer was met with threats of violence of gunplay and forced druggings by Simone –
MAKE | RoboGames 2012 Report | Stex Auer Toys Projectsays:
[…] MAKE | RoboGames 2012 Report. […]
Jose Spencersays:
Savvy blog post ! Coincidentally , if anyone requires a NJ PA-1G , my family encountered a fillable document here .http://goo.gl/Q8V96d
Jontahan Reesessays:
It was great to stumble upon this post. Thanks for the sharing, I also found a useful service for forms filling. If you ever need to fill out a form, here is http://goo.gl/NwflQ0 a really useful tool. Very easy to navigate and use.
Sabrina is the Maker Faire Program Director. She works on stage content for the flagship fairs (Bay Area & New York), and also runs Maker Faire's global licensing program for locally and independently produced Maker Faires. She also co-creates the East Bay Mini Maker Faire in her town, Oakland, CA.
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Some might say: that if it comes down to the “…driver, driver, driver… it can’t compare to a good operator.” then this isn’t a contest of robots so much as a human against human contest (with virtual finger extensions). …some might say that.
So if all that is true, isn’t purely autonomous robot robogames the only recourse?
Fun! Wish I could have made it!
Hey what about the RoboBrrds that were there too! :p
[…] staff could make it this year, but luckily [Sabrina Merlo] from the Make: blog was able to provide a full report of the spectacle of fire, sparks and pierced metal this […]
[…] staff could make it this year, but luckily [Sabrina Merlo] from the Make: blog was able to provide a full report of the spectacle of fire, sparks and pierced metal this […]
[…] staff could make it this year, but luckily [Sabrina Merlo] from the Make: blog was able to provide a full report of the spectacle of fire, sparks and pierced metal this […]
[…] MAKE – RoboGames 2012 Report – pár obrázků, celkem zajímavé souboje robotů – destrukční […]
[…] Robo Games: http://blog.makezine.com/2012/04/22/robogames-2012-report/ […]
miroslava von schlochbaum said “isn’t purely autonomous robot robogames the only recourse?” There were two categories for fully autonomous fighting machines and there were some hard fought matches.
David Caulkins was appointed the head of a League. He then immediately in all function disbanded that league. – He uses thuggery and exclusionary practice to keep this an elitist and functionally racist enterprise. – Do not Attend this event. It’s owned and run by dishonest and abusive people. – What do I know? Gee. Alot. – I helped found this event and volunteered for many years. When I tried to later compete. My refusal to volunteer was met with threats of violence of gunplay and forced druggings by Simone –
[…] MAKE | RoboGames 2012 Report. […]
Savvy blog post ! Coincidentally , if anyone requires a NJ PA-1G , my family encountered a fillable document here .
http://goo.gl/Q8V96d
It was great to stumble upon this post. Thanks for the sharing, I also found a useful service for forms filling. If you ever need to fill out a form, here is
http://goo.gl/NwflQ0
a really useful tool. Very easy to navigate and use.