Posts Tagged ‘competition’

IRC2010 in Korea- Too Much Robotic Awesome For One Show.

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

We’re still reeling from our trip to Korea; jet-lag, last minute flu bugs, and a tad too much Soju really did a number on us. One thing is for sure- Asia has the US beat handily on robotic presence. What we didn’t know when heading to the competition was that IRC2010 also was attached to Robotworld 2010, the single largest Robotics Convention we’ve ever seen. Literally hundreds of booths and double or even triple that number of robots ran wild in a convention hall bigger than an aircraft hanger. It’s going to take us a few weeks to sort through all the video, but we’ll give you a sneak peak at the hundreds of pictures we took. There is some SERIOUS robot-eye-candy in these galleries, be sure to check it out.

Hall 1 Gallery – This is mostly the competition pictures.

Hall 2 Gallery – This is the convention hall. They had robots we didn’t even know existed.

And here’s a few choice pics for those of you too lazy to check out the above linked galleries!

Mech Warfare at Robogames 2010!

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

We came, we blew stuff up, we conquered! Mech Warfare at Robogames 2010 in San Mateo was an absolute blast! We had Fon Davis of Fonco Creative & MORAV show up with his crew and custom build us a fully destructible 1/24 scale urban arena! Needless to say, the arena looked AMAZING this year! We had a total of 14 teams registered and close to 30 people participating this year; the competition is growing leaps and bounds over its first year. We’re still recovering from a long weekend at Robogames but we’ll have plenty of more coverage of the event in short time. For now, here are the winners, some pictures, and a great post & video by BotJunkie that highlights the event very nicely. We had some really awesome and nail-biting matches that were down to the wire, and everyone involved had a TON of fun- we hope to see even more people getting involved for next year!

Robogames 2009 Highlights

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Here is a quick recap of some of the awesome robots and people we met at Robogames 2009! We had the opportunity to show off some of our creations as well as check out the innovative stuff others brought along to Robogames, to say it was merely inspirational would be an understatement. We’ll see you at Robogames 2010!

Banebots Hub & Wheel System

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

While most participating in the robotic educational and combat competitions know the Banebots name rather well, we wanted to make sure that other roboticists out there knew how awesome their line of wheels are.

Finding the right wheels for a robot is often a difficult ordeal. Matching wheel size to hubs and motor shafts can take a lot of searching, custom machining, trial and error. Banebots has solved the problem with their modular hub and wheel system. With hubs fitting motor shafts from 2mm up to 1/2 inch and wheel diameters from 1-3/8” to 4-7/8 people can mix and match to get the perfect fit for their needs. The Banebots line also offers 3 levels of rubber hardness for each wheel.

Building for FIRST or Science Olympiad?

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

We’ve recently started seeing the flurry of activity that marks when teams building for the upcoming national robotics competitions start shopping. Since we stock a very large selection of robot parts, finding what you need can be a bit daunting at first. To assist builders, we’ve launched our FIRST Starter Page to help get people pointed in the right direction. Within it we’ve listed the most popular items we see flying off the shelves every competition season, laid out in an easy to navigate manner. If you or someone you know is looking for parts for their competition entry, point ’em this way!

Want a free* trip to Japan?

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Oh yes, there is always that pesky asterisk. However in this case, what the asterisk implies isn’t too bad.

David Calkins, Robogames founder and co-host of the Revision3 eShow: Systm, is offering a free* all expenses paid trip to Japan. What’s the catch? Well first of all, you have to have a 3kg Sumobot. David’s message below explains the whole deal:

So, The all-Japan 3kg sumo tournament is Dec 21st in Tokyo.

Fujisoft gave me 2 seats to go, all expenses, but Simone is pregnant and due about then, so I’m giving away the tix.

Want ’em?

You gotta win ’em.

MAIL me your 3kg sumo (not 500g), so it arrives by the morning of Dec 5th.
Include pre-paid return for the package.  On Dec 6th, I’ll compete them all in a normal sumo bracket.  Don’t have a 3kg sumo?  You can build one in 3 weeks…

The top two robots each get one ticket to Japan.  You will need a passport and time off work to go.  This is going to be totally merit based.  It’s not random.
Best two robots go.

Email me directly for more details: [email protected]

-David E. Calkins

SFSU Robotics Engineering and Robotics Outreach President,  RoboGames / Robotics Society of America

How cool is that? Here’s some mini-sumo action!