24/08/03- Up at 7 A.M. all ready to go. Heres the gang before we leave.
We arrived at the Mendel Art Gallery at around 12:30 so I mostly just looked around and talked a bit with some of the builders that were already there.
Around 2 the crowds started pouring in, it was totally jampacked in that room!
The robots:
Wedgie: A very solid built speedy wedge with escaps for drive.
Robopope: Escap driven bot with a big spinning blade, a Kilobot champion.
Swiss Chef: RC car with spinning drum weapon, runner up at the first Kilobots.
Johnson: A mean spinner with an undercutter.
Bad Mojo: A tracked RC car with wedge, really fast.
P.O.S: A really awesome looking Nightmare clone, its weapon might have been a little bit underpowered though.
Guava Movement: A really fast bot with a titanium lifting scoop/plow.
Flip Out: A really cool pneumatic flipper bot.
Shwing & Shwang: Multi bot featuring a wedge and a plowbot.
Rink Rat: Hinged wedges with servo lifter.
The Balsa Clad Monster-Quick RC car wiht ramming bolt, and kinder surprise decorations!
The Fights:
Shwing & Shwang vs. Wedgie- When we (David Eklund and I) put our bots into the arena, we quickly noticed that Shwing wasnt working. david didn't want to hold things up so we started anyway. Wedgie and Shwang met in the middle of the arena and glanced off each other. shwang turned and managed to pin Wedgie on the wall for a few seconds. Shwang backed off but Wedgie used its speed to maneuvear around and push shwang on top of the wall. Another quick push and Shwang was out. Wedgie finished the match by pushing the motionless Shwing out of the arena as well.
Watch the video here
Johnson vs. RinkRat- I was scared going into this fight because i had already seen Johnson spin up, and it looked nasty. The match started and Johnson span up to oh...about a million RPM. Rink Rat lumbered towards Johnson and they met in the middle with a bang. RinkRat was tossed sideways from the impact, but continued his 'assault' anyway. After some more brutal hits, RinkRat's tires were starting to fall off the rims. I could hear several people point this out and it wasn't looking too good. Johnson clipped my wheel and completely ripped it off, hurtleing it across the arena, much to the delight of the crowd. I was right beside Johnson now so I started activating the flipper in some hope of doing something. It turns out I pulled out one of Johnson's wires which i guess caused it to lose control. Johson went facefirst into the wall and the impact of the forced knocked it halfway out of the pushout, its wheels spinning helplessly off the ground. So now Johnson was stuck and RinkRat was spinning aimlessly in a circle rapidly activating his flipper for the crowd. As one youngster beside me put it, "He's giving us the finger!". Anyways, time expired and the win was given to Johnson for causing the most damage.
Rinkrat suffered chewed up tires, bent hinges and come gouges in the wedge.
Watch the video here
The Balsa Clad Monster vs. Robopope- I went into to this match like it was going to be a funeral. Brendan McClure the builder of GuavaMovement came up to me before hand and said, "i just watched them make the draws, The Balsa Clad Monster has to fight Robopope" All I could say was "Oh." Anyways the match started and Robopope started spinning up. TBCM charged and managed to stop the blade before it got up to full speed. Robopope kept trying and TBCM kept stopping the blade for about 30 seconds. Then after a bump from TBCM, Robopope stopped moving completely. Pretty much after that, TBCM just rammed Robopope as much as possible. The winner is TBCM!
Watch the video here
RinkRat vs. Shwing & Shwang- Since I had to fight my own bot, I got Ryan Goodmanson to drive Shwang for me. Also, David had figured out what was wrong with Shwing. The match started and both S&S had trouble moving, Shwang with an inexperienced driver, and Shwing was having traction problems. RinkRat tried to flip Shwang out but couldnt get a good grip, so he went after Shwing instead. RinkRat easily wedged under Shwing and knocked him overtop of the wall. RinkRat then went back and finished Shwang the same way.S&S were now eliminated from the event.
Watch the video here
The Balsa Clad Monster vs. Swiss Chef- This was a pretty short match. I decided i would just charge straight into SC right from the start, so I did. SC's spinning drum ripped off a chunk of metal off TBCM and propelled it ontop of SC. SC then leisurly drove TBCM to the pushout and finished him off.
watch the video here
RinkRat vs. Johnson- This was a pretty slow match due to Johnson not working quite right. Basically Johnson stopped working and RinkRat spent the rest of the matching trying to knock him over the edge. Rink Rat wins.
Watch the video here
TBCM vs. Flipout- Flipout only had part of its flipper intact but it was still enough to get under TBCM. TBCM rammed Flipout a few times but then Flipout managed to get a good flip in on TBCM. TBCM completely flipped over and landed on its back. I tried to see if i could right it but i was getting no power. Then a noticed one of its AA batteries rolling away across the arena. Thw Winner is Flipout by KO! Now, TBCM was also eliminated from the event.
watch the video here
RinkRat vs. Flip Out- Flip Out had lost its spatchula flipper in a earlier match. (I think) Now it had a flipper that was maybe 3/4" off the ground. Flipout and RinkRat both tried to flip each other over, but neither were successful. Eventually, RinkRat got under FlipOut and started pulling on its wires with its lifting arm. RinkRat very slowly started pushing Flip Out towards the push out because RinkRat's wheels were partly off the ground from Flip Out's weight. As the match started to count down, RinkRat had managed to bring Flipout right beside the pushout, but could not quite get him through. As the crowd started counting down at "5!" i just pushed with all my might. After they yelled out "1!", RinkRat had managed to nudge flipout just enough to knock it over. A close win for RinkRat.
watch the video here
RinkRat vs. Scarab- This was kinda a boring match. Both bots headed for each other in the middle of the arena and collided together. Both bots tried to lift one another but neither got a good lift in. Then RinkRat managed to hoist Scarab in the air (with the help of Scarab's lifter) but Scarab landed on its wheels. RinkRat managed to get underneath Scarab but then the weight of Scarab pulled RinkRat's wheels off the ground. The two bots were stuck and the judges decision went to Rink Rat. RinkRat made it to the Loser Bracket Finals!
watch the video here
RinkRat vs. GuavaMovement- This was another pretty quick matchup. GM drove up on RinkRat's wedge but quickly backed up and took control. A few seconds later RinkRat was on the floor.
Watch the video here All in all im pleased with my bots for my first event, and I'll be back in January!
In the finals, Wedgie managed to defeat GuavaMovement to win 1st place.The final bout:
P.O.S getting up close and personal with Robopope
See the orange shirt? That's Kurtis Wanner organizer of Kilobots and builder of Swiss Chef, Johnson, and Robopope.
Heres P.O.S taking on the MicroSizer.
The final results:
1st-Wedgie
2nd GuavaMovemnet
3rd Swiss Chef
And 4th, RinkRat, yay!
Kilobots was great and i can't wait till next time.
I'd like to thank a few people:
Kurtis Wanner, there wouldnt be Kilobots without you.
My dad, for taking me to the event on his Birthday!
All the competitors, an event can't work without robots.
My partners, David Eklund and Ryan Goodmanson for helping me out.
And the crowds for cheering me on and complimenting me.
Thanks!
Also go check out IEEE's event page.