[00:00.000 --> 00:03.360]  My name is Simone Davalos, and I'm a professional robot combat referee.
[00:03.660 --> 00:07.700]  We're going to be talking about professional robot combat, or as professional as it gets.
[00:08.040 --> 00:10.140]  We're with RoboGames and Combots.
[00:10.360 --> 00:16.460]  We are the only large-scale robot combat competition in the United States at the moment.
[00:17.740 --> 00:21.820]  And this is my cohort, David Calkins, who's the commissioner for the Robot Fighting League.
[00:22.560 --> 00:29.600]  So we're going to talk a little bit about the history of the sport, since everybody's into that.
[00:30.340 --> 00:33.540]  To bring you up to date, for those of you who don't know anything about combat robots.
[00:34.120 --> 00:39.520]  And then through and including today, as well as some pointers for those of you who might be interested in building a robot.
[00:46.170 --> 00:46.490]  Up.
[00:46.490 --> 00:47.190]  There you go.
[00:47.610 --> 00:47.750]  There.
[00:48.050 --> 00:49.510]  Yeah, see the problem is still.
[00:49.590 --> 00:50.190]  A view show.
[00:50.450 --> 00:50.610]  There you go.
[00:50.650 --> 00:51.150]  Yeah, we do that.
[00:51.310 --> 00:52.090]  And then that happens.
[00:52.410 --> 00:52.630]  Oh.
[00:52.990 --> 00:53.230]  All right.
[00:53.370 --> 00:53.870]  Well, we'll just keep going.
[01:00.160 --> 01:02.300]  First off, we had Robot Wars, way back in the day.
[01:02.400 --> 01:03.760]  Is anyone familiar with Robot Wars?
[01:04.820 --> 01:06.680]  We have bright spots on, so we can barely see any.
[01:06.680 --> 01:08.280]  Yeah, make noise or clap or something.
[01:08.440 --> 01:09.100]  We're used to loud.
[01:09.260 --> 01:10.080]  There we go.
[01:10.240 --> 01:10.720]  That's better.
[01:11.800 --> 01:11.900]  Okay.
[01:12.180 --> 01:16.580]  So, Robot Wars was... David, you can give a little bit of background on that.
[01:16.600 --> 01:25.020]  Robot Wars was founded by an industrial light and magic employee, Mark Thorpe, who, like a lot of tinkers, was tinkering in his house.
[01:25.020 --> 01:32.560]  And long before Roombas were available to vacuum your house, Mark tried to remote control a vacuum cleaner.
[01:32.700 --> 01:34.440]  Well, he didn't wire it properly.
[01:34.860 --> 01:39.820]  And so, what happened was that the vacuum cleaner caught on fire and exploded in his house.
[01:39.940 --> 01:41.680]  And the fire department got called and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[01:42.520 --> 01:47.080]  And so, he puts out the fire, and he's destroyed his vacuum cleaner and his remote control and everything.
[01:47.340 --> 01:50.340]  And he's just like, you know, this would be kind of fun.
[01:50.840 --> 01:53.300]  What if a whole bunch of us, like, did this?
[01:53.440 --> 01:59.820]  So, he got a bunch of ILMers together, and they built robots to bash the crap out of each other.
[01:59.820 --> 02:04.480]  In the early days, most of them were, for all intents and purposes, remote control cars.
[02:05.380 --> 02:07.600]  They probably weren't much bigger than about 50 pounds.
[02:08.240 --> 02:10.540]  They had very little torque, very little drive.
[02:11.060 --> 02:12.620]  But they were still pretty cool.
[02:13.800 --> 02:14.240]  Next slide.
[02:16.240 --> 02:23.640]  For those of you who start companies or do anything in any kind of hackering or tinkering, as I'm sure you all know, sooner or later, lawyers get involved.
[02:24.180 --> 02:31.000]  And so, the lawyers got involved with Robot Wars, and one of his investors, who only invested 10% of the company's worth.
[02:31.620 --> 02:33.360]  But he was a millionaire, and Mark wasn't.
[02:33.600 --> 02:36.720]  Ended up in suits, and so Robot Wars moved to the United Kingdom.
[02:36.960 --> 02:42.140]  Which is why, for the first four years, it was here in the U.S., and then after that, it moved to the U.K.
[02:43.800 --> 02:45.400]  After that came BattleBots.
[02:45.520 --> 02:49.300]  Most Americans know of robot fighting due to BattleBots.
[02:50.060 --> 02:52.520]  Woohoo's for those who used to watch BattleBots on Comedy Central.
[02:56.760 --> 03:08.160]  So BattleBots came about because two of the Robot Wars contestants, who became junkies to robotics, did not want to see the sport move across the ocean and lose the sport.
[03:08.620 --> 03:16.540]  Well, one of those two, Trey Roski, was the son of a billionaire, Deuce Roski, who owns most of Los Angeles.
[03:16.720 --> 03:21.700]  He owns the LA Kings, the Wells Fargo building, lots of real estate properties around the world.
[03:21.980 --> 03:25.260]  So they could put up the money, and they started Robot Wars.
[03:25.480 --> 03:28.760]  And because of his dad's sporting contacts with various news organizations, they were able to put through BattleBots onto Comedy Central.
[03:36.440 --> 03:45.840]  And that was where all of the cool things happened that most Americans came to know as far as BattleBots, and robot competition in general.
[03:46.720 --> 03:51.060]  Well then, due to lawsuits and all the friggin' lawyers get involved, well then BattleBots went off the air.
[03:51.380 --> 04:01.980]  Well, about that time came about the RFL, the Robot Fighting League, which was basically robot junkies who just said, wow, this is too much fun to let it go.
[04:02.600 --> 04:18.180]  And so even though it's not on TV anymore, we're going to found a group, we'll call it the RFL, and everybody can use the rule sets, kind of like baseball, that it's, here's the rules, and if you want to start an event, start an event, and then people will come and fight robots.
[04:18.540 --> 04:33.040]  And so in the beginning there were big competitions with robots up to 340 pounds in Los Angeles, San Francisco, two of them in Minnesota, one of them in Florida, one of them in North Carolina, none of them in New York.
[04:33.520 --> 04:39.640]  And you have to remember with all of these events, they were all done on a shoestring by people who really, really liked to smash things into other things.
[04:40.200 --> 04:43.920]  So, a lot of the shows were a little ghetto, but they were super fun.
[04:44.100 --> 04:44.960]  Some of them were real ghetto.
[04:45.140 --> 04:46.940]  Some of them were really... For example, this is a...
[04:46.940 --> 04:51.040]  these are some photos from an event called Battle Beach, which occurred in Florida.
[04:51.740 --> 04:57.160]  And there were only a few robots that showed up, and most of them were really large, and it was really fun.
[04:57.320 --> 04:59.180]  And the stage was really janky.
[04:59.240 --> 05:06.740]  It was built on a theater stage out of plywood and maybe some Lexan, and it was absolutely terrifying to watch these robots bash into each other on the stage.
[05:07.260 --> 05:12.560]  Because there weren't a lot of robots, they would do things like put large appliances in the arena.
[05:12.820 --> 05:17.800]  So, the uppermost corner photograph is a refrigerator being beaten to death by a robot.
[05:18.360 --> 05:27.000]  One of the things that the TV doesn't show, and this is true of any sport or anything you watch on TV, is just how much better it is in real life.
[05:27.000 --> 05:36.400]  And when you put two 220 pound robots that are professionally designed in an arena, most people really don't realize just how powerful those robots are.
[05:36.540 --> 05:38.420]  They're also a lot bigger than you think they are.
[05:38.720 --> 05:39.300]  They're huge.
[05:41.220 --> 05:45.540]  So, one of the things that the arenas need to be is it's very, very durable to protect the audience.
[05:45.900 --> 05:52.760]  We've had innumerable stories of reporters and TV people who are like, oh, I want to be in the arena during the fight.
[05:52.820 --> 05:53.940]  And we're like, no, that's not possible.
[05:53.960 --> 05:54.360]  You'll die.
[05:54.580 --> 05:55.780]  And they're like, no, no, no, no, no.
[05:55.780 --> 05:59.740]  We actually had a journalist site, war correspondence.
[05:59.740 --> 06:01.660]  And like, I know what I'm getting into and this.
[06:01.760 --> 06:03.960]  And I'm like, you really don't understand.
[06:04.060 --> 06:08.260]  And she played mom against dad and she was getting all the arena anglers and it was a giant disaster.
[06:08.560 --> 06:12.100]  And then she saw a match and she understood and said, I don't need to go in there.
[06:12.480 --> 06:22.840]  Most of the robots are quite capable and do put inch to two inch long holes through our one inch thick steel that surrounds the whole arena.
[06:23.040 --> 06:27.680]  And so when you see, we call them can openers, because it looks just like an old fashioned tuna can that you've opened up.
[06:27.680 --> 06:33.160]  And when you see these tuna can rolls of one inch thick steel, you're like, wow, this is real.
[06:33.500 --> 06:36.100]  The power of these things is undeniable.
[06:37.040 --> 06:44.880]  So as the events branched out, a lot of people noticed things about putting on shows that maybe a pure gear head might not notice.
[06:45.000 --> 06:48.500]  Like, for example, it's really hard and there's marketing involved.
[06:48.540 --> 06:50.940]  And it's not just a case of if you build it, they will come.
[06:51.380 --> 06:56.260]  For example, on the previous slide, there was a guy in the lower corner was waving and he's wearing a suit of armor.
[06:56.740 --> 06:58.840]  Yeah, that was the extent of their marketing.
[06:59.180 --> 07:00.400]  That guy waving on the road.
[07:00.520 --> 07:00.800]  That was their marketing.
[07:00.800 --> 07:01.560]  That guy waving on the road.
[07:01.760 --> 07:03.860]  And he wasn't passing out flyers.
[07:04.400 --> 07:05.260]  He wasn't telling people.
[07:05.260 --> 07:06.580]  No email blasts.
[07:06.600 --> 07:07.900]  No newspaper ads.
[07:08.760 --> 07:16.120]  And whether you're throwing a robot show or something like HOPE, I mean, people who attend have no idea how much work goes into it.
[07:16.280 --> 07:17.580]  It's really a full time job.
[07:17.580 --> 07:19.540]  So, I mean, just the people who've thrown on HOPE.
[07:19.800 --> 07:21.860]  I don't think they get anywhere near enough credit.
[07:22.040 --> 07:24.660]  So, I mean, thank you HOPE for just putting on this show.
[07:24.760 --> 07:28.380]  And I mean, you guys don't know how much it takes to put on these shows.
[07:30.840 --> 07:33.840]  When people call us up and say, hey, we want to put on a road about show, can we use the rule set?
[07:33.900 --> 07:34.960]  I'm like, yeah, the rule set's open.
[07:35.720 --> 07:36.540]  It's Creative Commons.
[07:36.640 --> 07:37.160]  Feel free to use it.
[07:37.220 --> 07:38.160]  By the way, don't put on a show.
[07:38.160 --> 07:38.520]  It sucks.
[07:39.900 --> 07:40.420]  Yeah.
[07:40.620 --> 07:45.860]  And the irony was that that particular show in Florida was during Bike Week in Daytona Beach.
[07:46.840 --> 07:47.800]  Perfect audience.
[07:48.180 --> 07:49.960]  But they're not going to come if no one knows about it.
[07:51.000 --> 07:53.960]  So, in 2005, we started the Combots Cup.
[07:54.860 --> 08:06.560]  Most of the builders, most of the 100-kilogram, 220-pound robots, a typical heavyweight, which is the 100-kilogram class, robot costs between $3,000 to $10,000 to build.
[08:06.560 --> 08:16.240]  And between your armor, the internal frame, all of the electronics, all of the motors, the gearing, the weapon system, et cetera, the batteries and the battery chargers.
[08:16.840 --> 08:20.420]  And generally, that's your second robot is $3,000 to $10,000.
[08:20.640 --> 08:29.360]  Your first one tends to be $20,000 because you pay a lot in mistakes, which is to say, you cut out this titanium plate for your armor and then you realize you cut it wrong.
[08:30.020 --> 08:34.800]  Or you bought all these really expensive components and you don't make weight, so you can't actually fight.
[08:34.800 --> 08:36.740]  You buy speed controllers and you blow them up.
[08:37.120 --> 08:41.620]  So, there is an expense to it, but it is not an insurmountable expense.
[08:41.920 --> 08:50.640]  So, the Combots Cup was to reward all of the people who had been building robots and competing robots over the previous 10 years outside of television where there was no money involved in it.
[08:50.760 --> 08:55.160]  And so, we offered up a $10,000 cash prize to the winning robot.
[08:55.160 --> 09:02.560]  And we went from a typical roster of about eight or nine heavyweight robots at an event to 25 robots.
[09:02.800 --> 09:04.680]  And this was after the TV show had finished.
[09:04.840 --> 09:10.240]  So, a lot of people had been in retirement and were like, oh, there's nothing good if we're not on television or what have you.
[09:10.560 --> 09:12.040]  You offer up a prize purse.
[09:12.140 --> 09:13.960]  Boy, howdy, do people ever come out of the woodwork.
[09:14.080 --> 09:18.360]  So, we had veterans coming out and it was really nice to have everyone come together.
[09:21.300 --> 09:26.020]  And we have a short little snippet of video we're going to show you on what is happening now.
[09:26.020 --> 09:27.640]  So, this is what it looks like now and today.
[09:28.160 --> 09:29.920]  And most of this isn't just the fighting.
[09:30.080 --> 09:32.040]  It's really a lot of interviews with the builders.
[09:32.240 --> 09:41.720]  And since everybody at HOPE, I presume to be, is one of those people who wants to learn how to build one of these robots, this particular video is focusing more on the contestants than actually the fights.
[09:42.740 --> 09:43.380]  Do you have volume?
[10:10.040 --> 10:12.120]  So, our team name is Team Moon Robotics.
[10:12.120 --> 10:15.000]  And Dick has his own team as well, Killer Botics.
[10:15.380 --> 10:17.640]  And we've both been fighting robots for quite some time.
[10:17.740 --> 10:19.780]  Morgan and I are from Peabody.
[10:21.720 --> 10:24.880]  Team Scott Botics, Robots Raging Scotsman.
[10:25.340 --> 10:28.400]  I am Vlad the Inhaler from Arachia.
[10:28.620 --> 10:31.940]  My fighting strategy is to impale other robots...
[10:31.940 --> 10:32.640]  Somebody had to play the dork.
[10:32.780 --> 10:35.300]  ...a big pointy stick with two fangs in front of robot.
[10:35.560 --> 10:37.420]  Robot very fast and powerful.
[10:38.520 --> 10:40.420]  I don't think I've ever made him laugh before.
[10:41.160 --> 10:43.580]  Sam McCamus from Tampa, Florida.
[10:43.940 --> 10:44.660]  Ram Robotics.
[10:45.120 --> 10:46.160]  Our robot's name is Gruff.
[10:46.400 --> 10:49.820]  I actually did the robot as my senior design project.
[10:50.080 --> 10:51.420]  My name is Ray Billings.
[10:51.660 --> 10:53.360]  I'm from El Dorado Hills.
[10:53.480 --> 10:55.420]  Ray is responsible for putting most of the holes in the arena.
[10:55.420 --> 10:57.020]  He name is Archer Robotics.
[10:57.160 --> 10:59.620]  I brought two heavyweight class robots today.
[10:59.760 --> 11:03.900]  I have Last Rites, which is a big horizontal spinner.
[11:03.900 --> 11:06.960]  I won the Combats Cup two years ago with it.
[11:07.060 --> 11:09.580]  And I'm hoping to regain the title this year.
[11:09.960 --> 11:12.080]  My name is Micah Chewy-Liebowitz.
[11:12.860 --> 11:14.460]  We are from Team Tiki.
[11:14.940 --> 11:16.940]  It's based out of Oakland, California.
[11:17.780 --> 11:20.400]  And the heavyweight robot is named Pine Box.
[11:20.400 --> 11:23.100]  I like to build robots for the spectrum for the show.
[11:23.100 --> 11:23.540]  I like to build robots for the spectrum for the show.
[11:23.700 --> 11:24.400]  High school students.
[11:24.420 --> 11:26.100]  And the wood is cheap, fast, easy.
[11:26.100 --> 11:26.300]  Adults.
[11:26.940 --> 11:28.480]  And makes nice splinters.
[11:29.040 --> 11:32.020]  My name is Matt Maxim from Sacramento, California.
[11:32.380 --> 11:34.360]  Our team is Team Plum Crazy.
[11:34.520 --> 11:35.320]  Matt's a forklift driver.
[11:35.340 --> 11:37.040]  And the robot we're fighting here is Sewer Snake.
[11:37.240 --> 11:41.280]  The strategy is break their fist with my face.
[11:43.260 --> 11:44.760]  I'm Jim Smetowski.
[11:45.060 --> 11:46.140]  I'm from Florida.
[11:46.540 --> 11:49.440]  The heavyweight robot that I brought this time is Breaker Box.
[11:50.040 --> 11:52.840]  I'm Gary Jen of Late Night Racing.
[11:53.140 --> 11:56.380]  Original Sin is the current cup holder.
[11:57.440 --> 12:01.220]  And the thrill of getting in there and fighting.
[12:02.340 --> 12:03.500]  You just can't stop.
[12:03.900 --> 12:04.940]  My name is Bradley Hanstead.
[12:05.380 --> 12:09.640]  Well, this particular outfit is a result of a bet I lost.
[12:10.580 --> 12:11.580]  Team Think Tank.
[12:11.760 --> 12:13.400]  We're out of Pasadena, California.
[12:13.700 --> 12:14.660]  Double rainbow party.
[12:22.780 --> 12:23.980]  You guys want to watch the fight?
[12:30.700 --> 12:33.520]  That's the little arena for the little antwin beetleweights.
[12:33.660 --> 12:34.820]  They're one in three pound robots.
[12:35.780 --> 12:36.920]  That's Lego Sumo.
[12:37.560 --> 12:39.230]  That's our floor five minutes.
[12:39.520 --> 12:40.380]  Hardly destroyed.
[12:40.660 --> 12:40.940]  I'm ready.
[12:42.280 --> 12:43.470]  We've got last rights.
[12:43.470 --> 12:44.440]  Steven Felk is a long time builder.
[12:44.820 --> 12:45.440]  He's in Sanford.
[12:45.660 --> 12:45.920]  He's in Sanford.
[12:46.140 --> 12:47.180]  He's on a twist.
[12:47.470 --> 12:49.080]  Horizontal spinning bar of death.
[12:49.080 --> 12:52.640]  And Ray Billings has won many, many matches with last rights.
[12:53.020 --> 12:53.230]  Oh, yeah.
[12:53.230 --> 12:54.970]  So we're looking at someone who just...
[12:54.970 --> 12:56.920]  This machine tears other robots.
[12:56.970 --> 12:59.020]  Riley's a veteran well-homed machine.
[12:59.140 --> 13:00.350]  Although he's running a new motor.
[13:00.640 --> 13:01.960]  So that can present problems.
[13:02.300 --> 13:02.470]  Right.
[13:02.800 --> 13:06.580]  On the other side, we have pine box in the shape of a black coffin.
[13:07.060 --> 13:07.820]  Could be anything.
[13:08.040 --> 13:11.710]  And you never know what's actually going to be inside that pine box.
[13:11.800 --> 13:12.900]  They were very secretive.
[13:12.900 --> 13:14.140]  They wouldn't let anybody know.
[13:14.140 --> 13:15.800]  So this is going to be a surprise to them.
[13:15.970 --> 13:17.040]  I think it's a zombie.
[13:17.380 --> 13:17.500]  Yep.
[13:17.900 --> 13:20.260]  I mean, scary things come in pine boxes.
[13:20.260 --> 13:20.640]  Chewy's from Berkeley.
[13:20.970 --> 13:22.060]  Which I think is kind of fun.
[13:22.210 --> 13:24.210]  It's the attitude of...
[13:24.210 --> 13:26.330]  It's unknown, but it's a pine box.
[13:26.500 --> 13:27.230]  It's just wood.
[13:27.470 --> 13:29.110]  What do I have to be afraid of?
[13:29.610 --> 13:30.060]  So...
[13:30.060 --> 13:35.260]  Robots do run the gamut from very arty, wonderful, beautiful creatures to just lethal machines.
[13:35.260 --> 13:37.300]  This is cool, but Chewy knows what's in the box.
[13:37.320 --> 13:37.330]  Yeah.
[13:37.520 --> 13:39.210]  And Ray, remember the interviews we did with him?
[13:39.350 --> 13:40.780]  They're all worried about the unknown.
[13:41.160 --> 13:44.040]  You know, you talked about people that face six or seven times, just like baseball.
[13:44.420 --> 13:46.820]  You know, you don't know what that other guy's going to surprise you with.
[13:46.940 --> 13:47.560]  So that was a side to Ray right now.
[13:47.560 --> 13:52.500]  In case you're curious, the arena has half-inch double-ply Lexer on all along the bottom and half-inch across the top.
[13:52.590 --> 13:54.610]  It is a big horizontal spinner.
[13:54.960 --> 14:00.300]  I won the KonBots Cup two years ago with it, and I'm hoping to regain the title this year.
[14:00.460 --> 14:04.780]  The robot was supposed to be understated and a surprise for this event.
[14:04.780 --> 14:08.780]  So we kept the name simple and unobtrusive.
[14:09.090 --> 14:11.900]  And to be the KonBots Cup winner is a big deal.
[14:12.210 --> 14:14.970]  And because I've won it before, I know how big a deal it is.
[14:15.140 --> 14:17.470]  So I'm really going to put my A game on today.
[14:18.060 --> 14:21.020]  On last night, I have two different weapon bars.
[14:21.140 --> 14:27.940]  I have a solid tool steel weapon bar, and I have an aluminum bar that has tool steel teeth on the end.
[14:28.090 --> 14:33.540]  And I vary which weapon I use depending upon the opponent that I'm facing.
[14:33.540 --> 14:36.040]  Well, definitely worried about last rites.
[14:36.610 --> 14:41.940]  We had always talked about sneaking a 50-pound anvil into the coffin to give him something to chew on.
[14:42.380 --> 14:44.440]  But didn't make weight for that.
[14:50.490 --> 14:51.650]  He looks ready.
[14:52.550 --> 14:55.470]  There's a look of concentration on Ray's face.
[14:56.530 --> 14:56.970]  Okay.
[14:57.470 --> 14:58.190]  So here we go.
[14:58.230 --> 14:59.090]  Here moves the pine box.
[14:59.190 --> 15:00.890]  Ray's taking his time with his weapon.
[15:01.770 --> 15:02.330]  You see?
[15:02.430 --> 15:03.670]  And the coffin is opening.
[15:03.910 --> 15:05.710]  The pine box is opening.
[15:05.710 --> 15:05.870]  The pine's opening.
[15:06.170 --> 15:08.890]  And Ray, for some reason, has decided not to do his weapon.
[15:09.030 --> 15:10.590]  He hasn't spun up his weapon yet.
[15:10.650 --> 15:13.610]  And we have a flaming Dracula.
[15:13.610 --> 15:15.030]  I would go with a zombie.
[15:15.250 --> 15:15.750]  No, no.
[15:15.870 --> 15:16.130]  No?
[15:16.230 --> 15:16.570]  Dracula?
[15:16.690 --> 15:18.210]  That's quite a flamethrower.
[15:18.670 --> 15:20.090]  That's a nice flamethrower.
[15:20.270 --> 15:21.090]  However, it's not...
[15:21.090 --> 15:21.510]  Beautiful face.
[15:21.750 --> 15:22.910]  Absolutely beautiful face.
[15:23.050 --> 15:23.470]  And now...
[15:23.470 --> 15:25.250]  It's the Count from Sesame Street.
[15:25.650 --> 15:25.690]  Yeah.
[15:28.940 --> 15:32.920]  And there are wood splinters all over the arena.
[15:34.120 --> 15:34.400]  No?
[15:34.680 --> 15:36.400]  Ray's asking, is Chewie going to tap out?
[15:36.640 --> 15:37.900]  Chewie won't tap out.
[15:38.020 --> 15:38.560]  They're asking for a tap out.
[15:38.560 --> 15:39.420]  What fun is that?
[15:39.560 --> 15:40.740]  Keep sawing at it, baby.
[15:40.740 --> 15:43.060]  The sawing has begun.
[15:43.680 --> 15:44.200]  Okay.
[15:45.580 --> 15:46.880]  There's a tap out.
[15:47.520 --> 15:48.060]  No.
[15:48.340 --> 15:49.520]  It's not a tap out.
[15:50.360 --> 15:51.620]  Pine box can't move.
[15:51.760 --> 15:53.380]  You have to show translational motion.
[15:53.760 --> 15:55.460]  And right now, he's sitting still.
[15:56.400 --> 16:00.700]  Right now, Ray is just cleaning the arena with his blade.
[16:00.900 --> 16:05.140]  He's pretty much just moving the blade around, fanning all of those splinters around the arena.
[16:05.140 --> 16:08.560]  Isn't that a beautiful sight where they drive around blowing all the dirt out of the way?
[16:08.760 --> 16:09.080]  Yeah.
[16:09.080 --> 16:11.360]  Well, that was a cute and interesting match.
[16:11.540 --> 16:14.680]  It's going to be about an hour for them to clean all this stuff up.
[16:14.820 --> 16:19.900]  But in the meantime, I believe this was a firm match for Last Rites.
[16:19.980 --> 16:21.520]  Last Rites will be moving on.
[16:21.600 --> 16:21.680]  Yeah.
[16:22.500 --> 16:24.560]  Whereas Pine Box, it was entertaining.
[16:24.740 --> 16:26.460]  Everybody thought it was going to be entertaining.
[16:26.560 --> 16:27.760]  And it absolutely was.
[16:27.980 --> 16:29.300]  Absolutely beautiful purple.
[16:30.020 --> 16:31.560]  I'm going with Zombie, personally.
[16:31.680 --> 16:34.060]  It's a count from Sesame Street.
[16:34.620 --> 16:35.580]  I'm showing my age.
[16:35.660 --> 16:36.920]  With a flamethrower from his mouth.
[16:37.220 --> 16:38.560]  I'm showing my age right now, yeah.
[16:38.560 --> 16:38.740]  Ah!
[16:44.870 --> 16:45.550]  So, yeah.
[16:45.710 --> 16:49.390]  That was an example of a fun and exciting and very, very short match.
[16:49.590 --> 16:50.570]  But, yeah.
[16:50.650 --> 16:53.450]  Chewie had a power chair underneath the coffin.
[16:53.570 --> 16:55.790]  It was essentially a big, hefty electric wheelchair.
[16:56.250 --> 16:59.810]  And added all the stuff onto it in his shop at his work.
[17:00.010 --> 17:02.790]  And, you know, added a flamethrower because why not?
[17:03.290 --> 17:04.030]  Because it's cool.
[17:04.030 --> 17:04.710]  Yeah.
[17:05.110 --> 17:07.490]  So, this is why people tend to do it.
[17:07.530 --> 17:12.970]  Although, I would guess that to this crowd it would be fairly self-explanatory why you'd want to build a robot to fight.
[17:13.910 --> 17:15.330]  Unless you're a lover and not a fighter.
[17:16.330 --> 17:17.090]  But, yeah.
[17:17.250 --> 17:18.170]  The main thing...
[17:18.170 --> 17:23.610]  The main reason I do it is because it's a really great way to trick people into learning math and science and engineering.
[17:24.010 --> 17:33.910]  Because when a kid has a robot in their hands and they need to figure out this thing over here, but they know these two other things and they use these two other things to figure out this thing about their electronics or what have you.
[17:34.650 --> 17:35.010]  Bravo!
[17:35.270 --> 17:35.630]  Algebra!
[17:36.350 --> 17:36.710]  Hey!
[17:38.590 --> 17:39.710]  It's real world engineering.
[17:39.970 --> 17:48.190]  And so, whether you're an adult who wants to do it or a kid who wants to do it, it forces you, you know, to learn all sorts of things.
[17:48.350 --> 17:56.190]  Everything from, you know, the physics and how to weld, how to do basic electronics, how to do programming.
[17:56.490 --> 17:59.290]  A lot of the robots do have semi-autonomy in terms of weapon systems.
[17:59.510 --> 18:03.630]  And some of the builders actually make all of their own electronics for the control systems.
[18:04.470 --> 18:17.070]  And there is an interesting thing about the sport that happens when people come to a show, not just watching it here on TV, but when you actually come to a show, is about 98% of the crowd goes, wow, that was really cool.
[18:17.750 --> 18:18.850]  And, you know, I'm glad we came.
[18:18.950 --> 18:20.170]  And then they go home and they go about their business.
[18:20.870 --> 18:23.850]  And about 2%, it really does change your life.
[18:24.790 --> 18:31.150]  Like, a lot of things in life, you're missing something in your soul and you're looking for that thing.
[18:32.190 --> 18:40.330]  I was a professional computer programmer doing e-commerce websites in 2000 when BattleBots asked me to come judge for their show.
[18:40.470 --> 18:42.310]  And I'm like, alright, I'll do it.
[18:42.450 --> 18:42.990]  It'll be a lark.
[18:43.750 --> 18:46.230]  And I sat and I judged their BattleBots Season 3.
[18:47.030 --> 18:48.970]  And Simone, at the time, was running the door.
[18:49.470 --> 18:51.190]  And it literally changed our lives.
[18:52.170 --> 19:00.670]  Because here I was, a very happily, you know, paid e-commerce webmaster, who had lots of disposable income and wasn't doing anything with it.
[19:00.790 --> 19:03.750]  And then you see this and you're like, oh my God, I want to do this.
[19:03.850 --> 19:07.890]  And everybody who is on there, I mean, they don't do it for the money because there is no money in the sport.
[19:07.890 --> 19:10.530]  We could have bought a house by now several times over.
[19:10.670 --> 19:14.290]  The combat arena that we use is a $400,000 combat arena.
[19:14.430 --> 19:19.190]  The polycarbonate that encloses it is over $120,000 just for the poly.
[19:20.370 --> 19:21.890]  And it is an interesting thing.
[19:22.010 --> 19:26.930]  I mean, Lem in the audience comes out to the shows every year from Japan, where he lives, to see this.
[19:27.130 --> 19:34.790]  Because it's just, it's the most spectacular, engaging thing that a creative engineering mindset can ever see or do.
[19:34.790 --> 19:39.030]  Well, we've had several people over the years say that it is actually addictive.
[19:39.850 --> 19:42.590]  Because it's, you know, there's a lot of failure.
[19:42.890 --> 19:43.830]  There's a lot of failure.
[19:44.030 --> 19:44.910]  It is a lot like a drug.
[19:45.050 --> 19:48.770]  I mean, you try to get out, and you're just like, okay, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done.
[19:48.870 --> 19:49.550]  Shit, no, I'm not.
[19:49.610 --> 19:50.250]  And you fall off.
[19:50.570 --> 19:51.950]  And you go back to doing it.
[19:52.130 --> 19:58.170]  Yeah, our little touchstone that we have at every event is we stare at each other and go, I am never doing this again.
[19:59.150 --> 19:59.870]  This sucks.
[20:00.230 --> 20:02.730]  Next year is going to be so awesome, awesome.
[20:04.110 --> 20:04.890]  Everybody does it.
[20:05.110 --> 20:09.710]  There's no, I mean, when we talk to sponsors and TV people and whatnot, they're always like, what's your demographic?
[20:09.910 --> 20:10.690]  And like, we don't have one.
[20:10.790 --> 20:11.830]  Oh, come on, what's your demographic?
[20:12.030 --> 20:16.730]  It's like, you know, we have little kids who do it, and old retirees who do it, and middle-aged people and young people.
[20:16.850 --> 20:18.810]  Our youngest combat driver is eight.
[20:19.050 --> 20:19.270]  Yeah.
[20:19.550 --> 20:20.690]  And our oldest is what?
[20:21.190 --> 20:21.770]  Sixty-ish?
[20:21.970 --> 20:22.270]  Sixty.
[20:22.430 --> 20:23.090]  Sixty-ish, yeah.
[20:23.350 --> 20:24.750]  Sadly, the 72-year-old guy died.
[20:24.970 --> 20:25.150]  Oh.
[20:26.090 --> 20:33.730]  But, you know, the careers, my doctor, my internal medicine doctor is my doctor, because he's a contestant.
[20:33.930 --> 20:40.070]  Here's a guy, he works in internal medicine, and he comes to all of our shows.
[20:40.210 --> 20:44.550]  And, you know, instead of, you know, the doctor on the weekend, he doesn't sit around and watch TV or go fishing.
[20:44.690 --> 20:46.010]  He builds combat robots.
[20:46.010 --> 20:52.790]  With his son, who's been driving since he was 11, and is now going to college on an engineering scholarship, because he's been doing this for so long.
[20:53.470 --> 20:57.870]  So, the basics of a combat robot, for those who've never built this kind of robot before.
[20:58.910 --> 21:00.890]  Body, which is a frame and an armor.
[21:01.410 --> 21:10.090]  They tend to be divisible, in the same way that a car is, is that, really, if you look at the quarter panels and side panels on your car, you can remove all of them, and the frame remains.
[21:10.390 --> 21:15.930]  So, when you're in an accident, if you're just dinging up all of the side panels, then you can replace those.
[21:16.110 --> 21:18.070]  But the frame is what really makes the car.
[21:19.970 --> 21:26.910]  The drivetrain, and for those of you who've never done any kind of electromechanical devices, motors do not stand by themselves.
[21:27.170 --> 21:28.090]  You actually need to gear them down.
[21:28.210 --> 21:30.970]  They tend to be much too fast and with too little torque.
[21:31.250 --> 21:40.630]  So, typically, you use a gearbox or several chains and sprockets to gear the motor down before you finally hit the wheels or the treads or the legs or whatever you're using.
[21:41.190 --> 21:42.550]  And, finally, the electronics.
[21:43.390 --> 21:45.050]  Anybody here know what an H-bridge is?
[21:46.030 --> 21:46.770]  A couple people?
[21:47.110 --> 21:47.310]  Sure.
[21:48.070 --> 21:49.570]  Anybody know what an electronic speed controller is?
[21:50.130 --> 21:57.630]  So, an ESC is a much more advanced H-bridge, which basically allows digital proportional control of the robot.
[21:57.830 --> 22:00.850]  So, an H-bridge traditionally is just on, off, forward, or backwards.
[22:00.990 --> 22:06.710]  It doesn't give you proportional control, whereas a speed controller is what makes the robot go slow, medium, fast.
[22:07.190 --> 22:10.390]  It is also the most fragile component of a robot.
[22:10.590 --> 22:12.970]  And then, finally, the receiver and control mechanism.
[22:13.730 --> 22:16.010]  And, of course, the weapons.
[22:16.670 --> 22:21.890]  And this all looks really, really simple to someone who's messed around with hardware and software and what have you.
[22:22.030 --> 22:23.890]  But, it's really easy to put together.
[22:24.010 --> 22:25.810]  It's really hard to put together well.
[22:27.710 --> 22:29.630]  So, there's a lot of things you have to keep in mind.
[22:30.050 --> 22:32.570]  There's no kits that you can buy online that are worth buying.
[22:32.710 --> 22:33.190]  I'll say that.
[22:33.670 --> 22:35.390]  There are some kits that you can buy.
[22:35.390 --> 22:37.450]  I advise against buying any kits online.
[22:37.730 --> 22:42.070]  Because none of them are good enough quality for the price you pay.
[22:42.070 --> 22:45.130]  There are a couple of, like, $4,000 kits, which are reasonably good quality.
[22:45.410 --> 22:49.750]  But, a novice can probably build that same kit for about $1,500.
[22:51.810 --> 22:52.690]  You really...
[22:52.690 --> 22:59.470]  A very close friend of mine, who is a professional engineer, just entered the last competition, named David.
[22:59.870 --> 23:05.730]  And I told him, you know, if you want to do this, it's going to cost you about $5,000 or $10,000 at that weight class.
[23:05.730 --> 23:07.310]  Because he was going to build a 120-pound robot.
[23:07.530 --> 23:08.670]  And he's like, no, no, no, no, no.
[23:08.770 --> 23:10.710]  I'm smart and, you know, talented and I can do this.
[23:10.790 --> 23:13.010]  I'm like, dude, it's just... you just don't know what you're getting into.
[23:13.450 --> 23:21.250]  And so, his 120-pound robot, as he was finishing it, ended up being 118 pounds without any armor and without any weapon system.
[23:21.470 --> 23:25.610]  So, he immediately jumped himself up for that same robot into the 220-pound category.
[23:26.110 --> 23:29.150]  And I think he finally costed out at about $10,000.
[23:30.950 --> 23:38.810]  The classes, just FYI, we tend to focus on the 220-pound weight class because it's the big, glamorous, cool class.
[23:39.030 --> 23:40.470]  But these are the different classes.
[23:40.530 --> 23:45.510]  There's a 5-gram class for the really hardcore electronics engineers who want to make something tiny.
[23:45.630 --> 23:48.370]  And it's a very hard class to compete in.
[23:48.430 --> 23:52.430]  The 1-pound, the 3-pound, 60s, 120s, and 220s.
[23:52.550 --> 23:58.550]  And so, just like boxing, if you have a 60-pound robot, you can compete in the 60-pound class.
[23:58.550 --> 24:01.390]  Or, if you want to, the 120-pound or 220-pound.
[24:01.590 --> 24:04.590]  Just not a 61-pound robot could compete in the 60.
[24:04.910 --> 24:06.810]  And you don't have to max out on your weight.
[24:06.930 --> 24:11.670]  So, there are 220-pound robot competitors who weigh in at, say, 200 pounds.
[24:12.130 --> 24:15.050]  Some people do it on purpose for strategic reasons that I'm not clear on.
[24:15.210 --> 24:21.350]  For your first robot, there's a video that I won't show you because it's too long that I did when I was a former professor of robotics.
[24:22.130 --> 24:25.570]  You can just, if you Google my last name and robots on YouTube, you'll find it.
[24:25.970 --> 24:29.370]  But you can build a very basic robot for a couple hundred bucks.
[24:29.590 --> 24:31.830]  With stuff that you can get at Harbor Freight.
[24:31.950 --> 24:32.390]  Quite literally.
[24:32.910 --> 24:36.170]  So, a drill motor actually gives you most of the components you need.
[24:36.210 --> 24:41.190]  Because a drill motor has the batteries and the battery chargers, which are some of the most expensive components.
[24:41.930 --> 24:47.390]  The motors with the attached gearboxes, so they look like a single component when you take apart a drill.
[24:47.530 --> 24:48.630]  But they're actually two separate components.
[24:50.050 --> 24:56.990]  And you can get dirt cheap starter drill motors for about 30 bucks that will work in a 60-pound class robot.
[24:57.990 --> 24:59.670]  You need a cheap speed controller.
[25:00.730 --> 25:03.450]  And cheap is about 200 bucks is as cheap as you're going to get.
[25:03.650 --> 25:06.110]  Anything less than that, you're just going to burn out.
[25:06.230 --> 25:08.330]  And then you're going to have to buy another one, and another one, and another one.
[25:08.450 --> 25:10.430]  So, don't buy anything less than 200 bucks.
[25:10.430 --> 25:12.390]  And the speed controllers are the first things to go.
[25:12.530 --> 25:12.790]  Yeah.
[25:12.790 --> 25:13.410]  Every single time.
[25:13.630 --> 25:14.270]  One of the...
[25:14.270 --> 25:15.210]  The what?
[25:16.210 --> 25:16.670]  Oh, yeah.
[25:16.850 --> 25:20.890]  So, people know about the mysterious and magical magic smoke.
[25:21.650 --> 25:25.130]  When a robot emits magic smoke, it's really, really, really bad.
[25:25.350 --> 25:30.570]  So, whenever something starts smoking in the arena, our announcer, Scott, the voice goes, Oh, no.
[25:30.770 --> 25:31.590]  He's lost.
[25:31.770 --> 25:32.650]  It's magic smoke.
[25:32.830 --> 25:33.730]  What are we going to do?
[25:33.830 --> 25:34.090]  Oh, no.
[25:34.150 --> 25:36.010]  And then we carry it out to the tarmac and put it out.
[25:36.170 --> 25:38.450]  Magic smoke is what actually powers the robot.
[25:38.450 --> 25:41.530]  And you have to keep it inside of your electronic components at all times.
[25:41.830 --> 25:42.450]  It's really bad.
[25:42.710 --> 25:44.910]  And if it escapes, then you have no more power.
[25:45.170 --> 25:47.510]  The robot goddess Eshya, E-S-C, get that?
[25:47.630 --> 25:47.730]  Yeah.
[25:47.810 --> 25:51.750]  You have to, you know, sacrifice a couple of speed controllers to her before you...
[25:51.750 --> 25:55.730]  And I've been doing this for over ten years now, and I still blow shit up.
[25:55.850 --> 25:57.270]  And it's just rite of passage.
[25:59.010 --> 26:00.030]  So, weapon evolution.
[26:00.830 --> 26:02.170]  This is what most people like.
[26:02.530 --> 26:02.930]  Yeah.
[26:03.070 --> 26:08.730]  When robot wars started, I don't know if anyone had ever actually gone to a robot wars way back in the day, like 95, 96.
[26:09.490 --> 26:12.610]  There was, like, huge arrays of different kinds of weapons.
[26:12.790 --> 26:16.490]  There were, you know, balls and chains and maces and little pokey pokes and drill motors.
[26:16.610 --> 26:19.950]  And they were all really cute and artistic and fun and totally ineffective.
[26:20.370 --> 26:20.830]  Totally ineffective.
[26:20.890 --> 26:21.270]  It's really cute.
[26:21.270 --> 26:27.010]  Even today, we get people who will come with, like, a circular saw mounted on the front of their robot.
[26:27.050 --> 26:28.390]  And they're like, oh, this is going to be so great.
[26:28.450 --> 26:29.570]  And it's going to eat all the other robots.
[26:29.810 --> 26:29.930]  And all the better.
[26:30.030 --> 26:31.090]  And you're like, oh, isn't that cute?
[26:31.090 --> 26:31.290]  Oh, that's cute.
[26:31.610 --> 26:34.010]  Because you're not fighting robots that are made of wood.
[26:34.050 --> 26:35.570]  And you're not fighting teddy bears.
[26:35.670 --> 26:37.590]  And you're not fighting robots that stand still.
[26:37.770 --> 26:42.110]  The other guy is trying very hard to get behind you just the same way you're trying to get behind him.
[26:42.230 --> 26:42.530]  Yep.
[26:42.590 --> 26:46.550]  So, the basic design that is effective is the pizza box on wheels with a thing in the front.
[26:47.030 --> 26:50.670]  The thing takes a bunch of different forms, but essentially it's a wedge.
[26:52.290 --> 26:53.590]  And you can win with a wedge.
[26:53.770 --> 26:58.290]  There are drivers who can win like crazy with a wedge, but you have to know how to operate your vehicle.
[26:59.150 --> 27:01.270]  So when we say a wedge, a wedge isn't technically a weapon.
[27:01.370 --> 27:02.090]  It's not actuated.
[27:02.250 --> 27:04.710]  It's just a shovel in the front of the robot.
[27:05.070 --> 27:06.930]  The rest of these weapons are all actuated.
[27:07.690 --> 27:08.450]  Here's a lifter.
[27:08.590 --> 27:09.230]  They're mechanical.
[27:09.570 --> 27:12.190]  They don't go very fast, but they have really high torque.
[27:12.290 --> 27:19.770]  And the idea is you'll get underneath your opponent, you lift them up, their wheels are off the ground, you're effectively in control and you can drag them around the arena or put them over the side of the bumper.
[27:20.270 --> 27:28.290]  In the rules, if you hit the floor with your opponent between the bumper and the wall, your opponent is automatically out and you have won by knockout.
[27:30.870 --> 27:34.610]  This is a flipper, which is generally pneumatically powered.
[27:34.910 --> 27:44.150]  They're really, really big crowd pleasures because they make a lot of noise and smoke and they can do things like hurl themselves through the air and hurl the other robot through the air, for example.
[27:45.290 --> 27:55.590]  A lifter will typically just literally lift the other robot and then drive it around, whereas a flipper will launch the other robot into the air, typically into the ceiling of the arena.
[27:56.110 --> 28:03.770]  And so the damage is done not from being flipped, but from coming down the hard way and then hitting the floor.
[28:04.050 --> 28:09.150]  And you kind of have to know what you're doing when you have a pneumatic flipper for obvious reasons, because pneumatics are complicated and hard.
[28:09.270 --> 28:20.130]  In fact, this year we had an incident in the pit where Son of Ziggy, who is seen here, was filling its tank, or the team was filling its tank, and the regulator came off.
[28:20.270 --> 28:23.250]  And it came off explosively and very, very, very loudly.
[28:23.410 --> 28:26.930]  And luckily nobody was hurt because there were, you know, projectile objects everywhere.
[28:26.930 --> 28:29.650]  But it does, that's why we have medics on staff, so.
[28:29.990 --> 28:38.750]  So, so far, to our knowledge, nobody's been critically hurt in their homes doing this.
[28:39.550 --> 28:43.490]  We have that $400,000 arena so that nobody gets hurt at the event.
[28:43.910 --> 28:48.130]  But building a combat robot, I mean, you're dealing with incredible forces.
[28:48.130 --> 28:58.710]  And so, something like Son of Ziggy, which is the robot in the foreground here, could very easily rip your arm off without any damage to the robot.
[29:00.390 --> 29:05.470]  And, I mean, the forces, again, once you come to a real show, are just insane.
[29:05.710 --> 29:07.910]  And luckily people are pretty conscientious about safety.
[29:07.970 --> 29:18.470]  And the worst injuries our medics usually see are slices across the palm from when you go in after your match and you go underneath your robot to lift it up and there's something sharp that's been tuna canned open by your opponent.
[29:18.670 --> 29:24.110]  And then you bleed all over the place and the builders invariably hide from the medic because the medic is always going to say, you need to go to the hospital and get stitches.
[29:24.390 --> 29:25.850]  But I have a match in 40 minutes.
[29:25.890 --> 29:26.490]  I can't do that.
[29:26.530 --> 29:28.630]  I'm just going to put some duct tape on it and call it macaroni.
[29:30.450 --> 29:31.830]  So, now we have the bar spinners.
[29:31.890 --> 29:34.650]  And the bar spinners are really theatrical.
[29:35.070 --> 29:37.330]  They have a lot of torque and a lot of physics behind them.
[29:38.650 --> 29:41.010]  And you have horizontal and vertical spinners.
[29:41.130 --> 29:43.730]  So, last strides that you saw in the video is horizontal.
[29:43.730 --> 29:47.330]  And it has a ton of force behind it when it hits something.
[29:47.490 --> 29:48.950]  It spins at 5,500 RPM.
[29:49.810 --> 29:55.130]  That bar that you're seeing in this photograph and the one you saw in the video is just under 100 pounds.
[29:55.310 --> 29:58.850]  Most of last strides weight is in the bar by design.
[29:59.130 --> 30:00.570]  And it's hardened tool steel.
[30:01.050 --> 30:03.090]  Which, you know, is hardened tool steel.
[30:03.310 --> 30:04.210]  It's stuff they make cameras out of.
[30:04.470 --> 30:07.370]  Yeah, it's really, really, really robust and it's built to last.
[30:07.630 --> 30:16.110]  Except for when it hits another robot and the end of the tool steel flies off and hits the wall of the arena and we have to stop and make sure that everything is safe and coherent.
[30:17.530 --> 30:19.730]  The other robot in this picture is Electric Boogaloo.
[30:19.870 --> 30:25.970]  Which is super awesome and built by kids who had been participating in the inset classes.
[30:26.010 --> 30:27.250]  The one and three pounds, the little bots.
[30:27.570 --> 30:30.350]  And they made the step up to 220 this year and they just...
[30:30.350 --> 30:31.010]  They came in second.
[30:31.270 --> 30:32.150]  Yeah, they wiped the walls.
[30:32.150 --> 30:34.590]  They actually paid attention after years of competing in the one and three pound class.
[30:34.590 --> 30:37.650]  They listened to all of the older builders.
[30:38.030 --> 30:40.890]  And when I say older, I don't mean by age, but more experienced and heavier classes.
[30:41.770 --> 30:44.870]  And this picture was actually taken when they had made their way through the ladder.
[30:45.010 --> 30:47.250]  So you'll notice that all their armor is held on by zip ties.
[30:47.490 --> 30:51.870]  If you look at all those little white V's coming off the robot, those are in fact zip ties.
[30:53.890 --> 30:54.930]  The full body spinner.
[30:55.030 --> 30:58.050]  You don't see them so much anymore because they're giant pains in the ass.
[30:58.190 --> 30:59.190]  But they're really awesome.
[30:59.350 --> 31:01.810]  Most of you probably know Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters.
[31:02.610 --> 31:07.490]  And Jamie was a rule changer in the Robot Wars and BattleBots era.
[31:07.850 --> 31:10.150]  Because he was the first one that came up with a full body spinner.
[31:10.490 --> 31:10.910]  Which was...
[31:10.910 --> 31:14.090]  At the time, he only had a 60 pounder and it was a walk.
[31:14.270 --> 31:15.570]  It was a very heavy walk.
[31:15.970 --> 31:16.870]  Upside down spinning.
[31:17.250 --> 31:21.630]  And so the concept was, well, what if the whole robot is a weapon?
[31:22.030 --> 31:27.350]  If you look on MythBusters and look in the background, you can actually see Blendo on a high shelf at M7.
[31:27.630 --> 31:27.770]  Yeah.
[31:27.770 --> 31:37.950]  And so, when full body spinners came into play, as well as bar spinners and whatnot, the sport had to go from the Robot Wars era of, there wasn't much between...
[31:38.450 --> 31:44.050]  If Simone and I are the robots fighting, there wasn't much between us and you guys, the audience.
[31:44.310 --> 31:46.950]  I mean, it was very lucky that nobody got hurt.
[31:46.950 --> 31:48.330]  I mean, most of the fights were.
[31:50.290 --> 31:50.630]  Yeah.
[31:51.530 --> 31:56.730]  Judging them, we call them pillow fights, because it's like, how do you pick a winner between two little robots that kind of push each other around?
[31:57.170 --> 32:02.630]  Nowadays, I mean, you need buckets sometimes after a fight to pull up all the scrap.
[32:03.350 --> 32:04.030]  It's ridiculous.
[32:04.130 --> 32:05.970]  Occasionally, I've had to weld the floor back together.
[32:06.150 --> 32:06.870]  That's always fun.
[32:07.490 --> 32:08.610]  This is a drum spinner.
[32:08.730 --> 32:13.890]  This is a really, really, really effective weapon, if you know what you're doing with it, because there's a lot of physics involved with this one as well.
[32:13.890 --> 32:20.030]  It's just a big drum with some kind of nub on it, a blade or a tooth or something, and it spins really, really, really fast.
[32:20.510 --> 32:26.530]  Team Reobots, the driver, they have exclusively drum spinners.
[32:26.610 --> 32:29.550]  They have a drum spinner in every weight class, and their heavyweight is Toro.
[32:29.650 --> 32:32.690]  Basically, a CAD file just scaled down for each weight class.
[32:32.850 --> 32:46.270]  But they have elevated the drum spinner to a high art, because Daniel, who designed the weapon and is the main driver, literally is writing his PhD on how to make that the most effective robot combat weapon.
[32:46.310 --> 32:51.310]  Because of the centripetal and centrifugal forces applied by a drum spinner, so he's actually wrote his PhD.
[32:51.370 --> 32:52.150]  And I've got a copy of it.
[32:54.090 --> 33:08.110]  On the dynamics of where everything is radially, so that the teeth that they use, they use titanium teeth on a stainless steel drum, and all of the physics and all of the math are part of that.
[33:08.290 --> 33:14.330]  And so, some of these robots, I mean, you look at them and you're like, okay, it's a bunch of guys digging around in their apartments and building robots.
[33:14.650 --> 33:15.290]  That's not true.
[33:15.450 --> 33:27.610]  I mean, yes, you can be your average Joe or Jane doing it in your apartment or your garage, and you can also be a full...it's actually a full master's program in Rio.
[33:28.130 --> 33:34.770]  And every year, those guys bring probably about 30 or 40 students up to RoboGames in April to compete in the various weight classes.
[33:34.870 --> 33:38.650]  They've actually started coming up twice a year, so they can compete at Combat's Cup as well.
[33:41.090 --> 33:42.610]  This is a hydraulic pincher.
[33:42.950 --> 33:46.230]  It works on hydraulics and it pinches.
[33:47.870 --> 33:48.750]  They're not...
[33:48.750 --> 33:52.490]  You'll note that the hydraulic lines are right open there in the back.
[33:52.610 --> 33:53.510]  So are the electronics.
[33:53.950 --> 33:54.990]  So are the everything.
[33:54.990 --> 33:58.650]  There tends to be an inverse ratio between the prettier the robot, the less likely it is to win.
[33:58.910 --> 33:59.230]  Yeah.
[34:00.250 --> 34:01.490]  It scoots around in there, I see.
[34:03.610 --> 34:05.710]  This is an example of a flamethrower.
[34:05.930 --> 34:09.730]  The robot with the flamethrower is the Ragin' Scotsman from Piedmont High School.
[34:10.270 --> 34:11.970]  And flamethrowers are really pretty.
[34:12.910 --> 34:17.330]  They're not particularly effective, but they make the crowd really, really, really happy, so...
[34:17.330 --> 34:17.890]  They're fun.
[34:18.250 --> 34:18.630]  They are fun.
[34:18.630 --> 34:24.270]  You know, the arena is fully contained, so the Fire Marshal does a walkthrough every show we do, and we have a great relationship with the Fire Marshal.
[34:24.410 --> 34:25.950]  And he loves, you know, Fire Marshal's are all pyros.
[34:29.370 --> 34:31.830]  But the thing with flamethrowers is we love them.
[34:31.890 --> 34:38.210]  We're actually considering a rule modification to not include flamethrowers as part of the robot weight, because they're so much fun.
[34:38.670 --> 34:40.930]  And they're so friggin' ineffective.
[34:41.350 --> 34:42.210]  I mean, yes.
[34:42.390 --> 34:43.550]  They look really good.
[34:43.550 --> 34:48.070]  If you stick your hand in front of a flamethrower like that, you're probably gonna burn yourself.
[34:48.810 --> 34:52.670]  But oddly enough, that's isopropanol, and you're probably not even gonna get third-degree burns.
[34:52.730 --> 34:55.790]  You're probably just gonna get a decent second-degree burn.
[34:55.950 --> 34:58.510]  They're gorgeous, but they're not very hot.
[35:02.450 --> 35:02.850]  Okay.
[35:03.370 --> 35:04.170]  So mobility.
[35:04.830 --> 35:10.170]  You have your drivetrain, and you have a variety of options when it comes to how your robot moves around.
[35:10.650 --> 35:11.750]  Basic, of course, is wheels.
[35:11.750 --> 35:12.650]  You can have four wheels.
[35:12.810 --> 35:13.430]  You can have two wheels.
[35:13.570 --> 35:15.430]  You can have six wheels, as Sewer Snake does here.
[35:17.010 --> 35:19.950]  Robots, for the most part, do not move like cars in terms of steering.
[35:20.330 --> 35:27.830]  So cars, you have rack and pinion steering in front, so that your front wheels of your car will shift left to right.
[35:27.830 --> 35:29.730]  And you have a differential and all that good stuff.
[35:29.850 --> 35:32.510]  Whereas robots operate essentially like tanks.
[35:32.770 --> 35:39.490]  It's called skid steering, which is to say that one side's drivetrain operates faster or slower than the other in order to steer.
[35:39.490 --> 35:48.530]  So looking at Sewer Snake, if Sewer Snake wanted to continue around to the left, the right wheels would just be going faster than the left wheels.
[35:48.790 --> 35:54.450]  And then that would turn the robot around to the left and vice versa, instead of actually turning your wheels.
[35:55.770 --> 35:57.150]  So these are mecanim wheels.
[35:58.390 --> 36:03.390]  If regular skid steering is standard steering, mecanim wheels are awesome steering.
[36:04.830 --> 36:09.370]  If you've never seen a mecanim robot, just check out YouTube.
[36:09.710 --> 36:13.810]  They are incredibly creepy and wonderful and magnificent to watch.
[36:14.370 --> 36:18.030]  You'll notice all of those rollers inside of the wheels.
[36:18.350 --> 36:27.550]  And you'll also notice, if you look carefully, that the internal rollers are canted 90 degrees to each other, unlike an omni-wheeled robot.
[36:27.550 --> 36:34.150]  And basically what that means is that the robot can operate like a normal robot, but it can also orbit and do other things.
[36:34.350 --> 36:38.790]  So it's really cool to watch a robot orbit around with its nose pointed directly.
[36:38.970 --> 36:39.610]  It's creepy.
[36:39.890 --> 36:41.090]  It's really creepy.
[36:41.270 --> 36:42.590]  It's got to be psychological work.
[36:42.590 --> 36:45.730]  They can go forward and backwards like a regular robot, but can also slip to the side.
[36:45.730 --> 36:59.550]  So if you're imagining parallel parking and the pain in the ass that a parallel parking job is, a mecanim robot can actually just drive straight up in between the two cars and then, with the flip of the switch, move 90 degrees from its forward axis.
[37:03.360 --> 37:06.440]  Gyroscopic precession, relatively self-explanatory.
[37:06.580 --> 37:13.440]  You have a thing on the front that spins really fast and you take advantage of that inertia and kind of gently urge your robot where you want it to go.
[37:13.440 --> 37:20.220]  They're really neat to watch because the rear wheels, the counter wheel will always be up off the ground as it precesses.
[37:20.340 --> 37:21.920]  And so they'll just spin up.
[37:22.040 --> 37:24.180]  In this case, this is the beast.
[37:24.680 --> 37:24.960]  La Besta.
[37:25.860 --> 37:26.360]  La Besta.
[37:26.460 --> 37:26.880]  La Besta.
[37:27.060 --> 37:27.820]  In Portuguese.
[37:28.820 --> 37:37.760]  And so basically, depending on how fast and in which direction they spin that disc, the robot cants to one side or the other.
[37:37.880 --> 37:43.280]  This kind of steering also gives you the maximum opportunity to eat yourself because there's a lot of physics.
[37:43.280 --> 37:48.020]  And remember always Newton's law that 50% of the energy goes out and 50% of the energy goes in.
[37:48.120 --> 37:55.140]  Last rights, which we showed you in the beginning, is as good at destroying its own weapon systems as it is destroying the other robot.
[37:55.980 --> 37:57.460]  Thousand dollars a weapon motor.
[37:57.640 --> 37:57.880]  No.
[37:57.920 --> 37:59.480]  He went through four of them last time.
[38:00.680 --> 38:02.480]  So the next thing is a cam walker.
[38:02.540 --> 38:03.920]  And you don't see cam walkers very often.
[38:03.940 --> 38:06.120]  This is a robot called Wyachi.
[38:06.380 --> 38:07.980]  And it was from the BattleBots days.
[38:08.200 --> 38:10.280]  And you get a weight bonus for a walker.
[38:11.900 --> 38:12.300]  So...
[38:12.300 --> 38:19.340]  If you look to the left of the robot, you'll see what looks like three white fingers with one of the white fingers closest to the robot sticking out.
[38:19.560 --> 38:22.800]  And basically those fingers are connected to a cam.
[38:23.000 --> 38:25.140]  And it's kind of like low crawling over dirt.
[38:25.360 --> 38:28.000]  So they shuffle like this and it goes forward and it goes backwards.
[38:28.540 --> 38:30.400]  So something is always on the ground at one time.
[38:30.520 --> 38:31.980]  But there's not actually wheels involved.
[38:33.540 --> 38:35.260]  And you do get a weight bonus for a walker.
[38:35.340 --> 38:36.380]  And this is a true walker.
[38:36.900 --> 38:38.480]  This is our shameless wedding photo.
[38:38.660 --> 38:38.760]  Yeah.
[38:39.020 --> 38:39.880]  This is our ring bearer.
[38:40.040 --> 38:40.880]  Her name is Mechadon.
[38:41.060 --> 38:41.460]  She's pretty.
[38:42.260 --> 38:44.740]  And that is actually a robot combat robot.
[38:45.300 --> 38:46.740]  And it does compete.
[38:47.520 --> 38:49.220]  She's 440 pounds, I think.
[38:49.420 --> 38:51.280]  And it can walk like a crab.
[38:51.420 --> 38:57.640]  But it also can, much like Droidica's in the Star Wars prequels, it can curl up into a little ball and roll away.
[38:57.820 --> 38:58.620]  It does a death roll.
[38:58.620 --> 39:01.760]  Mark Satrakian, who built it, is a special effects guy.
[39:02.060 --> 39:03.280]  And he likes to...
[39:03.280 --> 39:08.000]  He used to like to enter the arena loading in for fights by riding on the back of Mechadon.
[39:08.580 --> 39:08.800]  Yeah.
[39:08.800 --> 39:08.960]  Yeah.
[39:10.100 --> 39:10.780]  Intimidation city.
[39:11.260 --> 39:16.660]  So if you're going to compete after being in the sport for, I don't know, 14 years now?
[39:16.940 --> 39:17.380]  1999?
[39:17.780 --> 39:18.040]  What is that?
[39:18.180 --> 39:18.800]  13 years?
[39:19.980 --> 39:22.100]  So this is a list compiled down.
[39:22.100 --> 39:23.580]  I used to keep when I was judging.
[39:23.760 --> 39:27.400]  I don't judge anymore, but of all of the stupid shit that people would do.
[39:27.780 --> 39:30.380]  And some of these are bog standard common sense.
[39:30.520 --> 39:32.520]  Oh my gosh, why do people not even think of that?
[39:32.600 --> 39:34.480]  Because that's, of course, the first thing I would think of.
[39:34.620 --> 39:37.840]  And you other poor schmuck over there, you're just out of luck.
[39:37.880 --> 39:39.360]  And I certainly would never do any of that.
[39:39.500 --> 39:39.980]  You're wrong.
[39:40.080 --> 39:41.100]  You're absolutely wrong.
[39:41.460 --> 39:47.020]  It's like writing your presentation the day before you're supposed to give it at something like HOPE, like we did and like everybody else does.
[39:47.840 --> 39:49.020]  But that doesn't work in robotics.
[39:49.220 --> 39:50.720]  I mean, you have to be ready.
[39:50.780 --> 39:53.760]  And you can't live by that whole, oh, it'll be okay.
[39:54.140 --> 39:54.700]  Don't worry about it.
[39:55.180 --> 39:57.240]  And you have to clear safety when you come to an event.
[39:57.240 --> 40:05.480]  So, you know, you have a few hours before you have to tick off all the check boxes and make sure that you're safe and that you run and that you're qualified to fight.
[40:06.020 --> 40:15.240]  If you come to any robot show, be able to turn your robot on and move right out of the crate.
[40:15.500 --> 40:21.080]  Whether you drove the robot there or you flew it there or you shipped it there, you should be ready to go right out of the get-go.
[40:22.120 --> 40:23.300]  Number two, learn to f*cking drive.
[40:23.520 --> 40:27.660]  This is one of these things where all these people build their robots and they load it into the arena for the first fight.
[40:28.040 --> 40:30.540]  And we'd look at them and go, so, how much drive time have you got?
[40:30.580 --> 40:31.700]  Oh, I've never driven it before.
[40:31.840 --> 40:32.380]  I hope I do well.
[40:33.000 --> 40:35.600]  The whole point here is to drive against the other guy.
[40:35.960 --> 40:40.700]  And if you don't know how to operate your robot, and this is real-world physics, this is not a video game.
[40:40.900 --> 40:49.200]  Real-world physics is hard to control this robot because there's motors that break, there's big spinning things, there's gyroscopic procession.
[40:49.800 --> 40:51.600]  You need to test your robot a lot.
[40:52.300 --> 40:53.480]  Be able to self-write.
[40:54.820 --> 40:55.880]  Robots will flip you over.
[40:56.000 --> 40:56.940]  You'll flip yourself over.
[40:57.100 --> 40:58.420]  It's surprisingly easy to do.
[40:58.420 --> 41:04.320]  And the counterpart to being able to self-write your robot is you also have to know how to drive backwards when you do flip over.
[41:04.540 --> 41:06.980]  Because left is right, and right is left, and forward is backward, and backward is forward.
[41:07.120 --> 41:09.400]  And you get so confused, and you're like, I've never driven it before.
[41:09.500 --> 41:09.840]  What do I do?
[41:12.620 --> 41:13.440]  Simulate being attacked.
[41:13.920 --> 41:20.400]  A lot of people build their robot, and the first hit against the robot totally takes out the robot.
[41:20.400 --> 41:21.080]  So when I...
[41:21.080 --> 41:30.620]  Nish Kishwa, who used to... who built robots for BattleBots, and who has been a really great and amazing builder, used to test his finished robots by driving it off the roof of his garage.
[41:31.340 --> 41:36.520]  You'd drive it off the roof, it would land, and if he could not operate the robot after that, he had to make it better.
[41:36.760 --> 41:37.560]  It wasn't good enough yet.
[41:37.600 --> 41:39.840]  I know we're down probably about eight minutes, so we'll burn through this.
[41:40.420 --> 41:41.480]  Have a weapon system.
[41:41.760 --> 41:42.880]  I mean, it sounds self-explanatory.
[41:43.260 --> 41:45.480]  And there are wedge bots that have no weapons.
[41:46.880 --> 41:47.680]  Simulate attacking.
[41:48.060 --> 41:55.840]  I mean, a lot of these robots, when their weapons start spinning up or whatever, the second they touch anything, they fall apart because they're so poorly built.
[41:55.940 --> 42:01.380]  They spin fine in the garage, but again, you know, 50% of that force is going to go backwards into the robot.
[42:02.760 --> 42:03.560]  Watch matches.
[42:03.900 --> 42:04.720]  Use good batteries.
[42:05.320 --> 42:11.240]  A lot of robots, newbies, will die because they just don't bring enough batteries, and the batteries burn out.
[42:12.820 --> 42:14.500]  Don't let the judges decide the matches for you.
[42:14.600 --> 42:15.220]  It's just like boxing.
[42:15.340 --> 42:16.260]  If you get a knockout, you win.
[42:16.700 --> 42:20.060]  If you have to go all 12 rounds, then the judges decide.
[42:20.640 --> 42:21.320]  And read the rules.
[42:21.500 --> 42:24.760]  I mean, we get people who show up all the time with stupid shit, and it's like, you can't do that.
[42:26.860 --> 42:29.720]  So the Combots Cup is coming up October 20th and 21st.
[42:29.880 --> 42:30.940]  That is actually the trophy.
[42:31.140 --> 42:32.340]  It's modeled after...
[42:32.860 --> 42:41.440]  Well, the trophy itself is modeled after the Lady in the Lake, but the design is modeled after the hockey trophy.
[42:42.000 --> 42:45.080]  So that below that trophy, there's actually a nut, which is not shown in this photo.
[42:45.500 --> 42:51.120]  And then we etch in, laser etch the winning robots photograph and the winning team every year.
[42:51.280 --> 42:55.300]  So we're actually now up to Combots Cup 7, and so we actually have to get a second nut.
[42:55.300 --> 42:58.680]  So it's just like the Stanley Cup.
[42:59.080 --> 43:01.600]  And then RoboGames will be in April of 2013.
[43:02.980 --> 43:09.280]  If you like combat, but you don't want fighting robots, this is an example of the Mech Wars.
[43:09.680 --> 43:14.140]  You teleoperate these robots, except you're not allowed to look at the field like regular combat.
[43:15.560 --> 43:18.280]  And special effects friends of ours have actually built the field.
[43:18.440 --> 43:22.380]  So those are real movie quality SF buildings.
[43:22.380 --> 43:25.100]  And then basically you shoot the other guy with BB guns.
[43:27.380 --> 43:29.540]  These are some of the other events that we do at RoboGames.
[43:29.740 --> 43:33.700]  There's robot soccer, sumo, firefighting, et cetera.
[43:35.580 --> 43:40.500]  This is one of my best friends who gave us all the money to do this and sadly just passed away.
[43:41.320 --> 43:44.340]  And he'd be really annoyed that I just did that, by the way, which is why I did it.
[43:44.360 --> 43:45.040]  Microsoft engineer.
[43:46.000 --> 43:48.540]  And now, we're kind of short for time, so questions?
[43:51.380 --> 43:53.300]  Actually, if you have questions, please come up to the...
[43:53.300 --> 43:54.780]  Yeah, there's a microphone right back there.
[43:54.800 --> 43:55.800]  We need your walkie mic back.
[43:55.820 --> 43:56.040]  Okay.
[43:56.700 --> 43:57.160]  Walkie, walkie.
[43:57.360 --> 43:58.020]  Walkie, walkie.
[44:02.860 --> 44:03.260]  Hi.
[44:04.100 --> 44:05.120]  Close to six minutes.
[44:05.280 --> 44:06.440]  There are more than six people here.
[44:06.800 --> 44:06.860]  Cool.
[44:06.860 --> 44:07.080]  Neat.
[44:07.760 --> 44:08.020]  All right.
[44:08.980 --> 44:09.380]  Good.
[44:18.050 --> 44:18.450]  Hello?
[44:18.870 --> 44:19.070]  Okay.
[44:19.850 --> 44:26.430]  If any technology which was developed in the global world have been applied to any other area other than the game?
[44:26.430 --> 44:34.650]  Several of the builders are now professional roboticists where they started out just building competing robots.
[44:35.550 --> 44:43.130]  One of the guys, Justin, I know he now builds bomb robots for police departments and things like that.
[44:43.210 --> 44:45.030]  And he's done very well for himself.
[44:46.290 --> 44:57.230]  Turning basically an old $1,500 robot kit, and now he sells them to bomb disposal guys for tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[44:58.410 --> 45:03.010]  In terms of specifics, I can't cite any, but that doesn't mean that they don't happen.
[45:03.050 --> 45:04.270]  It just means that I don't know about them.
[45:04.390 --> 45:05.810]  We turn out a lot of engineers.
[45:05.810 --> 45:07.930]  For example, I mentioned 4SDA in the beginning.
[45:07.950 --> 45:10.850]  He's going into engineering school because he's been doing this since he was 11.
[45:11.270 --> 45:11.530]  Okay.
[45:11.830 --> 45:12.470]  A quick question.
[45:12.650 --> 45:18.790]  So how many, like, percentage of these people are actually, you know, turned into or start at the beginning as a professional?
[45:20.850 --> 45:22.530]  Maybe 20% tops, actually.
[45:23.410 --> 45:25.790]  It's really a cross-segment of the population.
[45:26.030 --> 45:32.410]  That some of them are professional engineers, but there are, if anything, the number one common denominator is artists.
[45:32.690 --> 45:35.250]  We see more artists who build robots than anything else.
[45:35.930 --> 45:37.590]  Artists and theater people, curiously.
[45:37.590 --> 45:38.130]  Yeah, artists and theater people.
[45:38.410 --> 45:40.970]  And then they come out the other end also being engineers, so...
[45:40.970 --> 45:45.790]  So then another 20% is engineers, and then the remaining 60% is whatever.
[45:46.790 --> 45:51.530]  Dentists, literally my internal medicine doctor, Jim Yeh, he's a competitor.
[45:52.830 --> 45:53.830]  All right, next question.
[45:54.410 --> 46:03.570]  Yeah, since a lot of things seem to be going this way as well, is there any competitions or any thoughts of steering competition towards anything like autonomous?
[46:04.150 --> 46:05.470]  There is an autonomous division.
[46:05.610 --> 46:07.470]  You're totally allowed to compete with autonomous robots.
[46:07.770 --> 46:16.010]  We have specific autonomous weight classes which mirror the regular weight classes for 1 and 30, where it's only autonomous robot versus autonomous robot.
[46:17.250 --> 46:20.370]  The rules allow for autonomous robots in every weight class.
[46:20.590 --> 46:23.810]  The problem is, is that it is a very imperfect environment.
[46:24.030 --> 46:30.070]  So, for instance, the sumo robots that we do at RoboGames is all autonomous, but it's a perfect environment.
[46:30.230 --> 46:42.670]  Which is to say, it's a five foot black field with a one inch white ring around it, and the robots are programmed to only really accept the fact that there is one other robot in the field of play, and the field of play, and there's nothing else in existence.
[46:43.050 --> 46:54.450]  In the case of something like large scale combat, the amount... the number of variables in terms of the walls, the floor, the bumpers, weird shit that just broke off of the other robot.
[46:55.290 --> 47:01.470]  It's... I've never seen anybody be able to successfully work autonom... develop code that can work autonomously.
[47:01.790 --> 47:07.970]  There have been semi-autonomous weapons, where there'd be a sonar sensor or what have you on the front, and then that would actuate the weapon.
[47:08.090 --> 47:09.370]  But those are terrifying.
[47:10.670 --> 47:17.870]  Within RoboGames on the non-combat side, probably 60 or 70% of the events are autonomous, not remote control.
[47:19.150 --> 47:19.610]  So...
[47:19.610 --> 47:20.290]  Okay.
[47:21.230 --> 47:29.150]  Is there any particular, I guess, humorous robot entries that you just can't believe that somebody thought that would be a good idea?
[47:29.470 --> 47:29.930]  We have...
[47:29.930 --> 47:34.090]  So we have five robot... five art bot categories, all of which tend to be humorous.
[47:34.250 --> 47:41.510]  The best combat robot was somebody... Chewie, who built the count that you saw there, also built Snoopy's doghouse.
[47:41.750 --> 47:45.870]  And Snoopy was on top of it, and then there was a flamethrower coming out of the bottom.
[47:45.870 --> 47:48.190]  It lost the match, but it won the audience.
[47:49.950 --> 47:56.310]  And do you guys remember, way back in the day, there was a Super Bowl commercial that had, like, big snarling...
[47:56.310 --> 48:01.250]  It was like a Bud Light commercial, big snarling machine of death against a teeny little mini fridge?
[48:01.670 --> 48:02.250]  Remember that one?
[48:02.410 --> 48:03.870]  And then mini fridge opened up, and it was a Bud Light.
[48:03.890 --> 48:06.170]  It was like a giant... yeah, it was a Bud Light, and it was a giant hammer.
[48:06.290 --> 48:06.430]  It was great.
[48:06.630 --> 48:07.810]  Somebody actually built mini fridge.
[48:07.890 --> 48:08.110]  It was great.
[48:09.170 --> 48:09.490]  Question.
[48:09.710 --> 48:09.910]  Go ahead.
[48:10.190 --> 48:14.670]  What's the most ridiculous weapon you've seen someone come with on their robot?
[48:14.670 --> 48:16.370]  What is the most ridiculous weapon?
[48:16.630 --> 48:19.630]  Ridiculous in terms of potential or in terms of...
[48:19.630 --> 48:23.050]  I'll give you the most ridiculous in terms of implementation rather than potential.
[48:23.850 --> 48:35.130]  So the robot that we showed you before with the ShuffleBot, and you can see three bars hanging down from it, was one of the only two times in the history of the sport where a rookie came in, and their first ever competition won first place.
[48:35.530 --> 48:38.390]  So next year, everybody copies the concept of that robot.
[48:38.390 --> 48:39.630]  And so basically...
[48:39.630 --> 48:40.930]  We call them cargo cult robots.
[48:41.030 --> 48:47.250]  So if you guys know the term cargo cult, it's from, you know, the people in the Pacific who put coconuts on their head and try and wave down planes, and the planes wouldn't come.
[48:48.830 --> 48:56.950]  And so I saw one guy build a bar spinner like that with a 30-second-inch cotter pin connecting the bar spinner to his drive shaft.
[48:57.530 --> 48:59.450]  And I asked him, like, have you ever spun this up?
[48:59.490 --> 49:00.990]  He's like, well, no, it's very dangerous.
[49:01.190 --> 49:04.030]  I'm like, I understand that, but you do realize it's gonna break, right?
[49:04.030 --> 49:05.110]  He's like, no, it'll be fine.
[49:05.830 --> 49:06.390]  Spins it up.
[49:06.510 --> 49:07.150]  First time...
[49:08.370 --> 49:09.730]  He doesn't even hit the other guy.
[49:10.030 --> 49:17.130]  And just the forces of the bars spinning around shear the cotter pin, and it just lifts off of the body like a helicopter.
[49:17.270 --> 49:19.290]  Comes up, comes back down, smashes it into the floor.
[49:19.390 --> 49:21.370]  Doesn't do any, you know, real damage to the arena or anybody else.
[49:21.490 --> 49:23.390]  But it's like, dude, it's a cotter pin.
[49:23.490 --> 49:24.030]  Nice wedge.
[49:26.370 --> 49:27.170]  Any other questions?
[49:29.550 --> 49:29.970]  All right.
[49:30.290 --> 49:30.890]  Thanks very much.
[50:17.800 --> 50:19.700]  All right?
[50:20.740 --> 50:36.420]  All right?