Saturday, May 23, 2015

THE 2015 ROBBY THE ROBOT


Doesn't look like he's got much personality, does he?

You might be surprised. Good old #3577 was a contestant in the first-ever Arizona Robotics State Tournament, which was being held today (Saturday) at the Prescott Valley Events Center.


And it's only the second state, after Minnesota, to have such an event.


Students from all over the state came to participate in the inaugural competition.


The budding young engineers of tomorrow found out about the event in January and have been building their robots and honing their skills ever since.


Some 30 teams were competing in the team challenge.


Once the games got underway, the operators controlled their robots from behind glass screens in a game called Recycle Rush, in which they were tasked to stack various containers atop each other and try to place pool noodles in holes in the tops. Even for robots, it's a tiring process.


So without further ado, the games got underway!


And let's hope no disparaging comments were heard from the robots, ala the computerized voice of Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

7 comments:

  1. With hip replacements and other things. Seems like we are the modern robots.

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  2. Hmm - I wonder what the difference is between this championship & the one that one of my blog friends went to in April (http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/first-championship). Her husband coaches a robotic team in Indiana & they compete every year, although this was the first year that they made it to this national competition. It's all pretty cool to me!

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    1. I don't know. The one here is sanctioned by state Interscholastic Association. Maybe that's the difference.

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  3. Looks interesting. So much going on this weekend.
    By the way, the dog you asked about was not a service dog. He was a biker dog.

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  4. Cool. A sign of the future. I saw the flick Ex Machina which is the newest wrinkle in robotics and AI

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  5. How fun!
    Have you perhaps read "SPARE PARTS" by Joshua Davis? I did not but it could be something for the ones interested in the subject.

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  6. Two of our local high schools recently sent a team to Japan for the World Robotics Championship. How about you invite an Australian team next time?

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