It's hard to believe it's already been three weeks since that glorious day of cutthroat robot competition we call AVC. If you were at SparkFun HQ for the festivities, you probably saw at least a few SparkFunions wandering the courses armed with video cameras (so if you didn't make it out to see the races, don't despair). Here's what they were up to:
We are so grateful to everyone who came out to compete, and to the 1300 (!) amazing people, families, vendors, teammates and curious onlookers who came out to see the madness. We can't wait to start planning a bigger and better AVC 2016!
Many competitors met their match/end on the Discombobulator, our incredibly dangerous new obstacle course addition.
We also wanted to call out all our winners - building an autonomous vehicle or a combat bot is harder than it looks, and it's surprisingly challenging to have everything go right the day-of. And with a new course location and a whole slew of new events (Combat Bots! Emporium! Workshops! Oh my!), it's even more impressive that everyone was able to focus and bring their very best. A bevy of high fives to the following champions!
Ground Course
- Micro/PBR - Auton
- Doping - Minuteman
- Non-Traditional Locomotion - Quixote
- Peloton - Roadrunner
- Student - Rosy the Robot
Combat Bots
1LB Winners (Double-elimination brackets)
- DZ
- Hopefull Narwall
- Physique Red
3LB Winners (Round Robin-style brackets)
- Project Darkness
- Wicked Kitty
- Speed Wedge
Firey destruction in the Combat Bot arena
You can see all of the ground competition scores here, and the combat bot tournament brackets are available here (beetleweight) and here (antweight). And if you need EVEN MORE AVC MEMORIES, check out all the photos of the event here! We'll see you next year!
Woo, we got some hovercraft love in the video! Thanks for an awesome event, as always. We will be back with an updated design in 2016!!
Also, yeah, Member #144544 is right, there's something up with your Youtube account currently.
Twas but a glitch in the Matrix. We are back up now, Thanks!
Um. Guys, it appears your YouTube account was just closed. Hacks, or...? What's up?
Interesting, and terrible. We're looking into it.
Aaand we're back!
Why not put pictures of the winners and their bots next to the list of winners?
Sorry. I can't read. I just saw the link for scores.
Can you list the points scored by the winners? I want to know what my target is for next year.
This was my first AVC after being thwarted in previous years by travel. Overall I had a positive experience with the event. However, if you'll indulge me, I have two suggestions: 1. Do whatever it takes to bring back the air vehicles! Without this, the even is seriously limited. I, and I suspect, many people in your target audience, would sign whatever paperwork you shoved in front of me saying I would in no way hold your company responsible for any injury incurred. There has to be a private lake/area that would gladly host this event. 2. The robot fighting was really cool... if you could force your way in to see it. Please, please, please, put up some displays so people can see what's going on without being forced to be within 20 ft. of the cage... (cough) some of these people don't shower regularly! (cough).
Barring work or family obligations, I will be there next year regardless of whether my suggestions have been implemented. I think SparkFun is an amazing local company and will continue to support them whenever possible.
Thanks for reading! Mark Sleeper
Any tutorials, blogs, or similar that go over an AVC design? I would like to see the various methods used for navigation, processors preferences, GPS vs. compass vs. ???
They aren't tutorials per se, but you can see some of the parts entrants have used in past years here and here.
Thanks, I'll have a look!
This AVC Fest Gave You Lots of Fun to You. Great Robo Cars to See.
WOOT!
Thank you for sharing the pictures. It was fun to look through and see if my family and I were in any (and we were. the battle bot picture with the "oh my gosh" faces). We look forward to next year and my son (8yr old with the robot muscle shirt) wants to try and build a bot for next year :)