Well the Antimov has come and gone! We have to say, it was a pretty awesome time! We had 100+ spectators come out for an amazing day of robotics in the Boulder sunshine!
The competition started with a splash, as SparkFun's own Dia told the epic tale of her robot's (mis)adventures on the high seas. After setting a high bar, the competition only got better as pumpkins were smashed, legos were obliterated, and friendly ghosts were beaten to pieces by gangs of excited children (see pic above).
First place in the video category was Dennis Brunner and his Teddy Bear Birthday party. The robot is attempting to cut the birthday cake - and then things go horribly, horribly wrong. Awesome work!
Taking home first place in the live demonstration was the outstanding duo of Rebecca and Brian Brunner. You can check out their project in the above video! I think they got high marks in the "utter destruction" category!
Overall, we were psyched at how the competition unfolded, but we have to admit that we think this is only the tip of the iceberg! It was great to see so many of you out there and we hope you enjoyed the competition as much as we did!
While we'd certainly love to attend the competition, I doubt we will be able to make the trip.
However I am going to throw an idea that may spark some enthusiasm around the planet: Would you open a category allowing to send self destructible "antimov-lings" to the Sparkfun team to operate on the day of the competition?
Indeed teams entering this category would have to find a way to operate the destruction without using anything prohibited by our favorite shipping companies...
A word from you and we will start working at it tomorrow! ;-)
Thanks again Sparkfun for another glorious competition! A good time was had by all, and it was great to see kids not only compete, but win. Rebecca was priceless when she saw how much she and Brian had won. Also good to see Casey deal with an electronic issue in a decidedly mech engineer fashion - the overhead shovel blow!
Congrats to all, and I look forward to not just watching, but participating next year. Let's hope there's no fire ban next year!
Great... Now you've done it. The first real pinpointable attack on the robots. Now, they will have no choice but to retaliate. I've seen the "Animatrix" I know what I am talking about man!
Looks like crazy fun guys. Wish there would be something like this on the east coast. I would love to see more vids if you have them.
I have to agree with sgrace. It was a great competition and incredibly hard to get stuff to fail on cue. Brian worked for a week to figure out the perfect way to connect his Legos so they would shatter on impact yet stay together long enough to saw through a 3/8" thick rope holding up a 40 bound bag of sand.
For my video, several of the cheap Chinese servos in the bear and clown failed prematurely, the bear was WAY too flammable, and either several igniters failed to go off or some of my connecting fuses didn't work. (That's why there were fireworks going off at the end of the burn.) The end result was still pretty spectacular though.
agreed. I didn't even realize that my pinata would be that stong. It took a lot to kill it.
Naa, You just needed better weapons!
Very true. I ended it with a steel pipe, but I wasn't going to have the kids swinging that around...
Dang it! We're having a rocketry version of this in the spring, and having kids smash my rocket in exchange for free candy was the idea I was planning to use. I guess "GMTA", but I was hoping to spring it from completely out of the blue.
This is a great competition for engineering students. It's basically a case study on how to make something fail and how hard it is to get to do it!
I recommend encouraging anyone in college who is engineering (doesn't matter the discipline) and do this! It'll teach you so much!
It was great! thanks to everyone at Sparkfun for providing yet another quality diversion.way to go Rebecca and Brian, we can't wait till next year.