Way back in June (bye, bye summertime), we announced a brand new competition called Antimov. Basically, it is a robotics competition that is designed to be completely atypical. We want you to violate Isaac Asimov's "Rules of Robotics" (except the hurting people one...none of that, please). We're looking for robots that attempt a task in a very inefficient way and then destroy themselves in a blaze of glory.
A lot of you might be thinking, "Why would I waste time building a robot that will destroy itself?" That's a good question and I think we have the answer. First off, this is a great engineering challenge. Obviously, you can only test your robot to a certain extent, so you have a limited number of "attempts" to get it right. We also wanted to have a competition that is completely outside the box from line-following, maze-type events. Also, this is going to be incredibly entertaining for everyone involved. Oh, and one last reason to participate - cold, hard cash.
The prize structure is as follows - minimum $1000 cash prize for the winning live performance day of the competition. Not only that, but with each entry, we'll add $100 dollars to the pot, meaning if all 25 entries are claimed, the prize will be $3500. We're also setting a minimum $500 cash prize for the winning video entry. With each video entry, we'll add $50 to the pot, with a cap of $2500 (40 entrants). After 40 entrants, videos will still be accepted but the prize will not grow any larger. So yeah, that's a whole lotta cheddar.
This is going to be an awesome competition and we want to encourage everyone to participate (or at least come watch). SparkFun is going to have several representatives with robots and we can't wait to see what you guys and gals come up with! Go to the Antimov product page to sign up. See you out there!
Sadly I cannot go, and my mechanical skills are too weak to consider entering. But I would happily give you my money for that first graphic on a t-shirt.
I'm with Pokey, I would gladly pay top dollar for a tee-shirt with the good, er, evil Dr.'s likeness. Kudos to the graphic designer, it's a beaut!
When I originally saw the contest, I thought it was an awesome idea. I started looking how much it would cost, and decided it would be a great thing to watch. The next day, my daughter sees the flaming teddy bear on the home page and we spend an hour making jokes about killer robotic bears and laughing so hard there were tears running down her face and I can't stand up straight. That sold me. We HAD to enter.
I've raided all my old parts boxes, every thrift store in town, and the neighbor's recycling bin. You really think about things differently when you know the end result is a big fireball.
Oh yeah, it's on!
Good call. I think a lot of people are REALLY missing the point. Get to a thrift store, recycling center, etc. It doesn't have to look nice. In fact, the worse it looks the better! This is more about creativity than who can drop the most money into a precise mechanical instrument.
working on it .... greetings from Colombia :D
that flyer is beautiful!
I was hoping to have time to build a system for the competition with some friends but we ran out of time. Maybe next year we will enter.
I think I'll start working on next year's competition.
I have a few ideas, but haven't had much time to work on it yet. But I will at least come up with something that breaks well :-)
I've got a feeling a lot of people are going to take that stance. I think a lot of the people that talked it up in the beginning have figured out that it's more work and commitment than thought initially, myself included. But we do, in fact, have entries in positive numbers. And one write up that I've read for one of them is truly impressive. We've put money on the table, and dude's coming to throw down.
The the House of SparkFun will, of course, represent. I've just got to find a more interesting incendiary...