At this year’s 2013 DIY Festival, Craft Lake City will be holding a Sumobot Tournament as part of the DIY Engineers area, giving electronic and robotics artisans a chance to compete for prizes and test their technological skills with handcrafted robots. The tournament will be conducted sumo-style, where two opposing bots (some remote controlled by their creators, and other autonomously running in the ring themselves) will fight to push each other out of the ring.
The competition will consist of three classes of bots: Humanoid, Lego and Mini, each with their own size and weight restrictions. This will give builders and experimenters a both a chance to show off their creative skills as well as an opportunity to overcome mechanical restrictions and challenges. In order to help make the tournament fair and competitive, Craft Lake City has partnered with engineer Peter Reed and robotic builder Michael Anderson, who will both be overseeing the rules, submissions and gameplay throughout the festival.
“A sumobot is an excellent robot to start with if you’re looking for a way to get into hobby robotics,” says Anderson. “Building one provides an opportunity to gain a basic blend of mechanical, electrical and programming skills. They’re easy to build due to their simplicity and the fact that there are several kits and tutorials available for beginners. Of course, if you’re a more experienced maker, you can increase the challenge by designing and building your own from scratch. The fact that Craft Lake is willing to host this sort of competition shows that they are willing to expand their niche to cater to the engineering crowd and bring attention to a different sort of craft.”
The event will award prizes to the top three bots in every class, as well as raffle prizes and juried awards during the competition. For a complete set of rules, classes of bots, specifications, registration and more, visit the link below.
http://craftlakecity.com/diy-festival/sumo-bot-competition/
