Waymo Battles Robots Again
Waymo battles robots again after building in a competition! Five teams of five to six people each, normally used to letting machines do the driving, took control of the robots and manually steered them into battle.
We met at their spectacular campus in Mountain View and quickly set-up the tables to accommodate five teams along with a table for our tools, extra materials, and sample built robot. We left a large area of about 20 feet x 20 feet in the middle of the arena to more closely simulate a battle arena.
The teams were predictably good considering they build robotics for a living. The winning build team, pictured here, finished in a notable time of 31:50 (thirty one minutes and fifty seconds) – placing them 43rd Place All-Time!
The battles were great with several new designs introduced tot he pantheon of Robot Build and Battle 1 builds. This included the Scorpion – which featured an attack “tail” mounted to the back of the robot with a single screw fastener to allow for a swinging motion reminiscent of an actual scorpion! This marked the first time we have seen an attack arm mounted the back of the robot! The results were mixed, but one feature was that it stopped all direct front attack flips from occurring. The arm acted as a brace to support the robot and keep it from flipping.
Another new invention was “shorty” – a purposely shorter arm for added speed and quick reaction time. This invention had better than expected results with one small down side of making the robot easier to flip. The team did well in the battles so all in all a good model to bank on.
There was also returns of the “under-carriage” and “jousting” models to make for many unique battle encounters!
A huge thank you to Waymo for exhilarating designs and festive battles!!!
