Vancouver Area Robot Combat

Well good ideas are contagious, flaming fighter bots are the cover of this quarter’s Make magazine!

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Dragon Princess (the flame bot) nice to see Norwalk Havoc getting some more recognition. They’re doing a great job of mainstreaming Robot Combat. If anyone is interested, the highlights of the May Norwalk event are up on youtube.

I have to say they keep getting better every event. Pretty soon they’ll be overtaking BattleBots for premier robot combat show. May is an especially fun event there because they only accept new bots in the Beetleweight category so lots of new builders, lots of experimental builds.

If anyone wants to see the fight the above pic is from, I believe it’s this one. Also, fun fact, the driver of Dragon Princess is a 9 year old girl, and it finished second in it’s weight class at that event.

Anything happening with Robot Combat in Vancouver?

Things are still on track, though it looks like it will be just antweight bots in the beginning. An ant arena goes for around $2,000, whereas a beetle arena costs 6-8k and that’s too rich for my blood.

So the plan is to build the Ant arena, hold a few events with either a $20 entry fee, split the fees between paying off the arena/saving for a second arena and prizes for various categories (trophies, tools, gift certificates at relevant shops etc.) If we get consistently good numbers at events it should mean we can build a second arena by next summer or so.

I’m still figuring out where I’m going to build it, but it will get done. Jarrett has kindly offered some space at VHS, so I’ll have to work out some details with him, I really want the event to be open to the public, and I’m not sure if VHS is okay with that. I also need 3-5 volunteers to help with running the event.

I guess I might as well ask a few questions here, Jarrett.
Is there enough floor/bench space for an arena, 20-50 spectators, and at least about 3 square feet of bench space for each participant, hopefully with power (planning for 12-20 entries, I’ll probably be bringing three myself)?
I don’t know how workshops at VHS work, but is there a chance for me to go there some evening to talk with interested builders, run a workshop on how to put a bot together, and perhaps a follow-up session where they can bring their bots and test them safely in the box (the test session could be the night before, but I think it might be fun to have some impromptu matches a week or so before an event so everyone can get the kinks worked out)?

Also, for everyone here, how many of you are planning to bring bots (and how many bots are you planning to bring)? If you’ve got friends who aren’t on here but are planning to build a bot, can I get those numbers too?

Thanks!

I’d strongly recommend you come by for an open house and evaluate these answers for yourself.

That sounds very plausible, here is an old thread that gives some hints on how it works:

Anyone interested in getting together with other local builders to chat about building up Vancouver Area Robot Combat, whether you want to build a bot or are interested in helping out as a volunteer, we will be meeting on Zoom later this week. Looks like meeting at around 4:00 between Wednesday and Saturday works best for some people. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll forward you the Zoom link. I’ll also post it here once we have it sorted out.

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I could do 4 on Wednesday.

Great! If you want to sign up for the mailing list, you can use the link on the Varc.tech website or e-mail me at Mark@VARC.tech so you can be sure to stay in the loop. I just sent out an e-mail to the others, suggesting Wednesday for the meeting and I’ll let you know when I’ve heard back and got the zoom link set up.

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