Vancouver Robot Fighting League

Hey there Vancouver area makers, builders, and robot fighting enthusiasts!

I’m looking into starting a mini robot fighting league in Vancouver. Fingertech Robotics in Canada has plenty of good cheap parts for 1-3lb robots. Check them out, I’m not able to post a link here. Some are full kits for under $200, custom designs may require a few more bucks. Interested in making a small bot to compete with? Maybe you want to volunteer for organizing and administrative work? We could easily make a mini battle box or two for cheap when all the pandemic plexiglass comes down in restaurants.

I’d like to work our way up to full 250lb robots one day, but starting out with smaller ones will be more affordable. It’ll attract more bot builders, it’ll be easy to keep things safe, and it’ll be free advertising for any small businesses the bot builders may own.

Feel free to email Joe at joseph.musters@alumni.ubc.ca about this. I bet we can find 8 bot builders and some plexiglass. It won’t take much to pull off a small tournament to start things off.

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Just gave you link posting permission

I’ve been vaguely wanting something like this for a long time. Including running some sort of workshop, but my time has been tight!

Here is my (intentionally hacky and unintimidating) example:

image

I’ll be watching this, but I don’t quuiiite have an open enough schedule yet to do much work on it

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You have to love a robot shop that has a weapons section…

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This looks pretty sweet! Maybe we could have an ultra-lightweight category, and/or an under $20 category.

I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment too. I figure I’ll just make a few categories, and gradually fill up the tournament slots from now until late summer. Then bot makers have time to tinker without dedicating a large portion of their schedule for a week or two.

Anyone have any category suggestions?

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I am not sure what the rules for this one is, but it looks like a lot of fun.

It looks automatized rather than remote controlled, I am not sure what the feedback system is like, But I like the simplicity of the robot design. I think this is a good place to start, furthermore, we can connect up with the Japan group for some cross cultural stuff. It will be a good time.

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This is very different from North American robot fighting. Very cool! So fast. I wish that they weren’t mostly just wedges in pushing matches, but what does look like automation and high speed provide elements we don’t normally see over here. Their tactics are a bit different too, as is the arena. Sumo bots, I think these are called.

I would love to collaborate with some folks from Japan on this! Wouldn’t it be cool to have international travellers come out to compete, too?

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Here is a good link robot sumo rules. I like it because it is cheaper to start and have the venues is a lot easier to construct. You would not need to build a bullet proof box every time you want to hold an event. There is less chance of flying debris. The limitation on size and weight also creates interesting strategy options creates interesting challenges for automation and computer vision.

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Thank you for the posting permission, by the way. I’m new to this VHS dealey. I like it already.

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For sure, it looks much easier to get Sumo bots going on. Personally though, I most of my robot fighting-watching satisfaction from seeing bots taking each other apart, lighting them on fire, etc. That and of course watching the nerd rage associated with losing AND losing bots being torn apart at the same time. I know it’ll be me one day so it makes it even more fun.

That said, I bet there would be plenty of interest in robot sumo as well here in Vancouver!

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Likewise I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a long time. It’s always quite a way down on the hobby list though. I’d likely be interested in participating.

A very long time ago (11 years!!) we ran a different kind of robot “fighting” competition at VHS once - capture the flag. The flag was an IR beacon that the autonomyous robots had to navigate towards and capture (which changed the IR code to indicate the change of ownership), and it was deliberately left wide open to interpretation of how to capture the flag, keep it captured, and stop other teams from capturing it themselves. It was really fun, not at all dangerous (one of the few rules). beacon/RULES.txt at master · vhs/beacon · GitHub

I still laugh thinking about @SDY’s tactic… :grin:

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Robot fighting league sounds really fun! In fact, I was thinking it’d be cool to do some kind of robot competition if we ever manage to have in-person events again :frowning:

At one time we thought about trying to get a SumoBot thing going…
I actually made up a fighting ring (4 foot diameter MDF circle painted black) but not sure where it ended up…
I have a Solarbotics mini-sumo (Solarbotics Sumovore Mini-Sumo - Solarbotics Ltd.)…

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