M
y first experience with combat
robotics ended exactly as I expected:
in complete destruction.
It was 2016. A friend of mine, Leanne Cushing,
competes on BattleBots, and she suggested
I join her for a combat robotics competition
in Massachusetts. Not knowing much of
anything about robots in general, or combat
robots specifically, I built two bots and was
unceremoniously crushed in the competition. It
was totally and completely awesome.
I knew from that moment that I enjoyed the
sport. The challenge and the fact that you are
competing with something you build and design
is just really unique. As a builder, however, I had
this feeling that there was something missing.
The event I’d been at felt like it was poorly paced,
making for a long day without enough action to
keep competitors engaged.
THE CAGE IS THE STAGE
Fast-forward to 2018. I had just sold Datto, the
company I founded in 2007, and trust me when
I say I’m not the kind of guy who can sit still for
long —I was itching to build something. Anything.
I knew I had the operational background of
bringing order to chaos in running a company, so
I decided to try to put on a combat robot
event of my own. I bought an 8'×8' cage from a
group associated with the New York City Maker
Faire, and posted a message to a few corners
of the internet inviting people to come fight
robots with me at an office building that I own in
Norwalk, Connecticut.
To my surprise, it actually worked. In
September of 2018, 17 people showed up to stand
around a little cage on the third floor of an office
building to fight robots. That was our first event.
We made a “house bot” out of a cinder block,
and livestreamed fights to YouTube. I was the
producer, announcer, and video switcher, and
spent the day just trying to keep up. It was a blast.
We held a few more events in 2019. In the
beginning, the competitors were mostly from
the northeastern U.S., but soon people started
coming from farther away. We started seeing
30 or 40 robots show up at each event. At each
successive event, the flow of matches went faster
and faster, because I wanted to make them really
Adoboe Stock - eakgaraj
I KNEW I HAD THE OPERATIONAL
BACKGROUND OF BRINGING ORDER
TO CHAOS IN RUNNING A COMPANY,
SO I DECIDED TO TRY TO PUT ON A
COMBAT ROBOT EVENT OF MY OWN.
35
make.co
Jon C R Bennett / JCRBPhoto, Austin McChord
Original control room and cage in 2018.
Original home at 50 Day Street, 2018.
M81_034-39_SS_NorwalkHavoc_F1.indd 35M81_034-39_SS_NorwalkHavoc_F1.indd 35 4/12/22 1:49 PM4/12/22 1:49 PM
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.