like a human muscle or joint, as well as take all
the input from the sensors to control how the
robot reacts to its environment.
L
BODY: Here’s where things get crazy. I’ve seen
robots built from literal scrap metal to custom
CNC’d titanium shells costing $20,000. Obviously
if you’re competing in large-scale combat you
want something that’s made of metal, while a
500g sumo robot is best made from plastic.
RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES: Robot batteries
are usually lithium-based and come in either a
C-cell shape or custom flatpacks. Good batteries
are both expensive and dangerous (look up
“lithium battery fires” on YouTube). You can get
quality rechargeable packs from $50 on up,
depending on how big your robot is. They’re
measured in both amp-hour charge (how long
they’ll last) as well as how fast they can be
discharged. Beware: Draining a lithium battery
too quickly is how fires start.
BATTERY CHARGER: Chargers are usually sold
separately from their power supplies, so this is a
two-fold purchase. Never buy a cheap charger —
it’ll ruin your batteries and you’ll be out a lot
of money.
WHERE TO BEGIN?
If you’ve never built a robot before, regardless of
what you’re into, my suggestion is to start with a
kit. Why? Because you probably don’t have all the
tools needed to build something right away, and
mistakes in robotics can be expensive.
Category-wise, there are three directions I
recommend you take as a starter:
• COMBAT: Start small. I suggest beginning with
a 3lb robot. You can get a kit for around $150.
Add on two battery packs, a battery charger,
and a transmitter and you’re at about $400.
(Also see “Combat Kitbots” on page 40.)
• SUMO: You can get a decent 500g (2lb) mini-
sumo kit for around $100. If you want to learn
to program robots around sensors, this is the
best way to start. You’ll learn about controlling
speed, vision sensors, and programming for a
real environment.
• HUMANOID: Because of the number of servos
involved, humanoids start at around $1,000
and go up from there.
• HOCKEY: OK, a fourth option. If you’re hell-
bent on building your own robots, I’d suggest
starting with a trio of hockey robots. Use
battery packs and gearmotors from cheap
drills, cut a frame from polycarbonate with a
handsaw, pop in some scooter wheels, and
then throw in an ESC and transmitter, and
you’ve got yourself a hockey team.
The final factor in competing isn’t so much what
you build as where you live. Like many sports, you
want to play against someone! To really compete
in robot sports, you need to live near a bunch of
people who also want to compete, and you need
an arena (See “Cage Match” on page 54).
Either that or travel to a robot event. There are
more of them popping up all over the world all the
time, so really it’s just a matter of Googling your
city and “robot events” and working from there.
The best way to start is to just sign up for an
event to give yourself a deadline. This will help to
ensure that you don’t leave your robot unfinished.
If you’re looking to compete, a good place to start
is RobotCombatEvents.com which lists events all
over the world.
Later this year, RoboGames will be returning
and featuring all of the above mentioned
events. You can find more information at
robogames.net, including rules, photos, and help
to get you started. Go out there and have fun!
THE FUTURE
Since I started in robot sports, I’ve always felt that
robots were the future of sports. If you compare
robots to the UFC, for example, robots heal much
faster than humans. So while a human UFC
fighter might only have 2–3 fights per year, robots
could support weekly events, just like the NFL
does — and even then, football players get injured
all the time.
So a better comparison is NASCAR, but with
the obvious difference that the robots are trying
to kill each other, while in NASCAR they’re just
trying to outrun each other. But it’s the crashes,
fires, and explosions that make the highlight reel
— which is what robot sports are all about!
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Jon C R Bennett / JCRBPhoto, Sam Coniglio, Dave Schumaker
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