QuantumFog

February 17, 2006

Putting wheels on a can of Whoopass

My young'un asked the other day, "...the robot battles we used to have on tv - what happened?".

"Dunno", was my cogent reply. I didn't care for the testosterone-dipped Sasquatch on the microphone, whose cortical synapse was bridged by a cheeseburger. But the show was interesting. Violence was beside the point, I enjoyed the inventiveness for getting out of predicaments and besting the opponent. Curiosity now piqued, my research quickly led to the Robot Fighting League.

QuantumFog must give the reader pause for a bit of trivia. These machines are "remotes", operated by remote control. If you walk away from a remote, it does nothing - like your upright vacuum cleaner.

In contrast, a robot controls itself, its' a PC with wheels, sensory inputs and tools for specific tasks. A robot alone still does tasks - like iRobot.

Though the genre fell to the fickle marketing of TV execs, regional and national championships have been held annually for the past three years. Rumor has it one of the regional tournaments had a $5,000 first prize.

A regional is going to be held in my area for the first time and another national is scheduled for the Fall of 2006.

To really sell this thing nationally, TV execs need to resurrect Tim "the Toolman" Taylor. Just don't let him build one.

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