By Dorie U. Sugay
”
It’s like Splenda
– the fun of sugar without the calories
”
, Bot Battle competitor Dave Wiley starts out, grinning, before
his smile fades and he admits,
”
Actually, it’s gratuitous medieval violence with no guilt.
”
By Dorie U. Sugay
“It’s like Splenda – the fun of sugar without the calories”, Bot Battle competitor Dave Wiley starts out, grinning, before his smile fades and he admits, “Actually, it’s gratuitous medieval violence with no guilt.”
In this day and age when people have to work hard, it’s a good idea to find an outlet for life’s stresses. Some take up hobbies, others engage in crafts. Wiley, a Morgan Hill resident for 22 years, builds fighting robots and competes in Bot Battle competitions.
This modern day gladiator is now preparing his “antweight” robot creation Stumpy to compete in the RFL (Robotic Fighting League) Nationals that will be held Oct. 9 and 10 at Ft. Mason’s Herbst Pavillon in San Francisco.
Bots are robots that have the capability to engage in “battle,” pushing, shoving, bashing, torching and slicing other bots. Antweights are bots under 2 lbs. They have no minimum speed requirements. Some are designed with additional weapons like fire-shooting capabilities, others are equipped with metal bars that spring out to pummel foes. The challenge in building antweight bots is in coming up with a design that can go nose-to-nose with another bot, survive the heat of battle and still be kept under 2 lbs.
Antweights fight on an arena insert that is 4’x4′ and raised six inches off the floor of the host venue. Operators like Wiley control their bots’ movements by remote control.
The bot arena has 12″ openings centered along each wall – if your bot pushes its foe out of one of these openings and onto the floor below, you win. Pretty simple, really.
A machinist for Gromm Racing Heads in San Jose, Wiley loves to create and build bots. Watching “Bot Battles” on Comedy Central a few years ago, the lightbulb went on and a year later he had invested in all the materials and data he needed to build a 60-lb. lightweight bot. He never quite finished that bot because in December of 2002, he attended an antweight competition and fell in love with the mighty mites in the arena.
“I realized I could build them cheaper and make them faster”, Wiley says.
He immediately started work on an antweight bot and in June 2003, Stumpy was born.
Stumpy competed well for more than a year but in February 2004, Wiley realized that he had to re-design the little fellow after it was badly beaten in a competition. “Stumpy was outclassed,” Wiley says. His new design retained its simplicity but it gave Stumpy the competitive edge needed to outlast the stronger opponents it was now facing.
To date, Stumpy has battled its way to a .500 record against solid competition in the region, including wins against some “very powerful spinners,” says Wiley, referring to bots attempt to knock their foes out of the arena using an array of spinning weapons.
Wiley is hesitant to blame Stumpy for his defeats. “(When we lose), it’s sloppy driving on my part,” he says. “I didn’t practice as much as I should have.”
In August, Wiley and Stumpy fought to a third place at a regional qualifier to earn a spot at RFL Nationals. “It was like a combination of a NASCAR car crash and a gladiator battle to the death”, Wiley says, adding, “And no one gets hurt!”
“(Bot Battles) are dynamic … the people are great. They come from all walks of life. When you get to the arena, there is competition in the air and we go to win, to fight to the death – of the bots, that is – but afterwards, there are no bitter feelings, you even become friends.”
For intrigued folks with a interest in Bot Battles, he has some advice: “You need basic hand tool knowledge and perseverance. Basic electrical knowledge helps.
“For $200 to 300, someone can build a pretty decent bot.”
Another bot builder, Daniel Fukuba, says, “You can learn a lot about designing and building things from scratch and learn how to use tools appropriately. But most of all, it’s just fun.
“Almost all the builders can’t wait till they can work on their bots. As soon as I get home I get my bot out and start working on it.”
As great as it all sounds, being a Bot Battler isn’t exactly lucrative. Some 25 other Bot drivers from the US and Canada competing will compete against Wiley in the Nationals for a grand prize of … $150.
But Wiley isn’t in it for the money. “We all compete more for the bragging rights”, he says, “And to destroy my opponents and dominate the world!”
