6
Build Your Own Combat Robot
around since the late 1980s, and have been rapidly growing ever since. The following is a short history of some of the most popular robot contests around today. There are many other competitions aside from those listed here, and new ones are turning up each year. ■
Late 1980s The remote control and autonomous robot sumo contest is invented by Hiroshi Nozawa of Fujisoft ABC, Inc., in Japan.
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1989 Inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen founds FIRST. This nonprofit organization, “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” pairs up school-age children with local engineers to build robotic projects.
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1992 Marc Thorpe discovers that his experiments with building a radio-controlled vacuum cleaner to help with the housework can be turned into a new sport called Robot Wars.
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1992 FIRST Robotics hosts its first competition with 28 high-school teams.
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1994 Marc Thorpe creates Robot Wars. This is the first major competition where robots face off against each other in an arena in front of a live audience. The first event is held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.
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1997 Mentorn Broadcasting produces a six-episode series of Robot Wars for BBC television in the U.K.
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1997 BotBash, a similar event to the original Robot Wars, holds its first event in Phoenix, Arizona.
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March 10, 1999 BattleBots is founded by Trey Roski and Greg Munson in San Francisco.
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August 14, 1999 BattleBots hosts its first event in Long Beach, California, with 70 robots competing.
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January 29, 2000 BattleBots appears on pay-per-view television, and airs the second BattleBots event from November 1999.
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August 23, 2000 BattleBots begins airing as a television series on Comedy Central. The show quickly shoots up in ratings and finishes its first season as one of the most popular shows on cable TV.
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April 2, 2001 competition.
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April 4, 2001 Robotica begins airing as a television series on the Learning Channel. Early indications show the program is a hit among viewers.
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August 20, 2001 The new Robot Wars Extreme Warriors, a spin-off from Robot Wars, premieres as a new television series on TNN.
BattleBots registers over 650 robots at its Spring 2001