Small Broken Robot Parts

Machines Behaving Badly, 2017.

Aftermath of a particularly frisky match.  The big metal bar is actually a scythe blade, one of the drop down hazards that nail robots from above.

One of the matches featured a single three pound robot taking on a multibot, that is to say,  a team that put out two 1.5 pound robots.  I just turned around for a moment to help a kid with a repair question and one of the little robots went into the Chains of Doom. Now, there may be a reason why cardboard has not caught on as a robot building staple.  I had to ask, "Where did the other robot go?"  It was disintegrated.  His team mate fought on gamely, taking his own share of damage but almost pulling off the win.  We awarded them the Monty Python inspired "Black Knight Award"...

In some of the later rounds on the "playback" side of the brackets we tossed four robots in and had the top two finishers move on.  It saves a little time.  The robot with the rapidly whirling weapon got in a few good licks, but this sort of machine usually ends up tearing itself apart from the combination of too much impact and not enough structural integrity.

The little girl here is wearing the official Machines Behaving Badly shirt.  No, she is not actually one of the folks running the event.  She did drive one of the "volunteer bots" we use to fill spots in the brackets.  But she got scared and couldn't finish the match.  So I gave her a shirt.  Soon she was trying her hand at driving the big FIRST robotics machine!

FIRST roboteers for future teams....

And we finish up with a big melee.  As many robots as we can fit in the arena at once just randoming smashing each other up for a few minutes.  Then the event is in the can until next year.