David is probably going to hate me for this, but an email just popped up on the Robotics Society of America mailing list from David Calkins, saying:

So, The All-Japan 3kg Sumo Tournament is Dec 21st in Tokyo.

Fujisoft gave me 2 seats to go, all expenses, … [and] I’m giving away the tix.

Want ‘em?

You gotta win ‘em.

In order to win the tickets, you have to mail your completed Sumo robot to David, where he will compete them in a normal Sumo tournament on December 6th. The two best robots from the tournament will win tickets to Japan!

For more details contact David directly. If you don’t currently have a Sumo ‘bot, get to building! Or, buy a kit and soup it up!

Update: This just in from David, “Luis Reyna and Alex Eisner won the sumo contest, and tix to Japan”. Congratulations to Luis and Alex! Let us know how the trip goes.

Trossen Robotics is sponsoring a robot building contest with some great prizes! The contest, which runs through the end of December, challenges entrants to building something cool. Something that will “wow” the judges. Other than that (and using electricity) the field is pretty wide open.

Projects will be judged on the “wow factor”, ingenuity, creativity, and on (the dreaded) documentation. Prizes are:

3rd Place: A Roboquad from WowWee Toys (~$60 value)

2nd Place: A Robosapien RS Media from WowWee Toys (~$180 value)

1st Place: A Pleo Dinosaur from Ugobe! ($350 value)

So, all you robot builders out there should get to work! When you’ve submitted your projects, how about leaving a comment and letting us know, and we’ll do a post about your projects.

For Halloween Gizmodo sponsored a costume contest. This year’s theme was “Robots Turn on Humans.” You’ll definitely want to check out the contest results and the clever and funny costumes.

Did you spot any great costumes this year? Tell us about them in the comments.

Don’t forget that the 2008 RoboGames are going on THIS WEEKEND in San Franciso, CA. If you’re in the SF area, you should definitely stop by. For the poor souls that can’t make it, you can follow some of the goings-on via the RoboGames twitter. You can also keep an eye on the Flickr tag, ‘robogames’ for some neat photos. Oh, and don’t forget YouTube!

Here’s a comprehensive list of all of the events.

I’m off to go mope in sadness.

Instructables and RoboGames have teamed up to create a robot building contest. The task is to design and document one specific aspect of your robot.



The grand prize is a trip to the 2009 RoboGames, with the flight and hotel room included. 2nd place winner will receive a RoboPhilo Walking Android kit, and the 3rd place entry will get tons of cool robot schwag.

Entries are judged based on six categories: Locomotion, Manipulators, Brain, Sensors, Asthetics, and "Reuse and Recycling". The deadline for entries is June 29, 2008. Send us a link to your projects in the comments!



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