RoboGames 2008 going on as we speak

Unless you’re Michael Bay can you ever go wrong with combat robots? Geeks come up with some awesome stuff.

Source and more info. found at RoboGames (formerly ROBOlympics).

RoboGames is the world’s largest open robot competition (even the Guinness Book of World Records says so!) We invite the best minds from around the world to compete in over 70 different events. Combat robots, walking humanoids, soccer bots, sumo bots, and even androids that do kung-fu. Some robots are autonomous, some are remote controlled – but they’re all cool! As an open event, anyone can compete – this means you.

This is the only event in the world that both Geeks and Jocks agree on:

The Best Ten North American Geek Fests – Wired Magazine
SportCenter’s Top Ten – ESPN SportsCenter

Watch our Videos to see how cool RoboGames is! No matter what your favorite robot sport is, the best bots in the world come to San Francisco every June. The stands are filled with people watching 340 pound robots shoot flames and smash into each other, androids cart-wheeling down the soccer field, and even Canadians with hockey playing robots.

Watch this video shot at the 2006 RoboGames to get a good idea of how crazy this competition is.

Exoskeleton to be used to one day help the elderly and parapalegics to freely walk again

I heard an amazing story on NPR today. Please see the excerpt below. While Skynet will one day destroy humanity, it’s refreshing to see that not all technology is out to kill Sarah Connor.

Full story: NPR’s Weekend America: Monty’s Lifesuit: From Science Fiction to Fact
This weekend, San Francisco hosts the 2008 RoboGames. Last year’s event attracted more than 3,000 spectators — they came to see robots and their human inventors compete in races, weightlifting and all-out robo-smackdowns.

But one returning champion from Seattle has a bigger mission in mind. Reporter Jeremy Richards has the story:

Like any good superhero story, Monty Reed’s journey starts with a single terrifying event. In 1983, fresh out of high school, Monty joined the Army, eventually securing a place with the elite Airborne Rangers. He had 38 successful jumps. But something went wrong on his 39th jump.

“We were doing a night jump,” Reed says. “It was battalion-wide, so it was hundreds of parachutes in the air, and somebody’s parachute came too close to me, and that stole the air. So my canopy collapsed, and I hit the ground.”

On impact, Monty broke his back in several places. He spent a year recovering at a hospital in Ford Ord, Calif.

“While I was in the hospital, paralyzed legs, fingers on both hands paralyzed, the doctors told me your condition is permanent and it will get worse. So get used to it.”

Monty didn’t accept this. He took out a pad of paper and wrote across the top: “Monty Shall Walk.” To distract himself from the pain, he found solace in science-fiction novels. That’s when inspiration hit:

Watch the results of his inspiration. More info. available at They Shall Walk.