In a classic robot sumo competition there are three rounds per match. To win the match a robot needs to win at least two fights. All three fights have to take less than three minutes.
History of sumo robots
Sumobots were invented in 80's by Hiroshi Nozawa, a Japanese bussinesmen who was the founder of Fuji Software. The first official tournament was played in 1990. There were over 140 sumobots fighting.
In 2001 there was organized a tournament which took over 4 months and there were over 4k robots participating in it.
Robot-sumo got its popularity because of low entry barriers. Building a small robot is relatively cheap and not demanding. There is no much space to use in small robots so you need to think how to improve it without enlarging it. That's the best fun.
Another issue is software. To win fights you need to have a better program in an autonomous robot. Your hardware doesn't matter if you can't fight the opponent and can't defend yourself from being pushed out of the ring.
The first problem is to find the opponent. You can accomplish it using infrared or ultra-sonic sensors. You should also send infrared waves and catch their reflection. Counting time between sent waves and caught reflection of them you can recognize where your opponent is and how far.
The next issue is to avoid leaving the arena. Arenas have white borders so you can try to detect them if your robot is somewhere near the edge and try to prevent leaving the ring.
Sumobots are divided into classes (according to wikipedia):
- Heavy weight. Robot may weigh up to 125 pounds and fit in 2 foot cube
- Light weight. Robot may weigh up to 50 pounds and fit in 2 foot cube
- Standard class. Robot may weigh up to 3 kilograms and fit in 20cm x 20cm box (no height restriction)
- Mini-sumo. Robot may weigh up to 500 grams and fit in 10cm x 10cm box (no height restriction)
- Micro-sumo. Robot may weigh up to 100 grams and fit in 5cm cube
- Nano-sumo. Robot must fit in 2.5cm cube
- Femto-sumo. Robot must fit in 1 cm cube
We can also divide robots taking into consideration their control system: remote-controlled or autonomous.
An autonomous sumobot has to run and take action completely on its own without any human control. Remote-controlled robots usually use standard radio equipment to control robots remotely.
The most common weapon used in sumobots is a blade tilted at about 45 degrees angle at the front. You can also meet more sophisticated weapons like a spinning blade:
Nightmare vs Slamjob fight
There are also popular TV shows in USA that show competitions between robots:
Southern Annihilator
But ordinary competitions look like this:
Mini sumo compilation
RobotChallenge 2012 - Sumo Final
Making a good robot is a really hard task. Winning the competition is a lot of work too.
You can see a simple tutorial:
How to make sumo robot
Questions:
1. What do you think about sumobots? Do you like them?
I think that sumo-robots are nice and I like them!(nothing more to say)
ReplyDelete1. Personally,I have never heard about such a competition. I wouldn't go far to say that I like it, but I do not see anything wrong with it.Even though, it sounds silly, you have to be clever in order to design a robot which will meet the competition criteria,hence, it is not that easy. It looks like a very consuming and hig-tech task which not everyone would be able to accomplish.Also, I like it better comparing to the competitions where they use real animals. I think it is used as a hobby for those who like to challenge themselves and come up with new electronic toys.
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha, dude, what the actual hell? Even laughed at the title of the post :)
ReplyDeleteThey are great, i remember some tv show on Discovery channel about robots like this and there was also a competition like Sumo. It was many years ago i can't even remember the name of the show, but it was very entertaining to watch fighting robots.
The blade ?! give me a break...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJYbKqZNPGo
Man this is hell!
Mini sumo robots are cool, really dynamic fights.
I think it's weird at some point but really cool interest.
This isn't an area which I was interested, so I can only say that this is an interesting topic, but if I had to watch the sumo tournament, I would rather watch a regular competition, not fight sumo robots.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have heard of such battles robots. Recently, the technology, everything is going forward at Euro 2012, we were able to watch the football game robot, which was also an interesting phenomenon. In the future, probably the whole world will be covered by the electronics, so I consider this as a very perfect. Personally, however, I think you have to have a lot of talent and skill to create such work, but you can make money lot of money.
ReplyDeleteActually, I admire people who are so creative that they come up with ideas like this one- sumorobots. This is funny, especially the fact that someone divided sumorobots into classes. It means that people who take it seriously might turn out to exist. I do not know what they will create in the future since they prove that human imagination does not have limitations. When it comes to your question- there is nothing to talk about- someone created sumorobots and people have fun playing with them. And yes, I like the idea of sumorobots because of the work and creativity put in buildung them.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThey are so cute! I realy like the idea, it is much better to use robots than to train animals.
The orginal idea about just pushing the opponent behind the line is way better than american version with fighting.
This whole fire and turnament is pitiful and make me laught :) I agree with Paulina at that point.
Honestly, I'm not interested in that kind of entertainment. But it's definitely better than dog fighting or cockfighting. Personally, I prefer a different kind of fights and competitions, for instance I like watching boxing fights or even watching a basketball or football game. However, I do appreciate people, who follow their passion and build those robots. Since, I believe that it is not important whether your hobby is fishing, parachuting or robot sumo, the most important is to have a passion in your life and realize your dreams!!!
ReplyDeleteRobot-Sumo is a very good idea. It can cause development of nano-technlogy and robotics by attracting peopel into it, especially in eastern Asia where all weird entertainments are very popular. Surley it will bring a lot of people out there to acquaint with robotic engineering.
ReplyDeleteHover on the other hand, we have such things like southern annihilation show, where robots has plain construction, they are remotly controled, unlike in Japanese sumo-robot. Rules of competition out there does not require advanced technology. This program is kind of red neck entertainment (hope I didnt insult anybody), I'm rather sure it wont push humanity to any sublime accomplishment. Nota bene, Americans always will transform everything into fast food
Pretty cool thing in my opinion. In total, the tournament has ever seen in this sport, but I guess it is pretty exciting to look at as their fathers and mothers is stressful to the robot stand and win. I think this is not popular in this country due to the difficulty of construction robots. Not everyone is an electronics and robotics after hours. Anyway is a great thing to catch with technology young people.
ReplyDeleteEverything that engages passion and sience and common sence is good. I was always into "geek sports" and Robot-sumo is a fine example of such. Apart from the fun factor - it's also a great way to present sience to young people who may become grat engineers one day.
ReplyDeletePlus - this is so much fun to watch those robots :)
I'm not really into it, but process of creating those robots must be exciting.
ReplyDeleteMust agree with s10047, it's just a great example of beeing passionate about something.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI prefer to watch robot-sumo than sumo wrestlers on the ring, they are more likable. It`s really funny to watch those little robots fight or it rather look like one is pushing another, as in mini sumo compilation. It must be hard to build such robot especially if you know there might be better one and might destroy yours. In another video from finals of USA tv show there are more developed robots with additional features like making fire. It must be good amusement to control them, but not the kind of show I like to watch.
ReplyDelete