OK, so what? Al Gore already covered that territory, right? Well, yes. But hardly this comprehensively. And certainly not this... what's the word... normal-guy-ily. The dude is actually damn entertaining.
For the last few years, the Robo-One competitions have given robot-builders a chance to showcase their creations – and watch them do battle. This year's Grand Championship saw robots that knew how to use their balloons, dancing bots that sang Christmas carols, and shadowy humanoids that engaged in the questionable "three-point defense." After all the robots were introduced, they went head-to-head in the ring to try to knock the circuits out of each other. (Or, at least, knock over an opponent three times.)
The requirements for Robo-One are pretty minimal, but each competing robot has to walk on two legs. About 25 finalists are gathered in Tokyo for the most recent contest.
“You can’t win a battle if you can’t rebuild your robot at least once every half year,” says one of the competitors.
