Wired News: Robots Invade San Francisco

By Lore Sjöberg

02:00 AM Mar. 23, 2004 PT

Over 400 robots rolled, walked, climbed and strutted their stuff at the first Robolympics this past weekend in San Francisco’s Fort Mason. Engineers and school kids, coming from as far away as Korea and Belgium, brought their creations to compete in contests of strength, agility and intelligence.

The biggest draw was the battling bots. Armed machines with names like ‘Max Wedge’ and ‘First Abe Lincoln on the Moon’ met in a closed arena to rend each other appendage from appendage. Often resembling murderous pizza boxes, the contestants were divided into weight classes ranging from 340-pound behemoths to one pound and below.

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