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Critter Crunch (Robotics Competition)

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Critter Crunch
StatusActive
GenreRobotics Competition
FrequencyAnnually
VenueMileHiCon
Location(s)Denver, Colorado
CountryUSA
Established1987 (1987)
SponsorDenver Mad Scientists Club

The Critter Crunch is a table top combat robot competition that takes place annually at the MileHiCon science fiction convention. Established in 1986 with the first competition held in 1987, it is widely accepted as the first combat robot competition. [1] [2] preceding the Robot Wars TV series by more than decade.

The moment when "Agent Orange" beat Bill Lewellyn's critter to win the event.
Winners of the 1991 Critter Crunch. Left to right: Claude Warren, Todd Hill and Jon Wood.

History

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The competition was proposed by the Denver Mad Scientists club and organized by member Bill Llewellin.[1] In the months before the 1987 convention the club produced a set of rules which were distributed without copyright restriction, allowing other organizations use or extend them for their own competitions.

The first competition was held on a hotel table. The original rules prohibited damaging the surface. There were several competitors including a remote control dune buggy, a mechanical device under a steel mixing bowl, and a little yellow remote control Corvette that could only go forward or backwards and turn. The first competition was won by the Corvette.

The last revision to the official rules was on 15 Feb 2003. By then the rules had evolved to include mention of radio controls, attacking control systems, limiting the number of operators to one, and codifying two part critters loss conditions[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b [1] Wired.com website (accessed 18 January 2015)
  2. ^ [2] Robot Battles website (accessed 18 January 2015)
  3. ^ [3] MileHiCon 38 Website, Internet Archive (accessed 19 February 2015).