1970: Beginning of MIT 2.70 contest
As part of the “Introduction to Design” class (coursebook code: 2.70) MIT mechanical engineering professor Herb Richardson gives 50 sophomores a plastic bag full of random parts such as small motors, wire and tongue depressors. He tells them to build a device that performs some specific function. Over the next several years, the contest turns into a race amongst the devices down the department hallway.
1974: Woodie Flowers takes over 2.70
MIT professor Woodie Flowers takes over the competition and turns it into a real sporting event, with dynamic challenges for the robots. The event is staged in large MIT classrooms and later, gymnasiums, and becomes, so the joke goes, MIT’s version of the homecoming game. PBS’ Discover The World of Science broadcasts it throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s.
1979: First “MicroMouse” competition held in New York
Small, autonomous mechanical “micromouses” compete to find their way out of a 10 foot by 10 foot maze. The first winners are elementary “wall-followers” who have no real idea of where they are and can not map the shortest route.
1986: Robotic Combat born
Inspired by the PBS episodes on 2.70, and video tapes from the Bay Area mechanical art troupe SRL, a club of Denver-based engineers called the Mad Scientists develop “Critter Crunch” -- a tiny version of today’s robotic combat events like Robot Wars -- and stage the event at annual science fiction conventions.
1988: Robot Sumo formally begins in Japan
Hiroshi Nozawa, chairman of Fujisoft, Inc. of Japan, holds the first exposition that August with 33 robots. The first official tournament is held in 1990 at the Kokugikan sumo hall in Tokyo. Today thousands of robots around the country compete over a four month long season.
1987-1990: First autonomous Robot Competition at MIT
MIT computer science students who had also taken Woodie Flowers’ 2.70 course start a similar contest for autonomous robots. For the first two years of the contest, the creations are purely computer-simulated. By 1990, students were building real robots out of legos.
1989: 2.70 Goes Worldwide
Teams from MIT join teams from Japan in an international version of 2.70, dubbed RoboCon.
1992: Dean Kamen’s FIRST robot competition debuts
Inspired by the 2.70 competition, “Segway” inventor Kamen stages a larger scale competition for high school students and their tech industry mentors. The first contest, held in a gym in Manchester, New Hampshire, features 28 teams manipulated their R/c robots to collect colored tennis balls. Today’s FIRST contests involve thousands of high schools and dozens of regional contests.
1993: Trinity Fire-Fighting Robot Contest
Trinity College professor Jake Mendelssohn stages first contest at a science museum in West Hartford. Robots must autonomously navigate a maze and extinguish a candle. Last year 180 teams competed.
1994: Inaugural Robot Wars held in San Francisco
ILM model maker Marc Thorpe holds the first large scale robotic combat contest, with three weight classes of R/c robots dueling inside a protected ring. A media sensation, Robot Wars later splinters into Battlebots, the BBC’s Robot Wars and other televised mechanical jousts.
1994: Carnegie Mellon holds first MOBOT race
Evolved from traditional manned “pushmobile” races at CMU, autonomous robots navigate a 100+ foot-long, downhill slalom.
1997: First RoboCup held
The first official RoboCup games are held in 1997 in Nagoya, Japan. Over 40 teams participate while over 5,000 spectators watch. The stated goal: to have a robotic soccer team defeat a human team by 2050.
1999: BattleBots founded
With the U.S. Robot Wars event locked in litigation, competitors break off and start their own competition. From 2000 to 2002, competitions are broadcast on U.S. cable network Comedy Central.
2002: Darpa Grand Challenge announced
A race between autonomous vehicles from L.A. and Las Vegas, with a one million dollar bounty.
If I have made any errors or omissions, please email me at: brad@gearheadsthebook.com.
