^M00:00:03
>> I'm Cara C. Boyd, CNETnews.com. We've all heard of the NFL
and the NBA but what about the RFL, the Robot Fighting League.
Here in San Francisco this is the Guinness Book of World Records
biggest robotic fighting league competition in the entire world,
and the name of the game is to destroy, fight and kill your
opponent.
>> Still trying to return, trying to stop the bar of last
night's insanity.
>> How much damage is done, how much repairing do you have to
do?
>> I've actually got quite a bit.
>> What do you think went wrong with your design here?
>> Nothing really wrong with the design, it's just one of those
matches where you got to just hope you get a good shot on him
'cause he's got a design advantage. He has a lot more reach
than I do with this weapon.
>> I'm here with Chad Gnu [phonetic] who is the safety
inspector and also a competitor here at the 7th Annual Robo
Games. Now I imagine if you guys have been doing this for seven
years, you've probably seen a lot of really interesting new
technology emerge over the years. What are we looking forward
to this year technologywise?
>> Technology advancement this year is really it's the spread
spectrum radio technology that's kind of the hot new thing right
now. It eliminates all radio conflict, so whereas before you
could have frequency conflicts with other robots which is very
dangerous, this year there is -- that's eliminated. Everybody
has their own designated frequency so my robot is not running on
my competitor's channel which could be extremely dangerous.
>> What about style points? I know there's obviously weight
classes but I want to see something cool to look at.
>> Oh, yeah, I mean, everybody has -- that's again it's another
bragging rights. It's not only, you know, if you win but it's
how you win. If you flip somebody up in the air ten feet,
that's a lot better. If you destroy somebody by just totally
immobilizing them spilling their guts all over the arena, that's
cool too.
>> What's your strategy to win this year?
>> Keep running, don't get torn apart and hopefully get someone
over the wall.
>> Go right into with my steel blade and then it bangs into me
and it usually digs in that far and then it stops moving and I
drive away and I'm the winner.
>> You traveled all the way here from Australia to compete.
>> Yep, [inaudible] has traveled.
>> Why?
>> 'Cause it's fun and this is the biggest event there is.
>> I love how your robot kind of emulates your opera house down
under.
>> Yeah, bit of an accident there. It's mainly so it doesn't
end up on its back. It's got a pretty savage looking blade on
it, some tooled steel on the end there, that goes around at
about four and a half thousand rpm. It's killed five robots out
of six.
>> So you guys traveled all the way from Brazil. Why do you
make the effort to come to this event?
>> Because it totally pays off. It's fun, it's -- you learn a
lot. You meet a lot of interesting people.
>> How much money would you say you spent on this?
>> If my wife is not around, probably around about four and a
half thousand dollars.
>> Come on! More than 10,000?
>> Oh, way more.
>> Oh, way more. More than 20,000?
>> Way more probably.
>> 50,000?
>> Yeah, I think that -- that kind of money.
>> I've spent enough to buy a house.
>> What's the prize, what are the bragging rights that you get
out of this?
>> It's just bragging rights really. We get prizes but it
never adds up to what we put into it. It's all for glory, fun,
bragging rights and to say that you're the best.
>> Now this competition works in a bracket format, so the
opening ceremonies, if you will, are just a few moments away and
then it all concludes on Sunday, is that right?
>> Yep, yep, it's a double elimination tournament. So if you
lose once, you're still in it. If you lose twice, you're out.
>> Sounds like a ton of fun. Thank you very much, Chad. I am
Cara C. Boyd reporting at the Fort Mason Center at the Robo
Games here in San Francisco, come on down for a rip-roaring good
time.
>> Heck, yeah.
>> See you next time. Cara C. Boyd, CNETnews.com.
^M00:03:53
[ Music ]
