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Audio slideshow: Robot warriors clash at RoboGames

Hardware hackers come out to build the world's best bots.

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James Martin
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James Martin Managing Editor, Photography
James Martin is the Managing Editor of Photography at CNET. His photos capture technology's impact on society - from the widening wealth gap in San Francisco, to the European refugee crisis and Rwanda's efforts to improve health care. From the technology pioneers of Google and Facebook, photographing Apple's Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai, to the most groundbreaking launches at Apple and NASA, his is a dream job for any documentary photography and journalist with a love for technology. Exhibited widely, syndicated and reprinted thousands of times over the years, James follows the people and places behind the technology changing our world, bringing their stories and ideas to life.
Expertise photojournalism, portrait photography, behind-the-scenes Credentials 2021 Graphis Photography Awards, Gold Award, Journalism, 'The Doorway' Graphis Photography Awards, Silver Award, Portrait, 'Cast of film '1917'' Graphis Photography Awards, Silver Award, Environmental, 'Upper Lola Montez' ND Awards, Architecture, 'Taj Mah
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SAN FRANCISCO--Robots of all shapes and sizes, with skills ranging from cocktail-mixing to flame-throwing, touched down here last weekend to compete in the sixth annual RoboGames, a geek paradise recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest open robot competition.

Coming from 21 countries and almost every state, the hackers and engineers who have spent hundreds of hours--and sometimes thousands of dollars--on their projects, came together at Fort Mason to test their bot-building skills over the weekend of June 12-14.

Watch this audio slideshow to join us in the build pit alongside contestants as they grind metal, wire batteries, and weld defensive plates to 300-pound monsters outfitted with deadly spinning steel blades.