Photo: Emma Friedman/WBZ NewsRadio
WALTHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Combat robots battled head-to-head on Saturday morning in Waltham, Mass.
For the first time since 2019, the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation hosted MassDestruction, pitting engineers and their robots against each other. Event Organizer Sarah Pohorecky helped facilitate the fights.
“Combat robotics is a sport for engineers and makers where we make one and three-pound little fighting robots. We put them in a box and we get them to battle it out,” said Pohorecky.
Competitors had three minutes to disable their opponent's robots in a no-holds-barred fight, needing bulletproof glass to protect spectators from harm. For a father and daughter duo, they have been entering the “Pyramid of Pain” for years.
“It’s a robot that has an arm with a spinning saw blade on the end that I attempt to get under my opponent, get them stuck and then bring my arm down and smash into them, cut them up and ruin their electronics,” said the father on their robot “Mako.”
“It spins super-fast and when it hits them, chaos,” said his daughter.
Another competitor got creative with his robot “Cereal Killer.”
“Cereal Killer” is spelled with a “C” because it’s based around cereal boxes. It’s a control bot that uses cereal boxes to capture its opponent,” said one man.
WBZ's Emma Friedman (@EmmaFriedmanWBZ) reports.
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