I have long been a fan of the Battletech game and universe, and I loved the Mechwarrior games and the Virtual World Battletech simulators. Obviously this led partially to my love of robot combat.  With all the amazing advances in the last few years to bipedal robots, a “Battletech” style competition is now possible. And it will be at Robo Games in 2009: Mechwarfare. I personally hope that this particular competition takes off. There is a tremendous amount of room for innovation and creativity in these designs. Since the competition is scored on “Hit Points” and not real physical damage, the ongoing cost issues are not quite as high as a traditional combat robot competition. Although, without the violence and mayhem, I fear audience support and enthusiasim will not be quite as high.

If I get some time (Yeah right), I might start working on one of these. Sadly, RoboGames is in San Francisco, 2446 miles from my house.

The photo below is from the best looking Mech I have seen for this competition so far at Trossen Robotics.

Hagetaka, Trossen Robotics