Think of it as "smurf turf" for academics.
Bronco and Mr. Roboto faced off Dec. 7 in the center of a blue circle set up in a classroom at the Micron Engineering Center at Boise State University. Two students let go of the robots, which began pushing each other. After a few seconds, Mr. Roboto pushed Bronco out of the ring.
Boise State University junior Michael McNeilly, triumphant, placed Mr. Roboto back in the center of the ring, and senior Ryan Cowgill sent his team's robot, Partial Credit, into the fray.
After a few more seconds of scooting and scurrying around the blue gladiator circle, it was clear that Mr. Roboto met his match. He was pushed over a white line surrounding the ring, and Partial Credit moved on to the next round of the Boise State engineering department's Sumo Robot competition.
It's not Rosie from The Jetsons going head-to-head with C-3PO.
The robots are the final project for the Design and Analysis of Mechatronics Systems class. They aren't modeled on humans so much as miniature Honda Elements - the robots are four-inch, wheeled cubes.
They aren't controlled via remotes. The students have programmed the robots to seek out and push others while staying inside the white line.
The mechatronics skills the students learn are the same ones manufacturers use to make robotics and "smart" products, said professor John Gardner, who heads BSU's Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering. Mechatronics engineers put computer chips into everything from automobiles to washing machines, he said.
During the competition - dubbed "Robotic Sumo" - Gardner served as the announcer. He occasionally interrupted the proceedings to declare, "A hush falls over the crowd," or "This may be it, for all the marbles."
After a round that was less than a clash of the titans - the two robots ground away at each other, but never moved from the center of the ring - Gardner joked, "This is not a match made for television."
"Maybe radio," one of his students said.
The match was called a draw, and one of the robots was taken out of the ring. The other slowly moved toward the edge of the board, chugging away as if it were on its last batteries.
"It's, uh, heading for the locker room," said Norm Sadler, a master's degree student, as he stooped to pick up his robot.
Partial Credit emerged victorious in the overall contest. Cowgill said he and his partner, senior Tyler Brown, named the robot Partial Credit because "we weren't expecting to do that well at all."
Brown said the exercise was fun because it gave them a chance to use all kinds of engineering experience.
"We went from programming to the chip board to the wires to the actual mechanical side," he said. "As (mechanical engineers), we don't get to incorporate the programming much."
A few simple design features helped Partial Credit best its opponents, Cowgill said. He and Brown built a wedge on the front of the robot to get up underneath the other robots. They painted the wedge white to trick the other robots into thinking the wedge was the white stripe around the playing field, so the robots automatically moved away from Partial Credit, making it easier for their robot to push the others out of the ring.
The engineering exercise was fun as well as a good learning experience for Cowgill and Brown, both of whom work in engineering fields. Cowgill is an engineering design intern at Adaptive Technologies in Nampa, and said he'd like to keep working there when he graduates. Brown works in BSU's biomechanics lab.
But winning the contest left the problem of who gets to keep the robot.
"Rock paper scissors," Cowgill said.