Do you have a "thing" for robots? There's at least one person in my circle of peeps who gets off entirely too much from our battery-powered friends (pun intended- tee hee). If you too like watching motorized scrap traipse around the floor via remote, you need to head to OCAD this Saturday for the annual SUMO Robot Challenge.

Think Robot Wars, but with a more traditional, sumo style, competition format. Homemade robots will compete in six different classes. These classes include a Dancer/Painter challenge (where the robot must demonstrate it's creative abilities), Autonomous and Lightweight Autonomous (robots fight each other without help from their remote-holding creators), and the Sumo Classic Heavyweight brawl (no holds barred, except this year they've outlawed any scarring of the playing surface- no saw blade wheels or other sharp, scary, cutting devices that might hurt the spectators!)

There's also a Sumo Lightweight challenge that encourages beginners with limited funds and facilities to participate. What I think will be most interesting is the last challenge, the Sumo Clever class, with a weight restriction and modified field that requires more subtle tactics by the robots and their builders.

The OCAD Sumo Robot Challenge began in 1992, and for 16 years, it's given OCAD artists, designers, local high school students and the general public a chance to show off their electrical and mechanical aptitude, as well as their creativeness in fabrication. If you've got a homegrown robot skittering around your place that's worthy of competition (doesn't everyone?), you've got until tomorrow to register your little buddy (click on the Contact link). If you're not able to whip your robot into shape in time, come on out to watch!

OCAD SUMO Robot Challenge
OCAD Nora Vaughn Auditorium, Room 190
Lightweight Preliminaries run from 10:30am to 12:30pm
Main Event goes from 1:30 to 4:00pm