April 23 - 25 RoboGames 2010
July 24 and 25 Winter Challenge 2010
Combat robotics is a sport that is practiced world-wide. It attracts all kinds of participants, especially people interested in technology, engineering and machine design.
There are several leagues all over the world, in special in the USA, the UK, Australia and Brazil. A few of the many broadcasters covering these events are CNN, Discovery, BBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, MTV and The History Channel.
In Brazil, the only league is RoboCore, which organizes two competitions per year. The oldest one, since 2001, takes place during the ENECA (National Meeting of Control and Automation Students), usually in September or October. In the ENECA competition, only teams from universities and technical schools can participate. In July there is also another competition, the RoboCore Winter Challenge, which is open to all builders. Its first edition, in 2005, happened on an ice arena.
Combat robot events have been broadcasted by several Brazilian TV shows, such as Fantastico, Jornal Nacional, Jornal da Band, Jornal do SBT, Globo News and Multishow, and also in written media such as O Globo newspaper and Veja and Epoca magazines.
Besides the national events, RioBotz has also participated since 2006 in the RoboGames competition, the largest robot competition in the world. It takes place annually in San Francisco, California (USA).
Competitions like these stimulate the students' creativity, allowing them to apply their knowledge of physics, math, mechanics, electronics and programming to build real robots. The experience they get from the building process can be applied in several areas such as rescue vehicles, systems for the handicapped, robots for dangerous environments, and control systems for countless industries.
