Armored Boat 2016: Robot Fights. New season



    On February 21-23, there will be big battles of the ARMORBOT robots in the Olympic , but their fate is now entirely in your hands, dear reader. Help us find participants and get a ticket to the show. But first, a slight digression.

    As far as I remember the university course of cultural studies, all cultures are divided into two large groups - primary and secondary. The former move forward at their own peril and risk, the latter repeat ready-made solutions. But there are big risks in both cases. For a secondary culture, this is a danger of being wiped out by a more successful competitor. If Bolivia and Romania disappear from the world map tomorrow, they will easily be replaced by Colombia and Bulgaria. There is nothing to replace France or England with.

    But the first one is not sweet - for example, France with great difficulty built the ship fleet in the 19th century by trial and error, and the British just waited until they found the optimal solutions on the continent and without any extra movements upgraded their fleet according to the ready-made patterns. And, as you know, they won.


    The 1850 Napoléon was one of the last classic battleships, and at the same time it was the first warship built to maximize the benefits of the steam engine.

    But there is a nuance. Catching up simply copies, and the leader creates a whole technical culture, which gives a lot of “side” prizes. Until recently, it was considered good form to say that in the USSR there was a weak technical culture and the creation of computers was an unbearable matter, and all the achievements were just copies of IBM systems. The reality is that the USSR has invested billions in the creation of a fundamental mathematical school capable of solving any applied problems. Such a high mathematical culture created computers like hot cakes - even on ternary logic .


    Olimpiysky Sports Complex is just a living legacy of the Soviet mathematical school, its project relied entirely on complex mathematical calculations and at one time had no analogues in terms of construction complexity. For the first time on such a scale, matrix methods were used to analyze the strength, stability, and vibrations of elastic systems. The matrix form has largely changed the whole ideology of building mechanics, consistent with the widespread use of computer technology throughout world architecture.

    Not surprisingly, looking back now, it is obvious how much the USSR overtook the west in computer technology. I will never forget the interview of some American programmer from the documentary about Tetris - he was absolutely sure that after the fall of the Iron Curtain, his company would be able to flood the Soviet block with computers and games for them. But contrary to expectations, at the first contact, the entire western video game market was crushed by just one Soviet middle-class programmer (by the way, rather a mathematician). If the USSR hadn’t managed to fall apart in time, Pajitnov and Penkovskaya would not have gone to work at Microsoft and Intel for a modest salary, but would have simply bought these companies. These are the bonuses of the “primary culture”.


    While working at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Pazhitnov dealt with problems of artificial intelligence and speech recognition, and used puzzles, including classic pentamino, to break in ideas. Pajitnov tried to automate the installation of pentamino in the given figures. However, the computing power of the then equipment for pentamino rotation was not enough, it was necessary to debug on tetramino, which determined the name of the game. In those experiments, the main idea of ​​Tetris was born - that the figures fall, and the filled rows disappear.

    This is exactly what happened with the original BattleBots and Robot Wars shows.- they were the first, acted “on a new one” and therefore naively and sincerely. The show was absolutely open, everyone could take part in it and everything was decided only by the technical genius of the participants - all this created a surprisingly democratic atmosphere, which gave the participants a huge creative charge, and the audience was truly interested. The show became overpopular around the world and took first place in the television hall of fame, if such existed.

    As a result, the world did not just get another great show, the battle of robots changed the whole television - it is with them that the reality show boom begins. Yes, and “House-2” and everything else comes from Robot Wars. Many of the participants themselves became the stars of television - at least take Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear or the Myhtbusters team. They all left Robot Wars, and with them, dozens of other participants continued their careers in film and television. The same Peter Redmond is now doing all the special effects in TopGear and Game of Thrones. But before the show, all these guys did not have a single chance to become famous - until 1998, people gathering their robots in the garage could at best pass for a ridiculous freak. And now they are show business.


    Familiar all faces.

    How many of these Kulibins are sitting in their apartments, garages and universities in Russia in complete unknown? There are at least a dozen teams? Let's make them stars together. We are ready to give all possible technical facilities, personal assistance to teams from English champions led by John Finlay, head of Robot Wars UK and financial assistance to the most interesting projects. Yes, we pay for creating a robot for competitions!

    We do not have air on the first channel yet, but on February 21-23, we will have great fights at the Olympic with a huge audience and all the attention of the domestic media. And the winner will go to London to officially represent Russia at the restart of Robot Wars. Maybe it will be you, dear reader, or someone from your friends? Just give them a link to the registration form - participants from all over Russia and the countries of the "former USSR" are accepted. Well, your recommendation will not go unpunished - expect a personal invitation to the show from us.

    We need everyone who can assemble his robot and is ready to destroy another robot with his help.

    MIA, MAMI teams, the Ukrainian Boteon team, the company Robdem, the Ufa College of Radio Electronics, the creator of the robotic lawn mower Vyacheslav Golitsin webzuweb have already confirmed their participation , as well as teams from Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg.

    But our goal is to bring together all robotics enthusiasts. And there is only five weeks left, so you can’t do without your help. Giktayms, help out!

    You can apply on the website or at bronebot@balrobotov.ru

    PS
    Until January 25, a 35% discount is valid for tickets. As it was in "COSMOS" at ENEA:


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