ROBO-ONE 14: Before a Robot Can Even Start to Compete (Video)

dynamizer robo-one prescreening

Most people know ROBO-ONE because of the exciting kung-fu style battles in the ring where the top robots duke it out to become champion and take home the ROBO-ONE belt. But few people outside of the ROBO-ONE participants can appreciate all the hard work and dedication that it takes just to get past the pre-screening tests.

For example, for ROBO-ONE 14 there were a total of 114 official entries. Typically about 20 to 30% of the entries don't make it past the pre-screening tests to even participate in the first day's Demonstration phase. Pre-screening is intended to make sure that all the competitors can perform the basics - like walking, standing up by themselves, etc. As if that wasn't enough, the ROBO-ONE committee added an additional ramp test starting with ROBO-ONE 13 last March.

The test seems simple enough - walk across an inclined ramp without falling down or going astray. But, believe us, it's much more difficult than it looks. Of course, champion robots, like Dynamizer - one of our all-time favorites - can make it look easy (video below). Still the tilted surface and relatively narrow path pose some hard challenges for robot builders, especially since the robot has to make the journey totally on its own - no remote control.