Robot lovers all over campus turned out Thursday for the match of the century: Larry the Pyramid versus the Bread Box of Death.
Crowds surrounding the Bot Wars cage in the Student Union got rowdy, shouting jeers and cheers as bots impaled and tore off their opponents' plating.
As part of National Engineers Week, Bot Wars participants competed to identify the fiercest piece of machinery.
"What, are they trying to kill one another? They're so funny," said Cynthia Lysczek, a social sciences and communications double major.
Students from eight campus engineering organizations convened with their tools and steel robots in hand, prepared to battle to the final grudge match.
After a series of three-minute one-on-one matches, all participants still capable of movement entered the ring for five final minutes of hardcore thrashing.
"Let's get ready to rumble," shouted Mike Virdone, a student assistant for the engineering department.
Match one pitted the American Institute of Chemical Engineers against the Society of Automotive Engineers. The automotive rover, with its wedge shape and cutting saw, made a formidable opponent for the chemical engineers' "Bread Box of Death."
The Bread Box ran into trouble when it could not move fast enough and suffered body damage early on. Feverishly swinging its chains, the bot caught itself on the perimeter spikes of the stage, and the match was over.
UB Robotics and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers matched up for the second war.
"Larry," the mechanical engineers' pyramidal robot with spikes, competed against the UB Robotics' rover topped with a spinning steel bar that quickly impaled Larry. The duct tape used to attach his skin could not handle the blow, and smoke billowed out of the tear in his metal plating. UB Robotics easily took match two.
Eta Kappa Nu and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers competed in match three. The electrical engineers' angled wedge rover appeared as though it was operating on crutches, and proved no competition for the quick-spinning bot of Eta Kappa Nu.
Taking the angled wedge rover into a hold in the air, Eta Kappa Nu stole match three.
A later match pitted "Tyrone" from the National Society of Black Engineers against the electrical engineers' angled wedge rover. This time, the angle rover proved to be an aggressor.
Pushing and spinning, inflicting damage through aggression, the angle rover took the match by storm. Tyrone could not attack with only one of its wheels moving; it could only spin and defend itself.
"The first problem was a control issue. Our bot was being controlled by a rival's controller, because we were running on the same radio signal. The battery installed ran dead before we could compete. This led to the one immobile wheel," said National Society of Black Engineers member Shola Olabisi, a senior electrical engineering student.
The Society of Automotive Engineers took first place for the day in the final battle against Eta Kappa Nu, after the human opponents were broken up numerous times by the referee.
"The SAE robot is the most powerful, with its titanium plating," said Sultan Sallaj, a senior computer engineering major.
"The participants did an awesome job," said Malati Patil, senior electrical engineering major and organizer of the Bot Wars. "The objective here is to figure out what works, to learn and to improve the design for next year's competition."
