No Joke: Baka RoboCup "Stupidest Robot" Competition

Posted Aug 20, 2007 12:55 AM

By Evan Ackerman

Every other month there seems to be some sort of harder/better/faster/stronger robot competition going on, but this might be a first... The Baka RoboCup ("baka" means "foolish" or "stupid" in Japanese) aims to pit funny robots against each other in a mechanical comedy gigglematch. The rules are simple: each robot will have two minutes to impress a (human) audience and panel of judges and may the best (or worst) robot win. The robots themselves must be mechanical, they must make people laugh without the use of explosives (yes, that's in the rules), and they must be totally impractical and worthless in any capacity besides humor. The contest is set for November 4 in Tokyo, and the winning robot gets 500,000 yen (about $4200) to spend on whatever it is the world's stupidest robot spends money on.

[ BakaRobo (In Japanese) ] VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]