Jun 25 2015
Engineers who work at Neato Robotics don’t just design highly advanced robot vacuums by day. At night and on weekends, they obsessively create revolutionary robots that are drawing national attention in two popular robotic competitions.
Team Neato's Ghost Raptor robot is competing in ABC TV's BattleBots series on Sunday nights at 9:00/8:00c. (Photo: Business Wire)
Team Neato is one of 24 teams competing in the highly rated robot fighting and mashing competition called BattleBots® on ABC television at 9:00/8:00 p.m. Sunday nights.
Neato’s Chuck Pitzer, who leads the Neato team, will be featured in the June 28 episode. Pitzer is something of a legend in BattleBots lore, having competed 5 times in the original series that started in 1999. Other members of his team are current and former Neato engineers and friends of the company.
After a 13 year hiatus, the new BattleBots series, which premiered on June 21, features robots from teams across the country who battle each other in an elimination tournament format, with one final champion left standing at the end of the six episodes. Using remote control, teams try to destroy their opponent’s robot by running them into dangerous hammers, circular saws and spikes. Not for the faint of heart, the BattleBots series is expected to draw millions of viewers during its prime-time spot, and showcase the next generation of robots with new designs and advanced features.
Team Neato has entered Ghost Raptor, a kinetic-energy bar-spinner, swift-moving and agile robot weighing 248.8 pounds. With Ghost Raptor’s system-wide 40HP, this is one mean fighting machine.
Two weeks ago, another Neato-sponsored team competed in the $1.5 million NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge in Massachusetts. The task for the 20 teams was to demonstrate that their robot could locate and collect geologic samples from a large and varied landscape, without human control. According to NASA, “the objective is to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotic manipulation technologies. These innovations may enhance NASA's space exploration capabilities and could have applications on Earth, continuing the nation's leadership in robotic technology.”
The Neato-sponsored team calls itself the AARG. The team consists entirely of current and former Neato engineers, all aficionados of the robot culture that is passionate about bringing robots into the home.
Asked if any of the technology found in these highly advanced robots finds its way into the Neato robot vacuums found in millions of households, Pitzer said “only the smart technology that doesn’t destroy your furniture.”