I spent last Saturday at the Western Canadian Robot Games in Calgary, Alberta. This was the 16th annual event but I had never been to it before. My friend Dave Hylands has been going every year for I think the last four or five years and always suggested I attend. He was right, it was a lot of fun.

I took some pictures (not great quality, but whatever). Find them here along with a short description for each one. The crowd was reportedly smaller this year than last but it was still well attended. The setup was very professional and the hosts were well organized.

I entered three robots: a linefollower, a minisumo and my walking metal hexapod. Eileen says it looks like a bug so I call it Metal Insect – got any better suggestions, leave me a comment. My linefollower did ok but not great. My minisumo didn’t do much better, its really starting to show its age against the tiny fast wedge robots. But the Metal Insect did catch quite a few eyes and was awarded Coolest Robot by the judges. I really was very proud as I spent quite a bit of time giving this robot some personality.

An annual tradition at the WCRG is the Solarbotic’s Barbaque afterwards. Dave Hrynkiw and the rest of the Solarbotics crew host a big dinner every year. It was great to spend another few hours talking about robots while quaffing beers and chowing down. I got to meet Dan Gates in person- he joined Solarbotics recently and is already busy creating new designs for them.

I’m definitely going back next year, I had a great time. I’m already planning a new minisumo robot, and I hope to have my Robomagellan robot working.