It was over in about 10 seconds. The spunky Six-Million-Dollar Mouse, its propeller whirring and threatening, charged without fear, even as The Crusher made its own assault with a spear-like arm ready to inflict damage.
The Mouse glanced off The Crusher and staggered toward a wall. The Crusher immediately turned and, like a crazed bull, rumbled in for the goring. The explosive hit left the Mouse on its furry-eared top and down for the count.
No mercy.
“You’ve got to expect it, when you see a robot built like that,” Mouse owner Chris Hannold said in quiet respect of 290-pound Crusher afterwards.
A rematch minutes later went pretty much the same. The Mouse lost its pink rubber nose on the first collision and died soon after when The Crusher plowed it into some barrels on the opposite wall.
Chris Hannold and his brother, Greg, marveled at The Crusher’s handiwork before loading their injured robot on a cart for the short trip back to the pits.
So goes a robot streetfight.
Chris Hannold organized Saturday’s invitation-only N.C. Robot Streetfight at the Rowan County Fairgrounds. Fast becoming a veteran of the robot wars, Hannold had announced the event, its rules and layout on his Web site, expecting to attract about five entries.
Maybe he could hold the fights in a parking lot, Hannold thought.
Instead, Hannold drew the interest of 18 robot owners, representing 16 teams and nine states. In the future, Hannold hopes to open the streetfight to the public.
Competitors fight in lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight and super-heavyweight divisions. For Saturday, Hannold fashioned a cage-like arena with walls (and spectators) that were protected by barrels, wire and Plexiglas.
The Rowan County Rescue Squad had a vehicle on hand in case of any injuries, and all participants signed a waiver of liability before the competition.
“It’s all about building something” and competing, said Matt Ulrey, the 23-year-old creator and builder of The Crusher, which competed recently on popular television show, “Battlebots.”
“Hopefully, nobody gets killed or injured in the process.”
The names of some of the robot warriors Saturday offered a clue to both the combative and light-hearted nature of the competitors: Renegade Chiropractor, Space Madness, Return of
XAK, Danger Zone, Nar Whal, Maim, Two-Fisted, Evil Con Carne and Village Idiot.
The Crusher’s real name is CUAD, which stands for “Crush Up And Destroy.” Team Cuad is the four-person Ulrey family from Plain City, Ohio: Parents Steve and Ellen and sons Matt and Mike all wear black shirts and tan shorts as part of their crew attire.
The Ulreys combined a vacation to Black Mountain with a side trip to Hannold’s N.C. Streetfight in Salisbury.
Ellen Ulrey recalls how other parents spent much of their lives traveling with their children to baseball and basketball games. “Now we’re into this, and we’re traveling all around the country,” she said.
The Crusher, a glorified mini-tank, gleams in silver and blue. It uses its arm both for supreme maneuverability and as an active weapon. Other robots might have spinning saw blades, hammers or propellers, such as the ones on the Six-Million-Dollar Mouse.
The Crusher seeks and destroys, piloted by remote control. If flipped by a collision, the arm allows it to right itself and keep on fighting. In the televised “Battlebots” competition in San Francisco, The Crusher lost its arm in the last 18 seconds of the competition and lost the match on points, 23 to 22.
Matt Ulrey, who will be returning to college at Columbus State in the fall, has been serious about the robot fighting for about six months. People involved in the robot wars enjoy computers, electronics, mechanical engineering, or “they just like building stuff,” he says, adding “You’ve got to know something before you can build it.”
Ellen Ulrey says son Matt has two more designs he’s working on.
“They’re going to be more powerful than this one,” she predicts. Of all the robots she has seen in her travels, “They are getting more and more sophisticated — vicious — let’s put it that way,” Ellen Ulrey says.
Matt Lukes fought his newly designed Space Madness for the first time Saturday, and it immediately impressed the other owners.
Lukes, 28, has a patent pending on the robot’s drive system. Back in Independence, Ky., he works as a mechanical engineer who designs packaging machinery. He considers the robots a hobby now, but his goal is to reach a televised match without a sponsor, perform well and land the big bucks of a good sponsor.
“I could do this professionally,” Lukes said.
Lukes estimated that he has a $1,200 to $1,300 investment in Space Madness, which relies on an eight-channel remote control to make it agile and quick. Lukes wears silver-studded biker gloves as he operates his robot.
The robots looked like Science Fair projects gone haywire. This is a sport — and one can see it in the pit area — that depends on metal fabrication, soldering, welding, wiring, circuit boards, drill presses, battery packs and grinders.
Saturday’s streetfight didn’t offer any prize money. Participants paid a $40 entry fee, and Hannold gave away T-shirts and prizes such as a scanner and DVD player.
A North Rowan graduate who specializes in computer support services, Hannold knows of only a couple of guys doing robots full-time and living off the royalties from their television appearances.
Hannold himself has made all-expense-paid trips to “Robotica” in Hollywood and “Robot Wars” in London. He also has set up his own company, Litewav Robotics.
For now, he and other robot enthusiasts feel as though they’re on the leading edge of something big.
Maybe even bigger than The Crusher.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or e-mail him at mwineka@salisburypost.com
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