Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Not the weightiest of topics but after years of having a conversation that was something like this:

Person One: "I think we should have [Fill in robot feature] just like we had on CD-[Fill in robot sequence number]."
Person Two: "No no, that was CD-[Fill in different robot sequence number]"
Person One: "No, I don't mean THAT feature, I mean THIS OTHER feature."
Person Three: "You're both wrong. We actually had that mechanism first on CD-[Fill in lower robot sequence number]
Persons One and Two: "What? You're crazy. We're not even taking about that mechanism and even if we were, you have the robot number wrong. The robot you are thinking of was CD-[Different Number] for [Fill in FIRST's Official Name of Game]."
Person Three: "You mean [Fill in Common Name of Game, example, The Soccer Year]?"
Persons One and Two: "YES!"
Person Three: "Oh yeah, you're right. Please continue..."

I have come around to the idea that robots should have names, actual names and names of the form "TeamNameOrIntialsOrIconicPhrase"-"NumberOfYearsTeamExisted" don't count. In fact, I go even farther, practice robots and concept chassis should have actual names too.

TeamName_SequenceNumber names have some positives (specifically you can know which robot was built before/after another) but on the negative side, I believe you give up the ability to have a real conversation about robot without having to get into conversation like the above.

Since I have been on teams that have named their robots and chassis, it is so much better. I still sometimes get corrected about a robot but no more than the number of times I call my son CJ by my daughter's name Sarah* (I'm terrible with names).

Seriously, year's hence do you think there will be any doubt about what Robonaut (#118) robot you are taking about when you say "Arsenal" or which Overclocked (#246) robot will be taking about when we say "Scorpion"? No, no there will not.

So... I have 3 questions and I'm out of here.

First, what do you think about the whole naming robots thing?

Second, can you share names that you especially like/dislike?

Third, am I just getting old** or are more teams this year giving their robots real names this year?

Discuss.

Dr. Joe J.

*i.e. about as often as random chance would predict -- I'm terrible with names, but I blame my mom. She still calls me Ruthie more often than I deserve ;-)

**Old people being famous for noticing something and then deciding that the thing came into existence the second they first became aware of it. Actually, when I frame it like that, young people are guilty of this too. Parhaps my introductory phrase should be "Am I just being a human or.."?

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Personally, I remember robots mostly by their team number and year (ie. 254's 2014 robot). I couldn't tell you its name, and I even already forgot that 118's robot is named "Arsenal" this year.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

With the exception of 2006 (rookie year), Dawgma has given each robot a unique name. I still end up calling any of our robots that shoot things 'Darryl' (our 2012 robot's name).

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Robots should have names. You're right that it does make it easier to refer back to past robots, and lends a little personality to the 'bot.

95 has always given each robot a unique name, generally derived from a famous scientist or engineer. Our team name, in fact, comes from a corruption of a robots name. We had named our 2000 robot after Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, but somewhere along the line it got garbled by announcers into Grasshopper. The team rolled with it since it was as good a team name/mascot as anything, even going so far as to paint a grasshopper on the side of the robot. It's not quite a moth stuck in a relay, but I like to think Adm. Hopper would have approved of the connection.

Other notable names in the teams history; Isaac ('97), Tesla(01), Fynmen('02, and the 'bot I drove), Watson ('11, with Crik as the mini-bot) et. al.

The name is chosen near the end of the build, based on a vote of suggestions offered up by team members. Particular weight is given to names of those who we feel reflect a particular trait we see in the robot, however tenuous the connection. Gauss, for instance, had a lengthy ball shooter that reminded us somewhat of a Gauss cannon of sci/fi fame.

This years robot is named Kovaka, after Dave Kovaka, a former coach and mentor on 95 that sadly passed away this past year.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Made me realize something interesting...I'll remember our own team's robots names, but generally refer to other teams robots not by whatever they named it but by *team name - game concept/year*. But if I tried to refer to a robot that I was a mentor for by the game concept - I'd probably have to think longer about it and get mixed up. Usually robot names are referencing a feature of the robot or an inside joke on the team relevant to that year.

The only exception being #printerbot.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

We've always named our robots. Often, we name them in honor of mentors who left the team. In fact, I've noticed that the robots named after former mentors tend to be better.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

First, robots should have names
Second, "land shark", especially because the students who named it were unaware of the SNL reference.
Third, yes you are, but this particular topic is not persuasive evidence of that. The alternative to getting old is to die young, so....

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I fully disagree. I don't think Arsenal or Scorpion are extremely descriptive of the robot (let alone what team they come from). That would be like FIRST naming one of the previous games "Flame Storm" or "The closest thing you will get to a water game". It doesn't match with the game and they could be interchanged even more easily than Krunch 8 being switched with Krunch 10. With [team phrase]-[number of years in existence] you will at least get close to the right number and there's a good chance you will have the right team.

I personally do not know the name of any robot that isn't some derivative of the team's name and that I haven't worked on. I feel in the situation presented Person One should have a picture or video ready to demonstrate the feature and why it is beneficial.

I especially do not like it when a game announcer uses robot names instead of team names or numbers. I don't understand what teams or alliances are doing well/poorly when I hear this: "Donkey is pinned to the wall by Phoenix while Sasquatch shoots into the high goal. Ge0rge is holding open the Sally Port Door for Medusa's Snakes to drive through."*

There are 127 events this year. If you assume there are two robots at each event that are notable to remember than you need to know 254 robot names. To remember the names of these robots along with any robot that is notable from previous years is a huge ordeal and is near impossible if the name has nothing to relate it to their team or the game.

*These names are made up, I apologize if your robot's name appeared in here.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

1. Yes robots should have names. We have always named our robots.
2. We normally choose a name that is weather related ‘Cloudy” ,“Storm”, ‘Thunder”, and this year “Hail” . I am not sure why we had ‘Star Shine “ one year but it worked.
For other programs it depends on what the robot looks like
3. I teach robotics and it seems that generally the kids that name the robots are the ones that invest a lot of themselves in the robot or the team. The students that are there for the ride are pretty lackadaisical about naming things. I am not sure if that counts as getting old just an observation.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

My team has always named our robots. Our tradition is that anyone who's there when we get a driving chassis gets to come up with and vote on a name for the robot. For the past two years, we've also decorated our robot to match its name (last year was a dinosaur named Pythagasourus Rex and this year its the evil bunny from Monty Python (the Carbonogg Beast). Its fun, helps teams remember us, and has won us an imagery award every year we've done it.

On an interesting note, if someone cannibalizes an old robot chassis or merges two robots (like our engineering class likes to do) and makes a robot with a different purpose, it gets a new name even though the originally named chassis was still there.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

This is being listed as one of the cooler stories I learned last weekend at UMD.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

But are you referring to what robots are named, what their names are called, what robots are called, or what the robots are?

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Torbot naming rules: Gotta have "Tor" in the name somewhere. Bonus points if it's a bad pun.

We've had a couple of Tormentors, Entorprise (with Galileo, the minibot), Trogtor, Trajector, JaniTOR, and Bantor. I'm missing a few here...

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Has to be one named Doctor.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

If you ask me, this sounds like one of those ideas that looks good on paper, but in practice will make things even more confusing. Names are a lot easier to remember when you come up with them, and I can only really recall a few others.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Don't think there was.

OTOH, then there's the RoboDox--every last one of those robots is named after a specific branch of being a doctor. Trying to remember what they called this one...

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

We're a rookie team this year, but being a robot with a tall blocker, we named it the Iron Curtain. Kinda fits what the robot can do?

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

2007: GhettoBot
2008: the Beat Bot
2009: I don't remember Lunacy
2010: the Covered Wagon
2011: Bruce
2012: the Toilet Bowl
2013: Deus Ex Machina
2014: Phoenix
2015: the Bus
2016: Horton

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Robot names have been around for a while; when I look back at a lot of the heaviest CD posting years (2003-2005) I see plenty of robot names; I don't know how much farther back they go, but I'd guess that far more than half of the robots that have competed have had names, even if only known within the team that built it. When you put six plus weeks of creative work into something, it's human nature to name it.

Favorite names and favorite robots seem to go together. As I started a mental list of favorites, I hit a dozen before typing any. I knew I would leave too many out, so I'll pass. In most cases, one word names are best, and most of the memorable multi-word names are puns or (usually geekish) references.

We're only in our fifth year, but we've named all but one of our competition robots and all three of our prototype/practice robots.

2012 Rebound Rumble: T1G3R (All our later competition robots are officially T1G3R^year-2011.)
2013 Ultimate Ascent: T1G3R² (not properly a name by Dr. Joe's description; internally, we simply call it the frisbee launcher because all of the students that had anything to do with it but one have graduated.)
2014 Aerial Assist: Buzz (our prototype/practice robot was Woody, named after the primary material in its chassis, and Buzz was a natural for the Aluminum follow-on)
2015 Recycle Rush: Atlas (Practice was Peabody; forced names, but names nonetheless.)
2016 FIRST Stronghold: T1GGR [tee one double guh er] (It's bottom is made out of rubber, and its top is made out of springs*, it's bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. The practice robot was named R00 [are double naught] after Tigger's "little brother".)

As you may have guessed from my commentary, my favorite names for our robots are T1GGR and Buzz, probably because they came about most naturally. Still, they're enough to give me a Disney spell.

* Yes, we know we swapped these around.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

1. I think every team should name their robots, but I don't expect anyone not on the team to remember them. I can't remember offhand other teams' robot names apart from the most literal ones (Simbot Jordan played the basketball game). I refer to most robots as "Team No + Year."

2. I'm a big fan of robot names that commit to a theme that makes sense with the team name. All of 4930's robots have been named after Muppets.

3. I haven't noticed a huge change from previous years.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Bear metal usually does Bear puns in the robot names (2011 was Ursa Major/Ursa Minor for the mini-bot, 2012 was Bearmageddon, 2013 Bearadactyl, and 2015 is Xcalibear (the X signifying their 10th robot)).

that being said, the robot names are like flavor text to me; they're fun when they're clever, but I mostly ignore them in favor of saying the team's name or number and the year, which are what actually matter to me

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

It's team tradition to name the robot Rowdy "insert team year here". It gets a little confusing since the team started in 2000 with Rowdy 1. Overall I've never really heard any Indiana team refer to another Indiana team's robot by its name, just by its year (i.e. Cyber Blue's 2014 robot)

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

IIRC Every robot by 71 is called the Beast. Then again, anything related to Hammond is just called "Beast".

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I agree. Engineers used to be much better at this, and it is to our discredit that has fallen by the wayside.
If someone tells you they used "The Lord Chancellor" to measure a part, aren't you inclined to trust them?
Or if the locomotive is named the Rocket, wouldn't you assume it goes fast?
Or if you call your airplane the Flyer, presumably it really does fly?

Really only boats have carried on the tradition of great individual names that (in my opinion) all technology should live up to...

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

We've historically had the theme of warlords, though we've strayed a bit in recent years.

2008: Xerxes
2009: Auto Von Bismarck
2010: Cixi
2011: Ivan the Terrible
2012: Yaroslavl
2013: Sun Tzu
2014: Odin
2015: Valkyrie
2016: Orion

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Our team has had a lot of great names but Oddjob (2013) and Tiny Tim XL (2014) are my favorites... They both came easily to the team because of some funny inside joke during the season.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

We've decided to start a four year naming cycle so each class only builds one of every robot. Ultraviolet, Gamma Ray, Infrared, and X-ray our robots. This year is the first to reuse a name its Violet 2016 or Violet II or something like that, the ending isn't settled yet. No one needs a robot named Visible, Radio, or Microwave (one of our old Vex robots was Microwave). Practice robots normally get odd names Oscar, Domino, etc. This whole system could change if some robot ends up needing a better.more fitting name.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

2014: SmaugBot (obviously from The Hobbit)
2015: Debbie (from the seahorse episode of Spongebob)
2016: Calcifer (a fire demom from some anime, I think)

I don't remember the name of our 2013 bot from 415.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

When I was a student on 1189, we named our robots, alternating between male and female names/robots, trying to relate the name to the game, and we tried to go in alphabetical order. This particular practice was short-lived: it started in 2006 and ended in 2010. It was important to us to pick names that would work easily in conversation and would make us feel like we were talking about an actual person.

2006: Balzac (don't remember the story behind this one)
2007: Charlotte (after the spider in Charlotte's Web, makes sense for the game)
2008: Atlas (technically after this guy, but we also had a lot of Ayn Rand readers on the team that year...) (alphabetically out of order)
2009: Diana (goddess of the moon)
2010: Erdos (no relation to the game, notable mathematician)

The name was decided based on a team vote, and the practice stopped in 2011 because we couldn't decide on a name as a team. The team still names their robots but I don't know how that decision is made nowadays.

The naming was more for internal purposes; I don't think anyone ever expected anyone outside our team to remember the names, but to us, the names made the robots feel more like our children, our own creation, and we felt more invested in them. We always referred to the robot by its name, and rarely called them just "the robot". If I tried to explain the connection I felt with Atlas (my first robot), you would probably think I was crazy, and I don't think I would have that connection if he didn't have a name.

That being said...whenever I talk/ed to someone else about those robots, I refer to them as "our 2008 robot", etc, because I never expect anyone else to remember the names. I think the only robot name from another team that I remember is 148's Tumbleweed.

I don't think it matters how a team names their robot as long as it works for them. Names in general do look good on promotional material (i.e. "Team 9999 Proudly Presents: ROBOTNAME"). As a lot of others have said, hardly anyone really remembers the robot names anyways - it only works in conversation if both parties know the robot's name, which rarely happens, so eventually it just becomes "hey remember that feature from 469's 2010 robot" etc.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

You expect me to remember not only every team's name and number but now every robot's name from every year!?!?!? Yeah, that's never going to happen.

I'll stick to the "Team Name/Number - Year Robot" convention.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I've always heard that "raptor" is a cursed name (just ask 254). Otherwise I like descriptive (not overly( and memorable names. Like the ones 118 has used the last few years.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I personally enjoy naming robots and frequently try to remember the names of as many robots as possible. When a robot is given a good name, it helps (in my opinion) individualize it and give it some character/personality. Not everyone is going to bother remembering names, though. It's a lot easier to just remember the team number and the year the robot was made. To each their own, I guess. Might as well drop a list of 1902's robot names while I'm here ;)

2007: Fire Pig
2008: Walrus Pig
2009: B.D.P.
2010: Bacon Strips
2011: Disco Pig
2012: Porcus Magnus
2013: W-Ham-O
2014: Boxer
2015: Pork Lift
2016: Battering Ham

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

We name both our competition and practice/second robots each year.

2006 The Revolver
2007 Mantis, IRI: Nessie
2008 Thaddeus
2009 μ and Sherman
2010 Scorpion and Kirby
2011 Sampson, Destroyer of Worlds, Minibot: He-man, Master of the Universe; Squeaky, Minibot: Pipsqueaky
2012 Swish and Mordecai
2013 Whisbee and Rizzler
2014 Jaws and Inertia
2015 A.N.D.Y. and The Claw
2016 Knight Fury and Ballista

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

S.P.A.M. has named its robot each year based on either some specific feature or characteristic, an inside joke or pun, or some random name that was thrown out on the table and stuck for reasons unknown. If you scroll through their robot photos at the bottom of their history page, you'll see the names as you mouse over each photo. I'm pretty fond of this year's "Brave Sir Lobbin'", but it all started with the rookie year robot Kenny (from South Park) because it kept dying.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I love robot names. They add a sense of pride to the team, and while they might not stick in other teams memories as much as the team number and game year each robot is unique and deserves some recognition.

We started giving robots and practice robots unique names starting in 2014. Before 2014 they were all Land Shark Mk 1, 2, etc.

This year comp bot is Quickstrike and our practice robot is Farquad.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

This is the first year we've officially 'named' a robot. We found it much easier to refer to the bucket of bolts than just "The robot", since where we work there are 2 other robots being built at the same time, so "the robot" isn't very helpful.

We called it Donkey given all the "I like that boulder" jokes at Kickoff.

We also called it Donkey because whenever we have to troubleshoot or repair something it's a pain in the $@#$@#$@#.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

This is generally how I refer to most teams' robots in the past. Unless it's a handful of memorable robots (Simbot Jordan, Batman & Robin, Tumbleweed...), I'll go "Hey, remember [team]'s robot in 2013?"

For the most part, that's because I can't remember all the names, but I remember what they looked like.

For 1923's robot names, anyone on the team can suggest a robot name - but the seniors get to vote on it. We like this, and it feels the most 'theirs'. In the last few years we've also named the practice robot.

Sometimes they're silly, sometimes they're 'cool'... For the most part, I like the later few years of names a lot better than our early days.

2006: Sir-Lance-A-Bot
2007: Optimus Prime
2008: Knight Rider
2009: Low Budget Awesome - this robot didn't actually have a name, until a judge decided this was its name. It stuck.
2010: Wo-bot
2011: La Flama Blanca
2012: La Flama Azul - this was the closest we ever got to a 'naming scheme'- two years in a row...
2013: RoBART - for my father.
2014: Tactical Snail - after a snapchat joke caught on. Practice robot, Turbo.
2015: MKI: X - our tenth machine. Practice robot, X-terminator
2016: Knightmare. Practice robot, Loaded Griller #6 Combo. (sigh.)

When I was at Clarkson & working with 229, all the robots had math-related names. That tradition is no longer around :(

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Like Eric said, on 1675 we mainly name as an image/internal/pride thing.

They were all mostly UPS puns, but In our 10th year (2014) we wanted to reinvigorate our "superhero team" image and have been naming our competition/practice bots after superheros/their real names since.

2005: Super Uper
2006: Super Uper Mk 2 / Holey Ghost (The robot had a lot of speedholed polycarb...)
2007: Super Uper Mk 3 / Sky Crane
2008: Mach 1675 (Like Speed Racer's Mach 5)
2009: Nom-V (our intake belt eventually had big chevrons)
2010: Uptimus Prime 6 (6th bot, and kicker mechanism sounded like a transformer while reloading)
2011: Uptisaurus Rex (roller claw looked like a dinosaur head)
2012: Uptius Erving (named after Dr. J)
2013: Upollo's Chariot
2014: Professor X (comp) / Charles Xavier (practice) - 10th year (X) plus the name sounded cool.
2015: Atlas (comp) / Erik Josten (practice) - Lifting things I guess, and he was from Milwaukee
2015: The Punisher (comp) / Frank Castle (practice) - His last name is Castle! Also we got to put sweet skulls on our claw.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

3061's names by year, some interesting stories:

2009: serik (team composed largely of trekkies)
2010: serik (same thing)
2011: Steve (name tag with "hello my name is steve" found in KOP for no apparent reason)
2012: Lucy (team voted, 1st trophy in team history earned, starting traditional female naming)
2013: Sally (names voted from here out)
2014: Annie
2015: Bonnie
2016: Morgana

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Since this has turned into a "list your robot names thread," I wanna play along.

2006: Dawgma I
2007: Deuce
2008: Galactus
2009: Alice
2010: Darwin
2011: Geoffrey
2012: Darryl
2013: Oddjob
2014: Peter the Great Egg
2015: Kaylee
2016: Sleipnir

We don't build practice bots, so no practice bots to name. However we do have a gradually evolving test chassis (primarily used for programming and occassionally serving food) named Runt.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Our team wants to create a culture where we celebrate and learn from our mistakes.

So... our robot is named Strike 207 this year. It represents the fact that we made 207 significant errors during build season. Next year, we hope to have a lower number. :D

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Ours have been bad i-puns. Meh.

I too refer to other robots as "team" in "year" when referencing designs, performance or general inspiration for something. These are specific to what I notice or who I interact with that particular year and generally have altered the course of my team's robot history. Here is a list I came up with in just a few minutes:

968/195 in 2006
Poofs in 2007
PINK in 2007
330 in 2007
384/540/1086 Collaboration of 2007
Simbots in 2008
148 in 2008
121 in 2008
Swamp Thing in 2009
973 in 2009
HOT in 2009
Robonaut Swerve Design talk from Champs in 2009 (still have that teardrop plate...)
HOT in 2010
148 in 2010
469 in 2010
Wildstang in 2011
Karthik's talk at champs in 2011
2363 in 2011
33 in 2012
1717 in 2012
254 in 2012
Robonauts in 2012
HOT in 2013
610 in 2013
Simbots in 2013
Robonauts in 2013
469 in 2013
The Perfect Autonomous of 2013
PINK in 2014
225 in 2014
2363 in 2014
The Epic Transformer vs Decepticon Matches of 2014
2056 in 2015
Wave in 2015
Simbots in 2015

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Because our team name is B.R.E.A.D. we are naming our robots types of bread. For example, our robot this year is named Focaccia.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Runt. I love it.

Watched the video. Not the campiest video associated with FIRST I've ever seen but... ...it's up there. I'm just sayin'

Dr. Joe J.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

4930, Electric Mayhem, names our robots after Muppets:

2013 (built in off-season for Rah-cha-cha ruckus): Scooter
2014: Gonzo
2015: Beaker
2016: Zoot (practice bot: Tooz)

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

In 2013, we named the robot Tyrannosaucer Rex because someone decided to decorate it like a T-Rex.

For 2014-2016, we have had fire-themed names
2014: DJ Fireball
2015: Phoenix
2016: CrossFire

Some of the students called last year's practice robot "black market robot," but it was never official. This year's practice bot is just called the practice bot.

We also currently have an additional practice defense bot name Tech-stinguisher.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I don't know if it's just me, but I've noticed a lot of robot names with variations on the word "scorpion" (see "scorpio" as well). Just hoping that we don't end up having an alliance with three robots with the same name :ahh:

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Several of our robots have names that are not suitable for public consumption.
Not sure that helps but if you linger around the shop long enough you'll learn this tribal knowledge :D.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

On our team, all our robots have names. In my time, we have had 2014) Gunny 2015)Jake and Elwood 2016) Mittens. It is honestly much easier at least from the team prospective to call the robots by their name (plus hilarious to hear Mittens called out by the announcer.)

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

343's students always name our robots and we generally try to name them something relavent to that specific robot, for example our 2015 robot is named Armstrong, it has big arms, our 06 robot is named cyclone, it has a spirally thingy that brings the balls from the floor intake to the shooter. I personally love the robots having their own unique names that make them easily identifiable and it allows for "dedication" to someone as we have done twice, 2010, John O'Connor, JOC, a former student who died in a car accident, and 2007, Andre, the janitor who helped us out ALOT.

I will say that I do not remember the names of other teams' robots and refer to them simply by team number then year, however I do know the robot names for most of our 17 competition robots and I refer to them by name most o the time.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I have spoken to several alumni of other teams who refer to their teams robots by name in conversation. While the teams themselves are well known, stating the robot's name without a year for context means absolutely nothing to me. I may remember exactly what your robot looked like in 2010 but I haven't a clue what it was called.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

STORM Robotics has been going in alphabetical order since our sophomore year as a team.

2009: Stormy
2010: Brave Beckham
2011: Crimson Claw
2012: Donald Duct
2013: Electra
2014: Fonzie
2015: Genesis
2016: Hephaestus

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

From what I can remember...

1999: Crusher
2000: Cattywampus
2003: Little Box of Terror
2004: Monkey Business
2005: X-Factor
2006: Triple Threat
2007: Screwball
2008: Apex
2010: Serendipity
2011: Tower of Terror
2012: Echo Charlie
2013: Little Box of Terror 2
2015: DELTA
2016: Punch

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

We generally take nominations around week 4 of build season, when the robot design is mostly finalized, and then do a name vote a couple weeks later. The name is usually some sort of pun.

2016: R.O.U.S.
2015:Totedile
2014: Ballbasaur
2013: Panda
2012: Bowser's Castle
2011: Dr. Aughn
2010: Caspian
2009: Archie
2008: Eddie (Edward Scissor Lift)

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

We have always named the robot something Australian themed with the practice robot getting a "fun" name:

2010: Wombot
2011: That's Not a Knife (T-NAK) with mini-bot Spoon
2012 practice: Mothslayer
2012: MATE
2013 practice: 10Cims
2013: Ikara (throwing stick in an Aboriginal language)
2014 practice: Enterprise
2014: Maloo (thunder in an Aboriginal language)
2015 practice: Cockroach
2015: Kosciuszko (tallest mountain in Australia)
2015 WARC (China trip): Dapao (Cannon in Chinese)
2016 practice: Excali-plier
2016: Aragung (shield in an Aboriginal language)

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

We on 1519 have always named our robots, usually shortly before our first event, when the robot is mostly completed, once the robot's character has evidenced itself.

Well, except for 2007, when we never came up with a robot name. Our 2007 robot was also the least successful robot we've ever had. We set our objectives too high, and never finished either of the major capabilities that we intended. (See Second-System Effect.) At the one and only regional we went to that year, we nearly exclusive played defense. Ironically, it was the highest seeding position (#3) we would ever have at a regular season tournament until our sixth year in 2010.

(To this day, I don't know if we didn't name the robot because it wasn't deserving of a name, or if it was because we didn't name the robot that it didn't perform as intended.) ;)

In any case, since then, we've always named our robot!

Team 1519's robot names are as follows:

• 2005 - Elvis, the King of Rack and Rail (our tetra-placing mechanism used a rack traveling on a rail)
• 2006 - Sergeant York (after the famous sharpshooter from World War I)
• 2007 -
• 2008 - Fezzik and Speed Racer (our dual-configuration robot)
• 2009 - Colonel York (our fictitious name if Sergeant York were promoted)
• 2010 - Vortex (used a vacuum to hold the soccer ball, making all the noise of a vacuum cleaner)
• 2011 - Kanga and Roo (Roo was the minibot)
• 2012 - General Vesuvius (general in the sergeant-> colonel theme for our "shooting" robots; Vesuvius for the way the partially completed robot had spouted basketballs out the top of the harvester like a volcano spewing lava bombs)
• 2013 - Discobolus Rex (after the Greek discus thrower)
• 2014 - Kaizen ("continuous improvement" and partly in remembrance of Team #1276, Kaizen Blitz, the alliance captain that picked us in our first ever regional win back in 2006.)
• 2015 - King Tote-n-Can-um (stacks totes and cans...)
• 2016 - Lady Launch-a-Lot (our medieval boulder launcher)

No idea. In general, I don't know the names of other teams' robots and wouldn't anticipate they'd know our team's robot names, either.

However, we are getting old, Joe! ;)

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I completely agree, I think its kinda cheating when you use those types of names.... Last year we had a practice bot named Sir Flaps A Lot because of our intake mechanism we had on it and we thought that probably would be a good name to call our competition bot so we named our comp. robot the Black Kight to go with the color and our team mascot. we also do VEX and Battlebots as a club at our school and we have always named them.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I am actually in charge of the robot naming on the team. I go around and take nominations from every team member and compile a list (the rule is it should either be tied into something with an X in it. Cat themed or related to the game). I delete anything that doesn't meet the criteria or is obscene (one of our students nominate Classy Cat which is the name of a well known strip joint in the area)and at the end of the meeting we put the name up to a vote. It's kind of a big deal on the team. I even make logos for the robots and make burrons to give away.
I remember back in 2005 our robot coach, Brittany and spirit leader, Lizzy really wanted to name the robot X-WhAAAt!?! (which horrified the mentors) and actively campaigned amongst the students to vote for that name which ended up winning (much to the mentors horror). Lizzie and Brittany actually came up with a cheer for the name and all sorts of idea and itt was our most successful robot ever.
Previous robot names:
2005: X-WhAAAt!?!
2006 = XOX-Cat
2007 = X-Static
2008 = Xtender
2009 = Apollo X
2010 = X-Force
2011 = LegXXcy
2012 = Exxio Auditonimous
2013 = SphinX
2014 = Xcelente'
2015 = XCycler
2016 = Sir X Alot

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I think robot names are nice when you are discussing past competitions - ex., "we used this type of motor for CamMOElot". It also gives new students a sense of a brand, a sense of the history of the team.

Each year MOE 365 has a contest to name the robot where the team votes on team members' name suggestions. (Also for team shirt designs, which is another thread.) The name must have MOE in it and hopefully, but not always, reflective of the year's theme. Examples:

CaMOElot
TerMOEnator
MOEhawk
DynaMOE

After so many years, it is getting hard to think up names, but the students always come through!

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Since a spammer decided to revive this thread...

I've been on a few different teams over the years, and each had its own method of going about it.

1293 (2004-2006): No particular pattern--it drifted around a few times. Bob, Ockham's Raizor (and Hockham), Chomp (and Circumstance)

1618 (2007-2009): By about 2:00 PM at my first event with them, with me nursing a sore jaw from the arm whacking me and the team deciding to rename the robot on the spot, the pattern was simple: whatever the malady was, at least until their final year when we decided to get stylish. What Robot? Uppercut, Speedy Debris, The Blackout

2815 (2009-2013): This might be the most notorious naming system in FIRST--to the point that when we gave our alliance partners shirts for picking us, they couldn't wear them to school. Y'see, 2815 was started at the University of South Carolina, home of the Gamecocks, where the fight song goes like this. Co-founder Stephen Kowski set the precedent of honoring the mascot in the robot name, and it just stuck until the team (after my departure) moved to the high school and rebranded for 2015. Cocked and Loaded, $@#$@#$@#$@#-A-Doodle-Doo, Cockasaurus Rex, Incocknito, Cocket Launcher

4901 (2014-2016): 4901 operated out of 2815's corner of the USC shop after they vacated. 2815 hadn't rebranded in 2014, and while both teams had the same garnet and black on that year we knew naming our robots the same way would be unabashed gimmick infringement. (And, frankly, we were having to veto more and more would-be robot names towards the end.) So we drew inspiration from elsewhere on campus. Sandstorm I, Sandstorm II, Sandstorm III

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

423 has a tradition of letting our mentor's daughter choose the robot's official name. She is pretty young, so they are usually things like Bunny, Fluffy, or Pickles. Its funny to hear the MCs say the names of the robots and they're like "and on the Red Alliance, The Destroyer, Beast Bot, and Fluffy." They are often chosen before kickoff, so they rarely describe the robot well.

Since the name doesn't describe the robot, we also tend to give our robots nicknames based on their appearances. Some notable ones include: Fish Tank (it was basically a tall square frame wrapped in clear plastic), Toucan Looking Backwards (the intake looked like a toucan's beak facing backwards), and Arm Bot (basically a hunk of aluminum with a giant arm on it).

Not sure if 365 is aware of this but since 423 is always next to you in the pits we like to come up with alternative names for your robots. Some of the better ones I can think of off the top of my head are: The DeMOElisher, MOE Money MOE Problems, MOEstradamus, and MOEnetary Compensation. If you ever manage to run out of robot names, just hit me up.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

I love the MOE names, I know they work on it, but it's so cool to see the names.

My home FRC team, Sab-BOT-age, calls robots by number, this year will be DEWBOT XIII. It's great, pay homage to Downingtown East and West robotics. And I love the number, it's like yes, we've built a number of these robots and every year they get better and better.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Our team has been naming our robots since our inception, simply because we find it fun, and like someone else mentioned earlier, it gives each robot its own personality in a way. We usually name our robots after some silly joke someone makes, such as our most recent robot, which was named "Richina". This happened because there are literally 3 mentors on our team with the first name of Rich, and some of my teammates wanted a girl's name for once. As a joke, someone suggested "Richina (The female version of Rich)", and it stuck.

I think having robot names can be helpful, assuming everyone in the conversation knows the robot you're talking about by name. Within our team, it is helpful because we're still a pretty young team and most of us have been involved since the beginning, so we know basically everything there is to know about the robots. However, in the event that not everyone knows a robot by name, then that could lead right back to the original problem.

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Interesting thread.

I do think robots should be named. It's fun. However, when referring to other team's robots, we generally just refer to the team number and the game. It would be too hard to also remember robot names and correlate them. For example, I would refer to "1114's Recycle Rush robot", not "Simbot Sideswipe".

We named our first robot (for 2016 Stronghold) "Mergius Maximus" and I suspect our future robot names will try to play with the "Merge" theme. We'll see how well that works :p

Re: Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names
 

Back in 2009 when 1678 became Citrus Circuits we have been naming our robots after citrus in some fashion.

2009: Lemon Squeeze: Juice Master 1678
2010: Orange Crush
2011: Optimus Lime
2012: The Juicer
2013: The E-Lime-O-Nator
2015: Lemon Drop

We have had 2 memorially named robots in the last few years.
2014: Beca, named for my late wife.
2016: Adrian, named for a former team member turned mentor of the team.

I've got some good citrus themed names I've been wanting to use for years saved up.