Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

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.

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...

[Liam Fay]

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

[SeeleySWS]

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.

[AllenGregoryIV]

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.

[Jalerre]

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.

[Karibou]

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.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Karibou

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.

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

[BigJ]

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.

[patar8746]

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

[Lil' Lavery]

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.

[Nirnaeth]

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.

[JesseK]

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

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

<SNIP>

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.

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.

[pmcoburn]

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)

[Ben Martin]

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.