Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names

[ratdude747]

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.

[Oromus]

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

[MechEng83]

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

[Gary Dillard]

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.

[EricLeifermann]

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.

[Jaci]

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 $@#$@#$@#.

[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

[frcguy]

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.

[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)