Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names

[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