Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names

[Joe Johnson]

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.."?