Old Man Notices A Thing: Lots of Robot Names

FIRST General Forum
#39

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

#40

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.

#41

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. :smiley:

#42

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

#43

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.

#44

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.

#45

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)

#46

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.

#47

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:

#48

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.

#49

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.)

#50

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.

#51

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.

#52

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

#53

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

#54

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)

#55

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)

#56

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.) :wink:

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! :wink:

#57

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.

#58

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