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)
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.
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:
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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
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
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)
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)
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.) 
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!
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.
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
I think robot names are nice when you are discussing past competitions - ex., “we used this type of motor for CamMOElot”. It also gives new students a sense of a brand, a sense of the history of the team.
Each year MOE 365 has a contest to name the robot where the team votes on team members’ name suggestions. (Also for team shirt designs, which is another thread.) The name must have MOE in it and hopefully, but not always, reflective of the year’s theme. Examples:
CaMOElot
TerMOEnator
MOEhawk
DynaMOE
After so many years, it is getting hard to think up names, but the students always come through!
Since a spammer decided to revive this thread…
I’ve been on a few different teams over the years, and each had its own method of going about it.
1293 (2004-2006): No particular pattern–it drifted around a few times. Bob, Ockham’s Raizor (and Hockham), Chomp (and Circumstance)
1618 (2007-2009): By about 2:00 PM at my first event with them, with me nursing a sore jaw from the arm whacking me and the team deciding to rename the robot on the spot, the pattern was simple: whatever the malady was, at least until their final year when we decided to get stylish. [strike]What Robot?[/strike] Uppercut, Speedy Debris, The Blackout
2815 (2009-2013): This might be the most notorious naming system in FIRST–to the point that when we gave our alliance partners shirts for picking us, they couldn’t wear them to school. Y’see, 2815 was started at the University of South Carolina, home of the Gamecocks, where the fight song goes like this. Co-founder Stephen Kowski set the precedent of honoring the mascot in the robot name, and it just stuck until the team (after my departure) moved to the high school and rebranded for 2015. Cocked and Loaded, $@#$@#$@#$@#-A-Doodle-Doo, Cockasaurus Rex, Incocknito, Cocket Launcher
4901 (2014-2016): 4901 operated out of 2815’s corner of the USC shop after they vacated. 2815 hadn’t rebranded in 2014, and while both teams had the same garnet and black on that year we knew naming our robots the same way would be unabashed gimmick infringement. (And, frankly, we were having to veto more and more would-be robot names towards the end.) So we drew inspiration from elsewhere on campus. Sandstorm I, Sandstorm II, Sandstorm III
423 has a tradition of letting our mentor’s daughter choose the robot’s official name. She is pretty young, so they are usually things like Bunny, Fluffy, or Pickles. Its funny to hear the MCs say the names of the robots and they’re like “and on the Red Alliance, The Destroyer, Beast Bot, and Fluffy.” They are often chosen before kickoff, so they rarely describe the robot well.
Since the name doesn’t describe the robot, we also tend to give our robots nicknames based on their appearances. Some notable ones include: Fish Tank (it was basically a tall square frame wrapped in clear plastic), Toucan Looking Backwards (the intake looked like a toucan’s beak facing backwards), and Arm Bot (basically a hunk of aluminum with a giant arm on it).
Not sure if 365 is aware of this but since 423 is always next to you in the pits we like to come up with alternative names for your robots. Some of the better ones I can think of off the top of my head are: The DeMOElisher, MOE Money MOE Problems, MOEstradamus, and MOEnetary Compensation. If you ever manage to run out of robot names, just hit me up.
I love the MOE names, I know they work on it, but it’s so cool to see the names.
My home FRC team, Sab-BOT-age, calls robots by number, this year will be DEWBOT XIII. It’s great, pay homage to** Downingtown East and West robot**ics. And I love the number, it’s like yes, we’ve built a number of these robots and every year they get better and better.
Our team has been naming our robots since our inception, simply because we find it fun, and like someone else mentioned earlier, it gives each robot its own personality in a way. We usually name our robots after some silly joke someone makes, such as our most recent robot, which was named “Richina”. This happened because there are literally 3 mentors on our team with the first name of Rich, and some of my teammates wanted a girl’s name for once. As a joke, someone suggested “Richina (The female version of Rich)”, and it stuck.
I think having robot names can be helpful, assuming everyone in the conversation knows the robot you’re talking about by name. Within our team, it is helpful because we’re still a pretty young team and most of us have been involved since the beginning, so we know basically everything there is to know about the robots. However, in the event that not everyone knows a robot by name, then that could lead right back to the original problem.
Interesting thread.
I do think robots should be named. It’s fun. However, when referring to other team’s robots, we generally just refer to the team number and the game. It would be too hard to also remember robot names and correlate them. For example, I would refer to “1114’s Recycle Rush robot”, not “Simbot Sideswipe”.
We named our first robot (for 2016 Stronghold) “Mergius Maximus” and I suspect our future robot names will try to play with the “Merge” theme. We’ll see how well that works 