The Acroname Robotics Expo and Contest was held in Nederland, CO in March of 2000.  The competition included a robot race around a black-lined track complete with straight-aways, curves, a loop-d'-loop, oil slicks, and a four way intersection.  Four young people brought their robots (built from various LEGO Mindstorms Kits) to test their robotic skills in a challenge of precision, creativity and innovation. 

Acroname's founder, Steve Richards demonstrated photovore technology and introduced other robotic technologies.  He also explained the Trinity Firefighting Contest rules and demonstrated on a large robot maze. 

Steve discussing photovore technology.

These presentations gave the four competitors in the robot race time to adjust their robots to the external environment in a large gymnasium with fluorescent lighting that reflected off of the vinyl race track and caused glare which in turn led to some erratic robot maneuvers.  Competitors dealt with this and other challenges through various creative means from reprogramming from a mobile command center (a laptop with LEGO programming interface) to attaching blocks of batteries to cause drag that would inhibit the robots movements.  In the end, mechanical ingenuity beat out technological prowess when Eric Eason and his robot named, Bucket-of-Batteries, complete with dragging battery pack, completed the race track in first place.  Second place went to John Trytko and his robot, Choc-o-bot.  Third place went to Andrew O'Kane and his robot, Trail Trekker. 

Winners of the LEGO robot race.

Prizes were Mindstorms Kits provided by LEGO: First Prize, Discovery Set ($149.99).  Second Prize, Robot Droid Developer Kit ($99.99).  Third Prize, Exploration to Mars Kit ($49.99).  For its first competition, "Acroname was pleased with the results and the interest in robotics.  People came from as far as Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Longmont.  It was great to see the kids, parents and robot enthusiasts all in a common setting supporting their interests in robotics.  Each year, we hope to increase the size and scope of this competition until it is nationally recognized as a leader," said Richards. 

The turn out was impressive with "nearly 150 people showing up" even though the only notice of the competition was an article in the Living & Arts section of the Sunday Camera.  The article described Acroname and the competition and showed a picture of Richards with a robot on the race tarmac.  One parent was overhead saying, "the week before, my child and I studied the clues we could see in the background photograph in the Sunday Camera article.  We could see there was a full loop and we knew this would be the crux.  We spent a lot of time making sure the robot could complete that loop."

photo by Carmel Zucker/Daily Camera