abandon all hope ye robots who enter
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I added to the Infernolab YouTube channel many videos, including Drawbots school projects, Halloween bots (bot-o-lanterns for Botoween), Christmas bots (treebot & presentbot), & the first weapon spin-up tests of Dr. Inferno IV in the BattleBots test box. The latest in the Dr. Inferno lineage has been documents. Dr. Inferno IV (great-grandson of Dr. Inferno) came together this year. Dr. Inferno IV project page. Dr. Inferno IV gallery page. I also had long-overdue updates for many other galleries: The Dr. Inferno ]|[ gallery now has educational outreach, a hot dog restaurant BattleBots party, dressing up for mutliple Halloweens & Christmases, & BattleBots 2019. The Disk O' Inferno gallery now has educational outreach, a hot dog restaurant BattleBots party (yes, the same one--how many hot dog restaurant BattleBots parties could there be!??!), & Halloween props. I added a ton of images to the Fan Gallery, including drawings, models, & even a custom video game level! |
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I've had a love of teaching for decades. My desire to be a professor, like both of my parents, led me to pursue my PhD degree. Although I didn't become a real professor, I love teaching youth about engineering and robotics, exposing them to some tangible, hands-on experiences that I hope will encourage them to pursue technical careers. My first experience was with grade school students in 2002, while a graduate student at UCSB, fresh off of winning BattleBots a few times. My most recent experience was 2 months ago with a local Cub Scouts troop. My next experiences will be some presentations & robot builds for local schools & a Girl Scouts troop early next year. Now, with 2 young kids of my own, I want to contribute to their educations, schools, clubs, etc. When reaching out to discuss my engineering & robotics offerings, I kept finding myself struggling to explain what sort of services I could offer, & I found that I was always having to scrounge around for links or images or attachments to help explain. Struggle no more! I have documented my Educational Outreach efforts in a new Educational Outreach Project Page & a new Educational Outreach Gallery Page. Enjoy! |
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Expanded a lot on the existing Video Games Projects page & made a band-new Video Games Gallery page, including:
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SolidWorks World 2017 gallery, GoEngineer's Shape Your World 2017, new bot albums uploaded to Facebook.
02.016.2017: SolidWorks World 2017 gallery. SolidWorks has an annual event called SolidWorks World. Part conference, part training, part networking, part party, part trade show, all engineering. I've attended many times, taken many classes, taken certification tests, etc. It was a great experience every single time. The Infernolab & many other bot teams displayed their bots & even ran a 15-pound student bot competition lilve to a crowd of thousands of engineers, under the guidance of our very own Richard Loehnig. Needless to say, this was the best SolidWorks World ever. :] --- 05.17.2017: GoEngineer's Shape Your World 2017 gallery. GoEngineer, value-added reseller of SolidWorks & other engineering software/hardware, has an annual tour of events that showcases their products & their support skills. It's called Shape Your World They take a model of a product & put it through various wringers (stress analysis, rendering, machining, 3D print, etc.). This year, we collaborated to have them use the The Disk O' Inferno data set: 3D CAD models, 2D drawings, support files, etc. It was great seeing their experts use my data in so many ways. The tour launched here in Orange County. At this kickoff event, I brought The Disk O' Inferno, Dr. Inferno ]|[, & Towering Inferno, as well as my 3 giant nuts. We kicked off the event with a pre-recorded interview of me explaining how I used SolidWorks to create The Disk O' Inferno. Then, I gave a presentation chronicling my 20 years of combat robot design. I've come a long, long, long, long.....rather long way since Rampage. --- |
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An all-new bot: The Disk O' Inferno. The heaviest, strongest, fastest, most complicated, most ambitious, most deadly, and definitely the most expensive fighting robot that I've ever made. Most details are on the project & gallery pages, but here are some highlights: Created the all-new CAD design in SolidWorks over lunch breaks, after putting the kids to bed, & during any other opportunities. Other hobbies all were put on hold; sorry, pinball machines & video games! Made thorough, professional-grade drawing package, bill of materials, & cost spreadsheet, not to mention the logo & art for stickers, t-shirts, team outfits, banners, etc. The other half of the core team was Richard Loehnig of NTMA, who handled material acquisition, machining, finishing, assembly space, etc. Rounding out the team for the final crunch & for the event were robotic talents Ross Hironaka & Mark Liu. Also absolutely crucial to meeting the build deadline, the budget, & the lofty standards required to be competitive in today's world of fighting robot are Sponsors! We obtained a record-setting 19 sponsors who were all pivotal in getting The Disk O' Inferno together. Please visit the Sponsorship page, review the generous companies & individuals who helped us, & see if they are also good fits for your projects, robot & non-robot alike. The event consumed the 2nd half of April, & the show started airing in May. It's due to wrap up in September. I can't tell you who won, but I can tell you that we didn't win. It was quite an experience, but I think I'll focus on saner pasttimes for a while, like pinball & fixing up the house. :]
Dr. Inferno begat Dr. Inferno Jr. Dr. Inferno Jr. begat Dr. Inferno ]|[. The all-new grandson in the most educated line of combat robots appropriated his father's torso & weaponry. However, he sits atop a smaller & more compact base, he sports a skimpier plastic robot outfit (Radio Shack Robie Junior vs. TOMY Omnibot), & inclusion of the classic skirts are up for debate. Based on a kit intended for 15 lb competitions, this is a smaller bot that I wanted to put together with my boy in the garage, to teach him the joy of building bots. He's a work in progress. He's been a work in progress for over 1.5 years. There's not much left to do on him, but with no competition deadline looming, & with other distractions, this has been a leisurely record-breaking build...my record for Longest Time to Build a Bot has been shattered, especially when you consider that I started with a kit for the base & that I reused the top half from another bot!
The Infernolab now has social media presences. A few Infernolab tweets, an Infernolab Facebook page, & many albums of events past. List of albums as of this time (many more on the way soon!):
The Fan Gallery has many new submissions as well! |
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A fan of LEGO since a wee lad, I sought a way to marry my love of LEGO & robots. Inspired by my pal Peter, who made LEGO models of his Team Sinister robots, I decided to make LEGO mini models of the most popular Infernolab robots, as well as a minifig that looks like me! Creating a LEGO mini model is a challenging exercise of trying to use as few pieces as possible to make an accurate representation of something. I spent a long time trying different designs, optimizing the set designs, making print & video instructions, making packaging, and setting up PayPal payments. Finally, Inferno LEGO is ready for sale in the Infernolab Shop. I'm launching with special introductory prices on my initial inventory. Prices will rise later--act now! :] |
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Disko Inferno pages are up! Visit the Disko Inferno Project & the Disko Inferno Gallery. I'm slowing down--I built this robot 7 years ago! |
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Dr. Inferno Jr. theme song CDs are back in stock in the Infernolab Shop. Many thanks to musician Eban Schletter at Netherota Records for replenishing my inventory! |
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I put all of my robot videos on-line at YouTube. Please visit the Infernolab YouTube channel. |
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So, the guys over at Spike TV on Auction Hunters found some fighting robots in a storage crate that they won in a bidding war in an auction. They needed some experts to evaluate, appraise, & test the robots. Enter me & my pal Chuck from Team Raptor. We spent all day playing with robots with the hosts of the TV show...then we immediately boarded a plane & jetted to Vegas for Chuck's 3-day bachelor party. What a weekend! |
All content © Jason Dante Bardis and the Infernolab, 1999 - 2099