Geekery: High Speed is the Name of the Game in Robot-Sumo

In robot-sumo (aka pepe-sumo) two robots try to push one another out of a ring – just like in the human sport. Sumobots are fast, super agile, and feature weapons that they hope will eject their opponent out of competition.

The sport is divided into classes that are fought on arenas based on robot size. The bots are typically built from scratch, some use Mindstorms and regular LEGO components. There’s even a special class for bots built from wood. In general, they’re categorized by weight and overall size.

• Heavy Weight: up to 125 pounds, must fit in a 2 foot cube
• Light-Weight: up to 50 pounds, must fit in a 2 foot cube
• Mega-Sumo: up to 3 kg, must fit in a  20 cm cube but can be any height
• Mini-Sumo: up to 500 g, must fit in a 10cm cube but can be any height

Mega-sumo is the standard size, and it’s the class featured here. Take a look at what it takes to build one of these robots…

Author: Mars Garrett

Pop culture writer and news editor that has been on the BoLS team since 2010. Contributor on the One of Us podcast. Marvel, Vertigo, Batman, and dystopian sci-fi fan. Enjoys bad movies, amazing stunt performances, and the internet. Hates rom-coms. (she/they)