The brains reign at Robot Rumble

March Madness nowhere in sight as the technically proficient show their wild side

DURHAM -- Saturday's "Robot Rumble" at the Museum of Life and Science was expected to attract the Jimmy Neutron set -- young boys with a penchant for things techy.

There were rock 'em sock 'em competitions with modified remote-control battle bots; cool, cutting edge robotics from local scientists; a spiffy sports car that can drive itself. What able-minded kid wouldn't forgo an afternoon plugged into the NCAA Basketball Tournament for that?

Yet it was the Hugh Neutrons -- the older boys -- who seemed the most scientifically smitten.

A graying Blair Peevey drove from Charlotte for the event. Peevey stood for a good 20 minutes at the Duke Robotics Club booth, featuring Charbydis, an autonomous underwater vehicle, and quizzed seniors Gareth Guvanasen and Jack Tao with questions that prompted answers with words such as "sensor," "probability," "algorithm" and "redundancy."

Peevey seemed like an insider, one of the tech guys. Did he work in robotics, or AI perhaps?

He flinched. "I'm an actor."

The Duke club's exhibit was one of several at the first-of-its-kind, day-long event. The topic's popularity was reflected in the fact that visitors had to be shuttled from parking at nearby Durham County Stadium.

The exhibit offered plenty of evidence that we've come a long way from the 1960s, from the days of "Danger, Will Robinson."

N.C. State's Underwater Robotics Club was there with one of its Seawolf explorers. Insight Racing brought its driverless Lotus sports car. Lego was there, and conducted an hour-long "facilitated workshop." Triangle Amateur Robotics brought a number of toys, including a robotic dinosaur ("Pet it nicely," a patient club member cautioned often) and the "One Laptop Per Child" computer aimed at Third World countries, which started with a planned price of $100.

"It's actually $300 now," corrected club member Ken Boone.

Still cool, since it can be powered by a hand crank or solar cells. Uh, is that an electrical cord coming out the back?

"They come with a power cord in the U.S.," said Boone.

Even in the one place where junior robotic enthusiasts were supposed to hold sway, a bit of elder celebrity surfaced.

The Robot Battles under the museum's Picnic Dome pitted kids ages 6 and up against each other with remote-control robotic cars. Competition was in one of three venues: a drag strip with obstacles; a sumo wrestling ring in which the goal was to knock your competitor out of the circle; and a boxed pit in which the winner didn't necessarily have to destroy the competitor, just ram into it the most.

The six cars were designed by IBM engineer John Adipietro.

"They're modified versions of cars I bought, at Wal-Mart, at Goodwill, at Radio Shack," said Adipietro, who has been building such cars for 10 years.

In fact, one of his more promising creations -- "Son of a Monkey's Wrench" -- made it into competition on the second season of The Learning Channel's "Robotica." During its first round of action, Monkey's Wrench's cover got ripped off -- bad for his chances at a championship (he was knocked out the next round), but good for geek immortality.

"You know the term 'bot naked'?" Adipietro asked. "They termed that after me."

(Staff writer Marcy Smith contributed to this report.)