Critter Crunch (robotics competition)
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The Critter Crunch is a combat robot competition that takes place annually at the MileHiCon science fiction convention. With the first event held in 1989,[1] [a]it has been credited as the first robot combat competition.[1][4]
History
The competition was proposed by the Denver Mad Scientists Club and organized by member Bill Llewellin.[1] Prior to the first Critter Crunch event, the club produced a set of rules[1] which were distributed without copyright restriction, allowing other organizations to use or extend them for their own competitions.[5]
The first Critter Crunch event was competed in by "five or 10" competitors. These included "Fluffy Bunny", built by Bill Llewellin, armed with a forklift,[1] and "Big Punch", built by Bill Lemieux and Mike Bakula, armed with a Pneumatic spike.[5] The winner of the first Critter Crunch was "Thing One" built by Pat Thompson, armed with a can of silly string.[1]
A revision to the official rules was made on February 15, 2003. By then the rules had evolved to include mention of radio controls, attacking control systems, limiting the number of operators to one, and codifying two-part critter loss conditions.[6]
In 2020, Milehicon announced the Critter Crunch would not be held that year due to the global pandemic.[7]