Robot-sumo, or pepe-sumo, is a sport in which two robots attempt to push each other out of a circle (in a similar fashion to the sport of sumo). The robots used in this competition are called sumobots.
Many sports in the past have been played in a similar fashion, most notably being beyblade. Beyblade is another Japanese-made toy where 2 spinning tops enter a small area and last one standing wins. In robot-sumo, instead of having spinners, competitors are competing with bots.
Robot-sumo is divided into classes, fought on progressively smaller arenas:
- Heavy-weight. Robots may weigh up to 125 pounds and fit in a 2-foot cube.
- Light-weight. Robots may weigh up to 50 pounds and fit in a 2-foot cube.
- Standard class (sometimes named Mega-sumo) robots may mass up to 3 kg and fit inside a 20 cm by 20 cm box, any height.
- Mini-sumo. Up to 500 g mass, 10 cm by 10 cm, any height.
- Micro-sumo. Up to 100 g mass, must fit in a 5 cm cube.
- Nano-sumo. Must fit in a 2.5 cm cube.
- Femto-sumo. Must fit inside a 1 cm cube.
Femto-sumo is played with the smallest possible bots and is honestly quite cute:
There has been a definite increase in robots and sport. We should have a cool little app game where players can compete in robot-sumo. And since it’s from Japan, this is a perfect story to premiere an anime. It’s a growing sub-culture in Asia and has recently gone worldwide with the video above trending on YouTube.
“What is my purpose,” says sumo-bot.
“You sumo wrestle,” says Rick.
“oh my god.”
