Robot Rocks to Dethklok
By KATHERINE NEWTON – The Dominion Post
WINING ENTRY: Reece Davies (pictured) and Hamish Dunham spent five weeks designing and programming their robot to “flail round” to a song by joke metal band Dethklok.
It’s said that dogs often look like their owners but the same could be said about Reece Davies and his robot. Reece, 17, and fellow Tawa College pupil Hamish Dunham, 18, won the dance category of the Wellington regional RoboCup competition with their headbanging robot, which they say was modeled on a traditional heavy metal fan – despite its resemblance to Reece.
The pair spent five weeks designing and programming the robot to “flail round” to a song by joke metal band Dethklok.
“It’s all Lego bits and a Barbie doll that we decapitated. We had a head because we wanted to do a traditional metal headbanging thing with it.”
They were surprised to win, after feeling relieved just to have got through the performance, Reece said.
“The robot actually fell over … so we had to pick it back up, but it managed to stay in time with the music.”
The pair will now take their robot to Auckland for the national finals.
They planned to program a few extra moves “and stop it from falling over”.
