Nuvation HEADLINES 
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New IP
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ATA 4/5, UDMA 33/66 Core for Xilinx Spartan 3 |
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ATA 4/5, UDMA 33/66 for Altera Cyclone |
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PCI-Express Coming Soon |
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GFP-F IP Core Coming Soon |
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New Affiliations
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Lattice Certified FPGA Design Center |
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Intel PCI Express Developers Network |
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ADI Certified DSP Partner |
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CycloneBot Rocks San Francisco
  On March 20-21, the 2004 ROBOlympics (www.robolympics.net) was held in San Francisco, bringing together robot enthusiasts from around the world. Similar to television shows such as BattleBots and Robot Wars from TV, ROBOlympics features Combat Robot fighting in eight weight classes from 1 lb up to super-heavy weights at 340 lbs. The aim is to inflict as much damage to your opponent as possible in three minutes - ideally scoring a knockout before the final bell rings.
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CycloneBot, the proud 220 lb. heavyweight contender from Nuvation and CM Robotics, once again shelled out some serious damage in the ring. Known to the crowd as the $10,000 doughnut (actually well over $15K in materials to date, but who's counting?), CycloneBot is a high-tech spinning robot with titanium blades that makes use of Altera's Cyclone FPGA with a NIOS processor (see feature story from the Winter 2004 CURRENT).
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 In its first match-up, CycloneBot fought against a robot called Final Verdict. Final Verdict is a gas-powered bot -- imagine a massive, hardened lawnmower blade driven by a gas-powered snowmobile engine. To give you a feel for the power of these bots, FV's first attack missed CycloneBot but cut a clean 8" gash though the steel I-beam that frames the ring. CycloneBot eventually took some hits; most deflected off our armor but one hit ripped through several inches of titanium and carbon fiber. Fortunately our electronics are placed away from the perimeter and we were able to continue without any loss of performance. CycloneBot's retaliation knocked out Final Verdict, smashing into its unprotected backside and ripping a rear wheel from the frame. FV was KO'd and sent back to the welders.
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 CycloneBot fought Tobor next, in a classic spinner versus wedge match up. Tobor featured an impressive wedge, but CycloneBot is designed to run equally well either rightside-up or upside-down. After a few run-ins with CycloneBot, our titanium blades had crumpled Tobor's chassis and inflicted serious damage. Both bots were still operational at the end of the match, but the crowd weighed in to choose the winner - another win for CycloneBot!
CycloneBot went on to several more battles throughout the weekend. Ultimately we finished in the final 4 in the international heavy-weight competition!
With CycloneBot's multiple strong performances over the past year, we have qualified to compete in the National Championships in September. Stay tuned, we're aiming to win the National Championship! For more information about CycloneBot and the rest of the CM Robotics robot family visit www.maccanikill.com.
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