At 10 years, the youngest ever competitor, Amaya Espinal, was an audience favourite at the Ontario College of Art and Design's (OCAD) annual SUMO Robot Challenge and came close to winning the lightweight division with her homemade robot 'Cheddatbot' during the March 7 competition. "Amaya's presence was amazing. It's like the entire world dropped away and only the ring existed," said Marla Hlady, an artist who specializes in installations using electronics. She helped Amaya design and build her robot.
One of OCAD's most anticipated annual events, the SUMO Robot Challenge features homemade robots in competition. There are several categories, including tug of war, dancer/painter, autonomous and head-to-head combat. Think Robot Wars, the TV series about a competition involving remote controlled miniature vehicles built by mechanics, engineers and inventors, but with a traditional sumo style format.
"One robot has to push another robot out of a six-foot by six-foot circle about a foot off the ground," explained Amaya at her Bloor Street West and Jane Street area home before a celebratory dinner with Hlady, her sister Mika, 7, and her parents this week.
Since 1992, OCAD has invited artists, designers, university and local high school students as well as the general public to compete against each other in competitions that push the limits of their imaginations, electronic, mechanical and fabrication skills. Amaya's mother Panya Clark Espinal, a former OCAD student, thought it'd be fun for her daughters to observe the adrenalin-fuelled event.
"Amaya has always showed an interest in electronics. She just wants to take things apart," said Panya Clark. "You see the circuit boards and it's a whole different world. Because she loved Pokemon, robots, I thought it'd be fun to go to the SUMO Robot Challenge. I took them to see what it was like last year."
At the end of the competition that day, the three bumped into Hlady. Later, they wondered if she would like to share her expertise.
"We called Marla and she said 'yeah!'" Amaya said.
Asked how her robot got his name 'Cheddabot', she said she and her sister and her dad were making sandwiches one day.
"We looked at some cheese and dad came up with the name Cheddar," she recalled.
It took Amaya and Hlady about two months to build Cheddatbot.
They got together almost every Saturday plus three or four after school sessions. Once the robot was built, Amaya had to learn how to drive the remote-controlled creation. The Grade 4 student at St. Pius X Catholic School had the fastest robot in the lightweight division. It was one of the biggest ones.
"We went for powerful," Hlady said.
The lightest robot weighed in at two pounds while the heaviest was 10 pounds.
"Ours was 8.8 pounds," she said.
Amaya was up against people twice her age.
"I was so nervous. I thought I was going to barf," she said.
Deemed the audience favourite, Amaya came home with a $50 gift certificate to the Active Surplus Electronics store on Queen Street West. It's where she and Hlady bought all their parts to build 'Cheddatbot.' The two plan to join forces next year when Amaya has decided to compete again. She might be up against some tough competition - her younger sister wants to compete too.