While it's the bots that vie for glory, sending them into battle is ultimately a team endeavor -- and Rhino's cornermen are among the best on the circuit. By day, they work at R. Rabkin & Associates Inc., a Sausalito-based company that makes chip-testing equipment for the likes of Intel and Motorola. Bradley is a machinist. David Estrich, 40, an electrical-design engineer, handles the robot's circuitry. Machinist Chris Paretich, 34, specializes in intricate welding details. And Bobby Besuner, 33, does stress analysis on the bot when he's not working as a mechanical engineer. In addition, 27-year-old Alexander Rose, who is executive director of the Long Now Foundation, in San Francisco, helped to design and build Rhino.
By night, they work on Rhino. Even CEO Rich Rabkin, 38, drops in to turn a few screws and deliver pizza when the guys are pulling a late one. Rabkin is so pumped for the upcoming battle that he closes the office and accompanies the team to Vegas, sending them into battle with a brief but memorable pep talk: "All eyes are on us, boys, so we'd better kick ass." Such fervor is understandable: Rhino is going up against bots backed by some of Rabkin's biggest competitors, and an incalculably rich purse is at stake -- office bragging rights.
A day before the opening fight, 32 teams from London to Los Angeles descend on Vegas. The eve of BattleBots is not unlike a weigh-in for boxers, when the combatants check one another out -- and attempt to psych out their opponents. In the parking lot outside the arena, Team Rhino congregates around a bot called Nightmare, which is operated by Jim Smentowski, 30, a computer animator for Industrial Light & Magic. Nightmare resembles an enormous tricycle with a raised front wheel that's made of aluminum and spiked with stainless-steel teeth. At the last BattleBots, Smentowski was forbidden to run the wheel in an upward direction.
"The wheel spins at 300 MPH, and the BattleBox had no roof," Smentowski explains. "The organizers feared that the robot might start launching parts into the crowd." But this time, the BattleBox sports a roof -- which means he's free to unleash all of Nightmare's destructive power.
Smentowski eyes the tables inside the tent and locks onto Blendo. "I really want to see what we can do to that bot," he says, glowering a bit. "Blendo destroyed our first robot, Hercules, the first time out." He catches the aggro in his voice and quickly insists that outside the ring, no one holds a grudge. "But in the ring," he continues, "it's something else. It's robots hating robots."
For its next fight, Rhino will go up against Nightmare and its upward-spinning, spike-studded wheel. The bell sounds, and the bots collide. As Nightmare works in close, its furiously spinning wheel shaves a chunk of metal off Rhino's body. Then Rhino takes a run at Nightmare's lethal wheel -- the equivalent of a go-for-broke punch. Estrich fires the battering ram, which hits the wheel. But the wheel is spinning so fast that it breaks off the ram's tip, which zips across the ring and smashes into the bulletproof wall. Rhino spends the fight's final minute smacking its tail against Nightmare.
Rhino is declared the winner, but the bot is not unscathed. Team Rhino hustles its robot to the pit. Bradley takes a screwdriver to the broken battering ram, while Paretich drills into Rhino's body to extract an impacted bolt. When an event organizers stops to ask whether Rhino is ready for its next fight, the guys can only laugh.
This is no joke: Team Rhino has just 40 minutes to repair and recharge its fighter for the next bout. A win would mean that Rhino makes the finals. Bradley grabs a battery-powered saw and sends sparks flying as he chisels a replacement battering ram. He reattaches the ram, throws off his sunglasses, and declares, "Damn. We are pretty tweaked."
Rabkin translates: "A piece that holds the battering ram in place has snapped. We can still fire the ram, but it might break loose from the bot." In that case, the ram would fly across the ring like a pneumatically launched spear. The team probably should report the potential problem to the judges, but Rabkin nixes that idea. "It's better to beg for forgiveness," he declares, "than to ask for permission."
Team Rhino rolls its fighter into the ring, where it will face fearsome Vlad the Impaler, whose prime weapon is a pair of forkliftlike blades. Bradley delivers a quick pep talk: "If we hit Vlad while both bots are moving, we'll be able to nail it." Paretich counters skeptically, "If Rhino moves, I'll be surprised. If the ram actually works, I'll be elated."
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