Megabots' Mk. II showcases capabilities at Zappos and Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2016 to hopefully gain more funding.
According to The Verge, the Mk. II is the biggest gadget featured in the CES 2016. It was slated to take on drones for a race in another event, but it didn't push through. Instead, it went to Zappos to launch T-shirt to boxes to test its power.
Megabots already raised $500,000 on Kickstarter to enhance the robot and take on Japanese robot Kuratas, by Suidobashi Heavy Industry. The battle between the two bots is expected to happen later on this year.
"An entire generation grew up with these machine characters in video games and on movie and TV screens," said MegaBots CEO Gui Cavalcanti in a report by 3D Print. "We know people want to see this happen, and we know it may seem improbable and ridiculous, but that's exactly what we do at MegaBots - we are building the sports league of the future, one epic robot at a time."
Discovery News reported that the TBA heavyweight bout organizers hope that the bot battle will bring robot sports league closer to the future. There were ten semi-finalist entries battling for the fund at the CES competition. The other finalist from the 1,000 applicants features other technological advancements like virtual reality, wearable computing, genetic testing, and even a marijuana social networking platform.
"Live sports entertainment is $17B+ per year with other forms of live entertainment $25B+ annually in revenue in the USA alone," said Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) organizer and Venture capitalist Bill Tai.
The three finalists chosen from the 10 semi-finalist in the CES 2016 will move forward this February for the finals at the Necker Island. There, event sponsor Richard Bronson will declare the winner and give the coveted funding. The XTC winner will get monetary funding, start-up booster, and infrastructure to accelerate enhancements.
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