CLOTHESLINE RACES
This high-flying contest tests robotic prowess, creativity, and sense of humor.
Last November, a group of makers took their robots to Minneapolis’ Hack Factory hackerspace. These robots didn’t roll around on the floor following a line, fighting, or picking things up. Instead, they did one thing: move along an ⅛”, 100’ length of woven steel aircraft cable and, upon reaching the end, return to the starting point — as fast as possible. It was a Clothesline Race, a contest invented by the hackerspace’s founding president, Mike Hord.
Hord’s fascination with this sort of race goes back more than 20 years. As a child, he was obsessed with a Cub Scout event called Space Derby, in which toy spaceships run along cords, ...
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