Robofootball: Doublespin

“Did you get the armor doc?” Reynolds had to look up a few inches to Holliday who happened to be a bit heavy in the middle too. His appearance reminded Reynolds of pictures of Ben Franklin, bald in the middle, some longer strands of gray hair down the sides, and big oval intelligent looking spectacles.

“Oh yes, but we might need a couple of small suits.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve got a new kid I think you might want to add to your sponsorship program, Ichiro Nagasaki.”

“Ichiro? Like that ball player who just retired?”

“Yeah, I think it’s the most popular name in Japan now, kind of like Mike or Jim. Back in 2012, we launched the ‘FIRST’ robotics competition here at the university. FIRST stands For Inspiration & Recognition of Science and Technology. High school teams have to design and build robots in a 6-week time frame. Ichiro’s team won it hands down this year. He’s already an exchange student at Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School, but he’s obviously the brains behind the team. They won the regionals and the state, and are now going to the nationals. I’d like to have him here. We can offer him a scholarship but he’ll need a sponsor. Remember that the students here are usually on a 5-year program, half in school and half on the job.”

“Oh yeah? What’s so special about the kid?”

“For one, there are about 2,500 teams nationwide, maybe 60 or 70,000 students or so who compete, and you’re looking at the best out of that group that I’ve seen. I’m one of the judges by the way. I think that we’ve been doing okay developing basic blocking and tackling protocols. The limbs we’re getting from HAL are top notch and the nice lightweight armor should easily fall within our weight-to-flexibility thresholds. We should have some prototypes completed in a week or two for some heavy testing.” Once the prototypes were ready, the actual production of the components and assembly would be completed at the MIR under Yuri’s direction.

“Okay, sounds like we’re on schedule,” said Reynolds. He was thinking about Antwan Jackson and Jess Robinson where weight could be an issue. Then again, he might get by with Antwan being slightly over since Antwan was going to have an exact clone or double, at least on the exterior. He would have Yuri do the same for Jess too in terms of exterior appearance, which meant that the Gen 2 quarterback the team had purchased late in 2019 would require an armor upgrade. The RFL encouraged variety in design and basic painting schemes so that the players did not all look exactly alike though the team colors had to be consistent. Although the basic Japanese models may have been identical underneath or chassis-wise, there were several options for exterior components as long as they met the league specs. It was little different from vehicles with one manufacturer sharing the same platforms.

“Yes, I believe we are,” said Holliday.

“Okay, tell me more about this Ichiro kid.”

“It’s a little crude at this stage given the limited resources he’s had to work with, but I think Ichiro’s design might be ideal for a running back. I was going to say that the ball carriers, next to the quarterback and pass receivers, provide the greatest challenges.”

“We’ve already got quarterbacks in the works,” Reynolds reminded.

“Right, I hope so since we’re not developing one here at present, but Ichiro’s creation is only 150 centimeters tall, so we’d have to add a bit to make the minimum height requirements.”

“English doc, you know, it’s still a 100 yard field not counting the end zones and all the player specs are in English too, 5’6” tall minimum, 6’6” max, 300 pounds,….”

“Yes, sorry Reynolds, 150 centimeters is about an inch less than 5 feet.”

“So, its 7 inches short,” Reynolds commented, but that was about as much math as he could handle without a calculator.

“Yes, but the pivotal sensor arrays in the knees, hips, and ankles are quite intricate with 360-degree rotational ability….”

“Just layman’s terms doc, keep it simple.”

“Well, I guess the joints are more flexible and nimble than what we’re getting from HAL. I think with some modifications, they would be ideal for a running back, a smaller player that the bigger models might have trouble tackling. This kid Ichiro adapted a mechanism from a revolving office chair of all things into hips, and then made a miniaturized version for the knees and ankles. What’s amazing is that the top half can swivel in one direction and the lower part in another, like an exorcism gone wrong!” Holliday chuckled a deep baritone hiccup-like sound.

“Ya know, Yuri doesn’t say much, but I think he might like a smart kid, maybe a genius type like him as an apprentice. Don’t get me wrong doc, the ones we sponsor now that work over at MIR are good, hard workers, but I don’t think we have that special genius kid like Yuri.”

“Ichiro might be it.”

“Yeah maybe, you know Yuri doesn’t have one of those fancy degrees or formal training, he just picked it up on his own.” Reynolds was smart enough to know that there were two types of engineers, the design nerds and the practical ones; he gave far more weight to the latter. Designers could sit all day pushing paper and doing computer-aided designs while never actually building or flying anything in their life. Holliday struck him as a little of both, a Leonardo da Vinci type who drew up plans for fantastic flying machines, but it was guys like Yuri and the Wright Brothers who actually got them off of the ground. Da Vinci could design elaborate flying machines that lacked a proper power source or motor that had not been invented yet. Some things like giant wing extensions simply didn’t work since a man would quickly run out of gas or energy to sustain their continued operation.

Auto engineers for example might spend their entire careers designing a better water pump or air filter, but never got under the hood to change one or even know that one had to put a little oil on the rubber filter gasket so it would come off the next time that it needed to be changed. The same designers didn’t know that maybe you put a little grease on a head or pan gasket to get it to stay in the proper place, perhaps add a little gasket sealer to the threads on the bolt too. The cramming of components in vehicles started in the 1980’s when space saving ultimately led to less weight but more difficulty for the mechanics of the world. Oil filters became harder to reach and in a car like the little mid-engine Pontiac Fiero, the engine literally had to be hoisted up just to change the spark plugs.

A guy like Yuri had done his time with machinery of all types. Where he came from, one had to use massive amounts of spray lubricants like WD40, hammers, pliers, screwdrivers, vice grips, and even drill and torches to take things apart. Once Reynolds got his team together, much of Yuri’s job duties would become that of robot player repair man. Yuri would be much like the pit boss at a NASCAR race, doing all he could in a short amount of pressured time to get the machine back in play.

“That’s amazing about Yuri,” Kettering noted, ’It’s not unheard of, but rare. We’ve got some good enthusiastic kids here, you never know which one might have a breakthrough.”

“These joints and pivoting stuff, will that comply with the RFL rules?”

“I’m not sure about full rotational function, we may have to get a ruling on that, or cut it to 180 degrees, but it has a lot of potential for a ball carrier in terms of cutting, stopping, starting, changing directions,…”

“Yeah, yeah, what a running back needs,” interrupted Reynolds. “Okay, I’m sure we can squeeze in another kid, especially if you can make me a Barry Sanders.”

“Barry who?”

“Before your time I guess Doc, didn’t you watch any football growing up?”

“I didn’t really get into it much I guess until my college years, and then I’ve always been more of a college fan.”

“Barry Sanders was just the best running back ever for the Lions, maybe all time. He was a human highlight reel and retired before his time. If he’d a played 2 or 3 more years, he’d of set the all-time rushing record. He was just fun to watch, very elusive, hard to tackle, and no one cut or changed direction at full speed like he did.” As a kid, Reynolds could recall #20 being painted on a big 20-story mural on the side of a building in Detroit.

“Hmm, sounds like the potential in Ichiro’s design.”

“All right then Doc, make it so. Send the paperwork over to Yuri’s office, I’ll let him know its coming.”

“Good, I’ll get on it. It may take some persuading as I’m sure the kid has offers here and in Japan, but from what I’ve heard, I think he likes it here in America.”

“Yeah, yeah, as usual, let me know if you need anything else Doc.”

“I’ll talk to Yuri more about the armor.”

“You do that.”

“Done, and one more thing.”

“Yeah Doc?”

“I was thinking of having another competition here too.”

“Oh?”

“It involves the control boards for each player.”

“Yes?”

“Did you plan on using your existing staff?”

“I’m not sure, haven’t really thought about it, but some of those guys have got to go, a few couldn’t guide a computerized rat through a maze with the latest joystick.”

“Since we’re developing and testing the new control boards for each player’s movements, it seems like there are some who are quite good at it. It stands to reason that they might be your best option when it comes to game time control.”

“Thumb jockeys right? These kids I’m sure grew up playing HALO and Madden Football. Personally, I always liked Grand Theft Auto,” Reynolds was reminiscing about pimping and beating up cops. “Sure, I want the best.”

“Okay then,” Holliday said somewhat with an emphasis on the “O”. He didn’t particularly care for the violent, bloody video games where players were rewarded for muggings, assaults, and general crime.

“Yeah sure Doc, that’s a good idea, I’ll need some new thumb jockeys, top shelf. Maybe we can practice or scrimmage some, my controllers against yours. We’ll take the best out of both groups.” Reynolds was thinking that Hobson would probably have to control the quarterback, there wouldn’t be time to train anyone else, but everything else was up for grabs, and who better than the actual designers? Particularly if they were young college kids who were weaned on game controllers at the same time they were still sucking out of baby bottles.

“Could this be part of our sponsorship program?”

“Sure, why not? The current controllers are way overpaid as it is for losing games. We’ll take the best of the best and dump the rest!” Reynolds laughed at his own unexpected rhyme.

“All right then, they’ll be excited about that. I’m sure there’s more at the entire university who couldn’t think of a better sponsorship.”

“Yeah, it’d be like getting paid to play video games,” Reynolds said, “Every kid’s wet dream. “Okay Doc, if you need anything else after talking with Yuri, give me a buzz.”

“You bet.”

“See ya Doc.”

“Bye Reynolds.”

Reynolds buzzed Tony from the lobby to pick him up out front in the Slade. Tony served as his main driver and doubled as his body guard. Reynolds was getting another tension headache, not as much from his interaction with Holliday as say opposed to Hobson, but he was throwing a lot of Dano Verlucci’s cash around, and although he had been given a massive budget, he was using it up. Mr. Verlucci gave him his confidence and leeway, but failure was not an option. He had to build a winner or else, and the else part could prove to be fatal.

“I just wrap my arms around the whole backfield and peel’em one by one until I get to the ball carrier. Him, I keep.”

Defensive Tackle Big Daddy Lipscomb on his Tackling Technique