Livermore resident David Rush is fulfilling a long-held dream as a fighting-robot developer and competitor on the popular television series âBattleBots,â where sparks fly and robots die.
A blend of science and entertainment, the program features weaponized remote-controlled robots that square off in an arena surrounded by bulletproof glass with the goal of disabling their opponents. Aggression and the infliction of maximum damage are encouraged, and ingenuity is rewarded.
With Rush at the controls for Team Malice, its 250-pound horizontal drum spinner robot left the competition â a machine from Florida called Axe Backwards â completely immobilized and literally in flames in just over a minute. The debut match for Team Malice was featured on the Discovery programâs season premiere last week. Nearly a million people tuned in according to ratings published by ShowBuzzDaily.