Most of the robot competitions we cover are serious business. Roboticists spend months (or years) and thousands (or millions) of dollars building and programming their robots to navigate through simulated disaster areas, solve complicated tasks that most people don't really understand, or just beat the stuffing out of each other. Building the best robot you can is difficult and stressful. You know what isn't difficult or stressful? Building the worst robot you can, and then seeing if it can manage to be even more terrible than a bunch of other robots trying to do the same thing.

Heboi is a Japanese word that loosely means something is technically poor, or crappy. Thus: Hebocon, which, according to the founders, extends to both the robots and the people that make them -- but in an affectionate, pat-on-the-back kind of way. The competition involves several sumo-style matches in which the robots try to push their opponents out of the arena. It's no DARPA challenge, but when you see the robots in action you begin to realize it's almost as difficult a struggle. Most of the robots on show at Hebocon can't be controlled very well.