Gearheads: The Turbulent Rise of Robotic Sports

In the early nineties, a visionary special-effects guru named Marc Thorpe conjured a field of dreams different from any the world had seen before: It would be framed by unbreakable plastic instead of cornstalks; populated not by ghostly ballplayers but by remote-controlled robots, armed to the steely teeth, fighting in a booby-trapped ring. If you built it, they'd come all right....
In Gearheads, Newsweek technology correspondent Brad Stone examines the history of robotic sports, from thei...