Conquering hero of the robot world
Ziggy draws crowds and admiring glances when he wears his devil horns and possesses a killer walk.
Ziggy of course is no ordinary star; he is a "hexapod" and a fixture at robot events.
This coming weekend, he returns to the Bay Area as a conquering hero at the Robo Games, the world's biggest robotic competition, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
To date, Ziggy's accolades include six gold medals in the games for the walker challenge, where each robot has three minutes to cross an obstacle course.
The inventor is Nick Donaldson, who says that he got into the robotic industry by accident.
"My wife gave me a Lego Mindstorms robotic kit for my 30th birthday and I stayed up all night playing it.
"My first robot was called Toberymory and it was a little tracked Lego robot with touch sensors to help it back up and move around. It also had the Lego light sensor with two eyes and a motor that controlled the eyelids. If you shone a flashlight in its face, it would scream and run away."
It wasn't long before Mr Donaldson took a degree in mechanical engineering, leading to a career in internet software; he discovered his passion for robots and turned it into a business. His first real job was helping to design one of the first robotic-cleaning prototypes for vacuum cleaners.
"It sounds kind of dull, but the whole idea that I was getting paid to build and design robots to me was very very cool."
From there, Mr Donaldson went on to help "a couple of guys from MIT to build a robotic head with 13 degrees of freedom. The eyes move; the eyelids move; the whole head can move. Here I am working on C-3P0 and its really cool."
He is now building a robot to help nurses move people from beds to hospital trolleys.
"This thing is really really big and has some serious hardcore software and hardware in it," explains Mr Donaldson.
Now he is getting into the business of robotic toys and his first product called Cheeky Monkey will hit stores later this year in time for the Christmas rush. He sits on your shoulder, waves and turns his head and utters a few select phrases.
Mr Donaldson's story is not that unusual in this world.
Stephen Felk "got hooked in the first 30 seconds" of a show he attended and now describes himself as a robot-builder and a robot-fighter.
"I joke that the first part of your life you spend looking for that thing that makes you get out of bed in the morning - the stuff that you are really passionate about - and then you spend the second part of your life hoping that it doesn't kill you.
"I am a handyman by trade and did the soapbox derby until I was 11-years-old. I went for years thinking that was the highlight of my life. I have an art background, have done music and acting and musical theatre and stumbled on this event driving home from work and that was it."
He said the sport provides a great life lesson.
"In the age we live today there are a lot of competitions that don't have winners and losers, because everyone is a winner. But in this game, that is how you learn. It is not a good sport for egos. I am a big believer in learning how to build stuff because it teaches you about success and it teaches you about failure and to me that is what life is all about."
He also said another positive offshoot is that it helps children embrace technology.
"We make technology fun. Kids that do robotics learn about Edison and they want to learn about Faraday and electro-magnetism and they want to know the difference between aluminium and steel so they can go out there and beat the other robot."
Mr Felk competes in the combat section of the games where the robots fight to the death, so to speak.
Organiser David Calkins said there is so much more to enjoy and see with events ranging from robots playing soccer to climbing stairs and from sumo-wrestling robots to Lego bowling.
But he said the question that constantly dogs him at these games is: why are robots who can walk the dog and do the dishes still science fiction?
"We do get people who ask why isn't that robot able to lift up the whole arena? I saw it in a movie. I was at a recent competition and a kid ask, why isn't this done yet? The fact is that if you have only been playing video games, it is very easy to programme a video game where all the variables are set.
"Just getting into your car presents unlimited variables. Sure, you know how to follow a white line down the road and you can train a robot to do that - but what about when it rains, when there are roadworks, where there are no lights, where a tree has fallen down? I can put you in a car in Britain and you know to drive on the other side from US drivers.
"Humans have 50,000 years of evolution behind our little brains and we are very very adept at adapting on the fly. It is hard to programme all those variables for a robot and if it were easy, C-3PO would be in every house doing the dishes."
The games kick off this Friday.
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