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Education Science

FIRST Robotics Competition Starts Today 92

Posted by timothy from the name-your-robot-after-a-pronoun dept.
cscx writes: "Today is the kickoff day of the 2002 FIRST Robotics Competition. For those of you that don't know what FIRST (Dean Kamen, Segway, IT) is, it's an organization meant to interest high-school students in science and engineering by giving them 6 weeks to build a complete functioning robot. (By the way, FIRST is what most likely inspired BattleBots) Teams, although they require funding to pay for the kits, receive many different mechanical and electrical (the programmable control system kicks ass! :) parts in the kits, along with full copies (donated by the companies) of Autodesk Inventor, Character Studio, 3D Studio Max, and Reactor, as well as Microsoft Office XP, Frontpage, and Project. There is a live webcast of the kickoff, with an unveiling of the game at 11:00 EST." Update: 01/05 16:15 GMT by T : Here's a link to the webcast information page; the webcast is available in WMF and RealMedia formats, and will be archived as RealMedia.
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FIRST Robotics Competition Starts Today More

FIRST Robotics Competition Starts Today

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  • You're wrong. (Score:1, Informative)

    by c_g_hills ( 110430 )
    FIRST is what most likely inspired BattleBots

    Actually Battlebots is a rip off of the British Robot Wars.

    • No. It's the other way round!...

      Robot Wars is a poor rip-off of battlebots
      • The real Robot Wars, in the desert (in arizona I think), not on TV, was around in 1995 or so. That is the real inspiration for battle bots.
    • Battlebots. Robot wars. Robotica. I've lost track of the number of look alike shows.

      What I want to know is why Battlebots is being carried by the Comedy Network here in Canada. What the hell does Battlebots have to do with comedic television programming? The only thing I could come up with is the fact that it still meets with the Comedy Network's slogan: "Time Well Wasted."

      I know the question sounds pretty anal retentive, but I can remember back to when Ren and Stimpy was being broadcast by Muchmusic, and it got yanked off the air when people complained to the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission... kinda like the FCC for you south-of-the-border types) that it didn't belong on Much because it wasn't "music related programming."

      Um. How far offtopic am I now?

    • MIT Robots (Score:3, Informative)

      by heliocentric ( 74613 )
      But why does everyone think media hyped robot vs. robot competitions were the start of things? MIT for years put students against students building robots from the same set of materials for the battle arena of who can collect the most ping-pong balls. This competition was great, it was not only interesting, but the behind the scences views of the creators working on their robot setups, and the insight into strategy* was also interesting. The modern day over hyped, cartoonized naming, and street fighter-esq "battles" are so crappy compared to the good MIT battles. Anyone remember when the top builders from MIT went to China to work in teams of two (one MIT'er one Chinese) to get around a language barrior to develop robots?

      * - there seemed to be two prevailing strategies: one was to put as many ping-pong balls into your base/hole/area/whatever the other was to put just a few (sometimes just one) and then block your opponents ability to put any (or few) into their base/hold/area/whatever.
  • FIRST is a great program. There is a similar program in Canada called Canada FIRST inspired by FIRST and when I was in High School I had a blast. As an older person, we can mentor the students, though I have not been close to my school and have not asked to mentor.

  • Hints About the Game (Score:4, Informative)

    by cscx ( 541332 ) on Saturday January 05, 2002 @11:54AM (#2790594) Homepage
    Although the game will be kept a secret till 11 AM EST, they have unveiled some hints:

    1. The kickoff is taking place in a hockey rink
    2. Playground balls have been 'thrown' across the stage
    3. Basketball-lookalike balls have been thrown onto the stage as well
    4. Some sort of octagonal movable cart with PVC pipe extending into the air (looks like a type of goal) was mysteriously wheeled onto the stage...
    They have said that there will be more room for 'roughing' in this year's game... roughing, one of the most fun part of the competitions, had been seriously downplayed in last year's competition.

    Dean also said that Disney is in some super-secret marketing scheme with the Segways to "make them available more quickly..." with something to do with the Regional and National competions. It will be unveiled in a few weeks.

  • There is an interesting Nasa Pnuematics Workshop video [nasa.gov] that might be useful for people interested...
    • It's true that pneumatics are included in the parts given the teams, but given the weight constraints on the robot and the type of pneumatic components that are given, it's considered death to use the pneumatics, even if you know how.

      Lea
      • A year or two ago, my team (Team 85, Built on Brains) used pneumatics with considerable success. Albeit the use was limited to one or two subsystems (opening an closing the lid of a bin, opening and closing a claw), but these subsystems performed their jobs very well when the robot was completed. And the whole robot was about 80% student built, too.

        You can use pneumatics successfully, if you do it right!

        --LF3
      • ...it's considered death to use the pneumatics, even if you know how.

        Really? my team did quite well last year in the ocmpetition, when pneumatics was a major part of the robot.

  • The FIRST program sounds like a great way to introduce high school students to undergraduate degrees in the engineering fields. I entered my engineering college as a CS major, but quickly found myself branching out into the mechanical engineering field to fufill my general science credits.

    Not only does this allow males to explore engineering fields, but this introduces engineering to females at a lower level than college courses. I feel early introduction to technical fields is fundamental in opening the door for more females to enter, and be accepted, in to these "male-dominated" fields.

    It's good to see that companies are donating software and kits, but I'll be impressed if they burn their own ROMs and use erector sets.
    • You have a point, but as someone who has participated in this more than once, it's a rather idealistic one. Most teams are actually run by the engineers: design, construction, programming, everything. Students are relegated to cheerleaders during the competition. And General Motors isn't the only offender. When my team made it to the semi-finals, most teams were shocked, simply becasue we were not engineer-built. (we had some engineers, mostly from Xerox PARC, but they were mainly there in a supervisory capactiy -- as in "there must be an adult in the shop" and to conduct design reviews) I realize that not all of the teams have the necessary background for this sort of work, but it really isn't teaching them much of anything. It's tolerated becasue "they might learn something, and that's better than nothing", which has the effect of discouraging other teams from designing and building their own robots.

      As for females, I was one of them. You will see women on these teams, but most often as cheerleaders, on both the engineer-built and the student-built teams. I'm not making any statements about who chose that role for them, simply noting that there are very few women who are, for example, drivers or part of the pit crews. And if you are part of the pit crew, people from OTHER TEAMS will not pay attention to you and push you out of the way in an effort to look at your robot (information gathering, not real curiosity). I simply hope they don't treat their own members like that.

      And it's not that the companies donate kits. They donate money (part of which goes to pay the entry fee, and if you pay the entry fee, you get the kit -- which is NOT all the materials you need); they donate engineer's time; they donate use of their shops.

      Lea
      • I'm on a FIRST team, and the engineers don't run us... not by far. My best friend is the main programmer for the robot (it's not that hard), the main builder and robot designer, and also the robot operator, I'm the head 3D animator, and the daughter of the head of the team is the designer (awesome... awesome artist). The engineers we have only help out a little bit... the original engineer who did the programming for the robot was absolutely horrible.

        We all know about the other teams we face that are run by engineers, and we still beat them. Every year we've gone to the nationals in florida... It's a shame that the engineers in other teams are taking all the work away from the kids... the learning experience you get from being on the team (and participating... not cheerleading) is enoumous, and the engineers should just sit back a little more, and let the kids do more of the work...
  • I saw something similar to this at Syracuse University a few (3-4?) years ago. Students created robots with the ability to find their way through a plywood maze, locate a burning candle, and put out the flame. There were some interesting designs, and the task made each student put a variety of features onto the Robot. Sensors and logic to find their way through the maze without a) bumping into walls, b) going down the same hallway twice. Sensors of various type to locate a candle in each room of the maze, and some type of system to put out a candle (light sensors or heat sensors, attached to a fan, etc.) Most of the login boards were available for about $100, and programmed in C. Cool toy to play with if you have a reason.

    I almost wish I had a reason to make something like this myself.

    -Pete
  • Battlebots came out of Lucas Films. The FX Guys wanted to have fun and started with dog fighting model planes. It grew from there.
  • Given the huge prominence given on TV to those misnamed radio-controlled go-karts [robotwars.co.uk], I'm relieved to see that there is still a lot of grassroots interest in building true autonomous machines of this kind.
    • These aren't autonomous either. They are in fact glorified, hand built, radio-controlled go-karts.

  • Correction... (Score:2, Informative)

    by starman97 ( 29863 )
    Survival Research Labs is what inspired Battlebots.

  • There's a lego mindstorms league too (Score:4, Interesting)

    by miradu2000 ( 196048 ) on Saturday January 05, 2002 @12:14PM (#2790650) Homepage
    I helped First test this out, but now it seems to have gone international. First Lego League International [firstlegoleague.org] . It's pretty cool - here though the challanges are known before when building your robot, and you are giving a Lego Mindstorms kit and can use your own components. It's mainly for late elementry or jr.high school - but it can be mentered by anyone. It was a LOT of fun when I did it except the other team destroeyd our robot...

  • What They Really Learn (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DeadBugs ( 546475 ) on Saturday January 05, 2002 @12:24PM (#2790679) Homepage
    My company does this every year. And of course it's supposed to be a few of our employees overseeing the High School students while they build the robot. What actually happens is the Engineers from my company argue over the design and concept until the last minute. Then they work long hours near the end of the deadline to finish it. The kids get bored, the Non-Engineers from my company to most the work and we get our butts whipped at the competition. Although they may not learn much about robotics, they are getting a first rate education in office politics, theory over implementation and other great office battles not taught in any college. Of course they do get a free trip to Disney World.
    • Yes, some of the teams are like yours (do you work at GM :P), but some of them are not. A lot of the non-engineer bots suck, but some of them are quite well done. The team I came from does quite well every year, and they're entirely student-run. The team I supervised one year did quite well in regionals, but didn't have the money to make it to nationals -- they had to break up the entry fee among themselves, since they didn't manage any corporate sponsorship, which yes, means no engineers. (The answer to your question is: college students)

      I know the rationale for letting this continue is that some students "aren't as well prepared" as those from more affluent areas, and that this allows them a way to participate, and that they "might learn something." I don't see that going on on the engineer-led teams. I've never been on one, but I see that you agree with me :). But still, for such an expensive (and badly webcast) event, many students get the experience of being cheerleaders, nothign more, while some students get the experience of designing and building a robot, and learning a LOT in the process. Shouldn't we be striving for the latter? Restricting companies to money and shop time (and help) might help, but it's unlikely to happen.

      Lea
      • Agreed with the above. Teams get what they want out of it. If they allow a sponsor to take over the program, it'll happen. If they want to get in their and build it themselves, it'll happen. The very first thing on the FIRST website is "FIRST has an imperative, singular focus: to excite more young people about the accessibility, fun, and importance of science and engineering." It accomplishes that. The regional competitions are big productions, and the national competition is amazing. NO WHERE does it say that it's purpose is to educate, and we really should only criticize FIRST if it is failing to achieve it's objectives. if you don't agree with the objective, don't participate. In my experience, my team decided education was one of our priorities. We build just about everything ourselves, and the engineers from the sponor company served as resources. They were there to answer questions, point out where we were going wrong (in six weeks, you don't have time to make too many mistakes), and occassionally contribute suggestions. This was the way our team worked, and in my opinion, it is the best way for a FIRST team to be structured. That said, it's only the way our team did it. Yes, we were frustrated by some of the engineer-led teams. One team revolted us particularly. We were curious about their drive system, so we asked some students how they made it. They didn't know. We found the engineers, and they were able to tell us. Curious, we asked what the students had done. Response: "Oh, we let them try to attach some parts we made, but they made some mistakes, so we took it from there." At the competition, only two students and the engineers were allowed to even touch the robot. This does seem to be an extreme that is to be avoided, but the criticism should not be directed at FIRST, instead, at the engineers that captured the project and at the advisers and students that allowed it to happen.
        • "NO WHERE does it say that it's purpose is to educate, and we really should only criticize FIRST if it is failing to achieve it's objectives. if you don't agree with the objective, don't participate."

          Dean made this clear in his keynote speech. He said that it's purpose is definitely not to educate, but rather to "inspire" and make them recognisant of technology.

    • That's too bad. The kids on our team (team 116) do lots of the work. Of course we have the advantage of having Dave Lavery from Nasa on our team (you saw him speak on the kickoff broadcast), and he's great at getting everyone involved. Out team was also featured on A&E's "The competition", on which you can see how involved some of our students are (I was visible on the show for a few seconds, but I didn't have any speaking parts).

      I've got lots of photos of out team's activities so far this year on my web site. I plan to add more soon, and to add photos from last years regional and nation competitions.

      Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/
    • It sounds like you just gave lots of information on why your companies team never wins. Its sad to hear that some schools teams end up like that, but not all, at the school I go to (yes I am a high school student and am involved in the competition) the students do the work, and we usually do decently (my memory sucks so I dont remember exactly how we have ranked in the past, havent been first but done really well).

      We also did the BEST competition earlier this year, and due to the downturn in the economy and the fact that one of the companies they worked for layed off a lot of people and we ended up loosing most of our mentors, even when we had them they did not do much work, the students (including myself) did the work with advice from the mentors, which is the reason they are suposed to be there, not to build the damn thing.

      well sorry for the ranting and bad spelling......
  • I watched an hour or so of one of the FIRST competitions on Nasa TV. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, they're provided with virtually all of the interesting parts. How do you learn from this? Does one learn how to design a car if they're given a working engine, a transmission, wheels, a chassis, and they just have to put it together?

    In my opinion, the kids would learn more if corporations got out of it. It's always apparent when some kid brings a project to school that you know his parents put together for him, and that's what this looks like. What's the point? Sit the kid down in front of a couple hours of junkyard wars, give them a Lego mindstorm set (at the most) and then let them do the work.

    And all the cheering just makes it a little too much like those friday night high school football games. uh, thanks, but no.

    • Some of them are done by the engineers, some are not. And you're not going to be able to guess, always, without knowing the team. The GM teams, sure, they're engineer-built, that one Baxter team, etc. But there are some that are not, like the team I came from, who does very well every year.

      And trust me, while you get motors, and wheels, you don't get any of the other parts. You get odds and ends. There is NOT enough stuff in there to build a robot. You need metal, you need to work it (unless you're one of the PVC teams). There's a lot of design and implementation work there -- it's just a question of who is doing it.

      Lea
    • And all the cheering just makes it a little too much like those friday night high school football games. uh, thanks, but no. Dean Kamen's intent was to have them like Friday night football games. His goal is to have engineers and scientists looked upon as role models the same way that athletes are. Its a rather admirable goal in my opinion. I'd much have my kids striving to get a college education and using thier mind.

  • JPL & 2001 FIRST (Score:2, Informative)

    by spaceland ( 548507 )
    Last year I visited JPL while they were having their Open House. It was a very cool day that included some great behind-the-scenes stuff, and many of the 2001 FIRST competitors robots were on display as well. I shot some video and posted it to Reality Feed [realityfeed.com], check it out.
  • Man, the poor little buggers have to learn Inventor? Man, it would take a couple of months to be able do draw something, let alone design a robot.

    Give them a basic package so at least they could get something done. Giving a package like inventor to high school kids is like giving tanks to the high school fencing team.
  • Has anyone tried to download the new realone player? Apparently for your free account they require not only your address, but your CREDIT CARD #....

    What the crap is that all about? It makes me think that Real is trying to simply irritate you into paying 10 bucks for the player...what a scam.

  • This is an event every year at Drexel University. It's pretty friggin' cool. You can walk around the displays and watch the teams work on the robots... some of the 'bots are pretty damn impressive too. The next generation of geeks! :-D
    • I was looking at Drexel for college either next year or the year after (depends on if I can graduate early). I was wondering what the different tracks (IT/Software Engineering/CS/CE) are like. If you have time I'd be interested in your oppinions of them. Thanks.
  • Watching the kickoff event right now-- you know it's screwed up when it takes three hours to explain the competition, and for the adults to get an idea of the rules and how it's scored.
    • Not really... how long would it take to explain _ALL_ the rules of football? Including those for how the field is marked and constructed and requirements for safety equipment.

    • Re:Rules too confusing... (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Before now I had no reason to post, so I never gotten a username and password, so at the moment I am waiting for my password. I don't like all the FIRST bashing taking place here. My brother is onto his third year participating. His first year, he was on the Nortel Networks Team from the Rochester, NY area. Last year and this year he is on the Gleason Works/Fairport High School Team. The past two years he has been the principal programmer, and I suspect that he will be again this year. FIRST, as Dean states, does not include the word "education" in its name. FIRST is an acronym for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology". As for the time to explain the rules, the actual time to explain the rules for this year's competition took only half an hour plus Q&A time. The time allotted allows for the not quite so important stuff (i.e. Thanking the Nationwide Sponsors [Microsoft, Fed Ex, Disney, etc.]). They've simplified the scoring a little this year, in exchange for a more devious way of getting points. There are 3 moveable goals that are worth 10 points each if they are in your goal zone, at the opposite end of your home zone. Every robot in your home zone is worth 10 points for your team. And every ball in a goal in your goal zone is worth 1 point. Now the devious part is that to maximize your score, you must make sure that your opponent's score stays no more than 1 point below yours, as your final score (if you win the match) is 3 times that of your opponent's score for that match. In addition to the scoring rules, there is a weight limit, and a spending limit (for functional parts). I don't see how that is confusing at all. The most confusing part is how to implement everything. On to the building time issue, my brother's teams were quite involved in building their past robots, and still had late nights towards the end, due to various set backs. The time allotted to build the robots, I feel, is too short for the amount of time the students can put into working on it during those 6 weeks, that is the ONLY thing I find fault with in FIRST, and it is NOT a good enough reason to bash them. FIRST has been around for only about 10 years, so it is still in it's infancy, but with 660 teams it is still growing. As technology changes, so will FIRST, and the FIRST competitions will get more challenging, devious, and interesting as time progresses. Nathanial C. Jones http://www.phantomcow.com [phantomcow.com]
    • It's a good thing that the students aren't as retarded as the people we send off to get the rules for us. It's all a ploy to get the worthless project-manager type people out of our hair and in another state while we do the most important brainstorming.

  • For those interested in the parts (Score:3, Informative)

    by olin01 ( 548516 ) on Saturday January 05, 2002 @01:46PM (#2790888) Homepage
    For anyone interested in a very basic overview of the parts (possibly below the level of slashdot geeks...), Olin College created a tutorial for new teams at http://first.robotics.olin.edu [olin.edu]. Right now, the college's connection seems to be overwhelemed; a mirror is at http://www.logicalrealism.org/first/ [logicalrealism.org]. It also includes some of the systems discussed in the kickoff, namely the light-sensor tracker and a thrower.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Botball (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mturnerb ( 255199 )


    On the topic of high school robotics...

    I was involved in a high school robotics competition called Botball [botball.org], organized by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics [kipr.org]. This program involved constructing autonomous robots out of Lego Technic parts, using Interactive C to write programs to control them.

    The controller used was MIT's Handyboard [handyboard.com], and the Botball game involved collecting ping pong balls and other such items to be depostited in a goal to score points (with various complexities coming into play). One part of the competition was head-to-head; two teams' robots then battled it out to see who could score more points.

    The Botball program offers high school students exposure to engineering and software development concepts, as well as problem solving with specific goals and deadlines, all in a team setting. With competition at the regional and national levels, the program is challenging and rewarding for students. And it's a lot of fun too.
  • I live just down the road from Dean Kamen--why wasn't I informed about this competition?? I would love to have seen it live!
    • This is just the kickoff where the until-now secret rules and guidelines for this year's competition are unveiled (they change every year). The competition is held later in the spring at Epcot Center in Florida.
  • lol...I am actually involved in this. The funny thing is, is that I didn't know the name or the relationship to the Segway creator (I read about the competition without making the connection).

    All that I knew is that NASA(?) was giving our school 10,000$ to compete in some competition.

    The fun thing is that I am in North Dakota, but our regionals are in St. Louis!(Any LUG meetings there?)

    Maybe my teacher will keep her site for us [geocities.com] updated.

    (No Comment on the logo or motto...I was working that day and missed all of it, so much for tux being on our logo)

  • MIT's 2.70 (Now called 2.007) is much older than any of the television shows or competitions. It is a contest held by the Mechanical Engineering department.
  • Well rats! It's over before I even heard about it. How about an advance notice next time? And how about holding it at some decent hour? 6:00 a.m. pst is just a little early for some of us.
  • Not only am I able to participate in FIRST as I'm a highschool student in the program but I get to program the sucker. Working with some wierd assembler parsed language on very limited is going to be fun. Plus, I get to learn a little bit more on the hardware side. Yes, the electronics are given to the team as a kit like structure but the actuall workings are not. Such elements as a zero degree turning radius feature are fun to make and watch. Not to mention moving the cool arms and hydrolics. I'm just hoping that we go to the finals in Florida again like we did the previous two years.

  • For the Uninformed and the Nay-Sayers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LightForce3 ( 450105 ) <lightforce3.yahoo@com> on Saturday January 05, 2002 @03:03PM (#2791113) Homepage
    As a former FIRST team member, (Go Team 85! Go BOB!) I can say without reservation that this program is excellent. It does just what it was created to do: it inspires students to pursue careers in science and technology.

    As many of you probably realize, there's much, much more that goes into a team's season that simply building the robot. Here's a rough breakdown of the 'season':

    -Kickoff: The game, the rules, and the items supplied to the teams are described and distributed.
    -Design: Students and corporate engineers work together to design a robot that performs the necessary tasks to play the game with the materials they are allowed to use. Concepts become sketches, sketches become designs, designs become blueprints.
    Construction: The robot is put together. Students and engineers fabricate the frame and construct the robot. Control, drive, pneumatic, and sensory systems are installed.
    Programming: The electronic control system (based on Parallax's BASIC Stamp) is programmed.
    Testing and Practice: The robot is tested, and bugs are worked out. Drivers are selected, and practice playing the game.

    The ideal final product is a high-performance robotic athlete. This all happens within 6 weeks. The robot is then shipped to be approved for competition.

    There's even more that goes on during the pre-competition season. Funds are raised (this isn't cheap, by any means), and community awareness is promoted. On several occasions, my team has taken robots from previous years and visited local elementary and junior-high schools. There are also several non-game awards, such as the Chairman's Award, awards presented by Autodesk, Judge's award, and awards for sportsmanship and community involvement.

    The regional and national competitions are some of the most intense and exciting times any engineering or computer science student will ever experience. Besides controlling the robot for the few brief minutes of actual gameplay, students and engineers repair their robot in the Pit, scope out their competition and potential allies, and support the team from the stands. No two robots are the same; some do one part of the game better, others are good all-around. Each team's robot has a different way of getting the job done, despite the fact that each team received the same materials from the Kickoff.

    The competition is fierce. There are stellar victories and crushing defeats. However, the fun and friendliness between opponents is (in most cases) preserved.

    This is only a short and rather poor description of FIRST. To get a more whole picture, talk with students and engineers who have participated/are participating in FIRST. There's a very good chance that there's a team at a high school near you!

    Now, addressing some of those whose experiences and opinions are not similar to mine (the arguments):

    Concerning DeadBugs' "What They Really Learn"

    I am sorry to learn that this is how your team works. Your team is missing the point of FIRST by miles. The idea behind FIRST is that the students do most of the designing and creation, and the engineers help and guide them. Some robots in the competition are 75% or more student-built. And yes, these robots can do very well (3rd place nationals). IMHO, your team needs evaluate itself in light of the ideas and purposes of FIRST, and get on the right track.

    Concerning cwhittenburg's "Learn more from Junkyard Wars"

    First, the teams are most definitely not provided with all the parts they need. Far from it. Teams must purchase much of the items and supplies that are used to construct the robot. The team can also pick and choose which items from the supplied kit they will use on their robot. One of the kit's major purposes is to ensure that robots are not too dissimilar. With the items that are supplied to the teams, the team has several different types of each basic item from which to choose. Continuing with your analogy, this is similar to being provided with several different engines, several different transmissions, several different wheels, etc. It's up to the team to get all these to work together. Also, some items can be significantly modified and customized.

    Second, some robots are, very unfortunately, designed, constructed, and programmed mostly by the professional engineers on a team instead of the students. This is contrary to the ideas and purposes behind FIRST. (See above response to "What They Really Learn")

    That's my perspective, as a former FIRST Team member and a current senior in high school. The only reason I'm not involved now is the fact that I don't have enough free time to devote myself to extracurricular activities. I'd jump without hesitation at the chance to become involved again.

    --LightForce3

    Comments/Replies appreciated
  • I'm not sure yet what i think about this year's game. I'm glad it's not happy-friendly coop again, but the game seems uninspired and aimed more towards simple mass entertainment. I guess Disney is going to be putting together a movie about it for broadcast, so maybe it will be better publiced.
    Speaking as a member of last years co-champions (team 125 w00t!), I've found the program very inviting scalable according to interest. It gets a little boged down by all the philosophy Dean and Woodie spiel out in thier speaches/lectures, but then again he might have a point. I love the retro dance music at competitions too.
    You can't realy get an idea about what the competitions are like without being there, and i'd advise all you hardware geeks out there to drop by at any local competitions and check it out.

  • Team 98 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by lostchicken ( 226656 )
    I am the captain of FIRST Team 98, Dallas, TX.

    We will not be able to compete this year.

    You see, we are one of the few teams without any form of engineering support from a large corporation. All we have is some donated framing. We have been able to survive until this year, because the requirements for registration were just to sign up. Now there is a 'point' system to even get on a waiting list. It is almost impossible to get in if you don't WIN a regional match. That means you must enter many, many regionals to have a good shot at nationals.

    These registrations cost a very large amount of money. In the past, registration for nationals was $6,000, and regionals were about the same. To have a fair shot of getting in, I have calculated that my team must spend at least $15-20k in registrations alone. The robot would cost another $4,000, far exceeding my school's $12,000 budget for the team.

    I'm sure we could find a NASA, United Tech, or Delphi sponsor for engineering, but then we would no longer do most of the work. We decided that the best way to go was sponsor-less, in the hopes that we would recieve experience in building the thing, as we did last year. It was a great learning experience, and great fun too.

    We now must decide what to do. Sell out, or close shop. Rest in peace, US FIRST.
  • 2.70 is the famous "robot competition" that started it all. It's now called 2.007 and is taught to freshmen. Students get a box of parts, learn engineering, documentation, design, and test their designs in competition. The winner gets an A.

    Professor Alexander Slocum currently teaches it, Prof. Woody Flowers taught it previously.

    The finals are generally carried on PBS.

    • Prof. Woodie Flowers is also the co-founder of FIRST. Think there's a connection? :)
    • While you're mostly correct that 2.70/2.007 started it all, theres an important step you left out.

      2.70 is from the Mechanical Engineering Dept,
      with the emphasis on Mechanical Design.

      The Comp.Sci/Electrical Eng. department picked up on the idea and created a class called "6.270".
      They also created the Handyboard and Interactive C. The emphasis is a balance between mechanical systems, electrical sensors, and programming autonomous interactive systesm.

      The 6.270 equipment later formed the foundation of Lego Mindstorms.

      (P.S. When I write that a "department" created something, it should be noted that it was really the outstanding contributions of several truly dedicated and talented individuals. Unfortunately, I don't remember all their names anymore... but I'm thankful for their effort anyway. I still have my hand-assembled Handyboard, and work with it regularly)
  • I participated in FIRST competitions for three years-- as a part of MAST Academy/Cordis's (Cordis == a Johnson&Johnson co.) team, Cordzilla --and, while building robots is an important part of the event, it is only one of two competitions: engineering/robotics and computer animation.

    My three years of experience have been in the comp. anim. team, experimenting with modeling, animation, and texturing & lighting. The competition gives students a chance to get their hands on top quality modeling/animation software ("educational" version, and full if you win; I dunno what the difference is) legitamitely. That is, of course, in addition to team ethic, a trip to Orlando with a Disney inter-park pass, and so on, which I picked up from my time in it as well.

  • Winning Design Strategy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by spoonboy42 ( 146048 ) on Saturday January 05, 2002 @10:25PM (#2792387)
    I was in FIRST a couple of years ago. My school wound up in about the middle of the pack in the Michigan state finals in Pontiac. The winning team had a brilliant design for manipulating the playground balls that are central to the game.

    If anyone out there is planning on competing, DON'T USE A CLAW DESIGN. It's not reliable, and it's quite slow, as well. Instead, go with the simpler and much more effective "loop" design. Build two metal circles just a bit wider than the ball's diameter and cover them with the red, grippy textured rubber that comes in the construction kits. Then, mount the two circles an inch or two apart at the end of your manipulation arm, and put a pneumatic pump inside the arm with some more of the grip material at the end of the piston. To move balls, just get the loops over the ball, then activate the pump to lock it in place. This will work much better than a claw which, despite looking really cool, will very frequently drop the ball when jarred.

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