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FIRST's (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) annual robotics competition has been supplying high school-based teams from all over the United States, Canada, Brazil, and the UK, with motors from power drills, car window mechanisms, powered van doors, and motorized camper jacks for years, now.

Check out the FIRSTrobitcs.net galleries for pictures of the kinds of robots we make.

It's not BattleBots or Robot Wars. The goals are never to destroy an opponent. The program is focused on education.

Words can't do it justice.

</shameless plug>

The Robot Wars phenomenon, begun in San Francisco...

The phenomenom, in the form of robots actually attacking each other, may have started there. But robotic competitions have a longer history. There is an annual competition for high school students called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) that is well worth the time to get involved with. Adults get to play too. The teams need sponsors and mentors.

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, is also founder of the high school FIRST robotics competition. At most regional events, including nationals, there is a venue setup to allow everyone to try out the Segway. Check it out...US FIRST.

You've given your students an amazing head start with your program and you deserve congratulations for it. I wish I had such a program when I was in middle school.
Here is a listing of teams from Texas. There are a couple that look promising. There's one from Grand Prarie which has been in it for a few years, they look close to you and might answer questions. There is also a veteran team from Greenville, team 148 who have been in it since 1995. The best way to get into it is to phone them up or e-mail them and ask questions. They might let you stop by and check out the robot, or talk to you about the program. The other "best" way to get into it is to go to a regional, unfortunately, you just missed that national championships whcih were earlier this month in Houston. Seeing is believing. If you have any questions, you can e-mail me and I can try to answer.

And if a project like this goes well, like it did for our School, You could go on to even bigger challenges, like starting a FIRST team. My school started out with a LEGO robotics class when I was in grade 10, and then started FIRST when I was in 11 and 12. It's an awsome experience, but quite a large undertakeing. You would need a lot of support from teachers and then you have to go out and find companies that are willing to sponsor you, but you get to compete with a full size robot at competition and meet all sorts of people. I can't recomend it enough.

All sorts of places have great kids pages: You could try the NRA or the CIA, for instance.

More seriously, you could try somethings like HowStuffWorks.com or project-oriented sites like PARTS or FIRST (yes, I have a robotics bias) that could get them involved in activities beyond just websurfing.

I'll betcha places like Smithsonian, National Geo, NPR, PBS or other traditional educational media organizations are good places to look as well. I swear BBC has a kid's oriented news page. It's just too bad 2600 doesn't have a kid's page...

I have to respect you for your dedication. I was unfortunately not as dedicated to my physique and am now trying to turn myself around. It is definitely hard work to do it.

I think part of the reasons for the differences in payment is just how noticeable the activity is. Someone throwing a Football 100 yards is an impressive, and obvious, feat. It can be seen and any Joe (or Jane) can try to do it. A lot of science on the other hand is so obscure that there is very little obvious change. The concepts of the science isn't understood by the vast majority of the population, and very few people have the ability to reproduce any of it.

Some activities like Dean Kamen's FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) attempt to fix this by introducing children and young adults to some of the more exciting areas of science and technology (namely robotic competition), but it is still much more of a niche audience than most sports. Other things like "BattleBots", "Junkyard Wars"("Scrapheap Challenge"), and "Full Metal Challenge" are also helping. We finally have Science and Technology based social things that may produce heros.

There already is a LEGO robotics program for children ages 9-14

Granted, the site appears to be a pile of feces. However, Dean Kamen does have a history of letting Average Joes in his house as part of the FIRST program. As a promotion to get the Segway popularized, it's not that far of a stretch.

Today I went out to the kickoff meeting for the FIRST robotics competition http://www.usfirst.org in Richmond, VA, and there I saw that a team somewhere had built their own version of Segway. It had the same design to it, and the innards were made entirely out of parts included in the kits that teams are to build their robots out of. It was slightly jerky on the autoleveling, but it still worked as the operator leaned forward and back. Very interesting, and I'm sure the project didn't cost near the same as the real Segway.

I went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry last year with some engineer friends of mine. We are all recent college grads, and found everything way too ordinary and "dumbed-down" to be interesting or educational. It's not their fault...it's a museum, and there's only so much they can display, only so much detail they can go into. But that's a problem I've had with almost any exhibit I've gone to see...the exhibitors don't have the time, money, or liability insurance to interactively display anything that's really interesting. Thus, the only interesting things I've really found have been participatory engineering organizations, like Formula SAE when I was in college and FIRST after I graduated. There are many of these types of engineering organizations out there to choose from. That's probably getting offtopic though...

Dean Kamen's super advanced robotic wheelchair is far more impressive (a lot of the technology behind the Segway comes from it). It is 4 wheel drive, can stand a person upright so that the wheelchair bound can look "norms" in the eyes, climbs stairs with ease, is faster than a Segway, and is as compact a normal non-folding wheelchair.

And he has been working on a true compact Stirling Engine using modern materials for quite some time. Supposedly is quite close to getting it working affordably. Such a device could do wonders for the energy problems of today (not to mention providing electric power even in the most remote areas).

This is also the guy that invented several key medical devices used in much of modern cardiovascular and vascular medicine. Things such as a blood pump that due to the design of the turbine blades within it does not damage blood cells as they pass through the device.

Dean is also the founder of the US FIRST program designed to get children of the US (and other countries) interested in science and invention at an early age. The US FIRST robotics competition has inspired some very interesting advances in robotics.

Dean Kamen's super advanced robotic wheelchair is far more impressive (a lot of the technology behind the Segway comes from it). It is 4 wheel drive, can stand a person upright so that the wheelchair bound can look "norms" in the eyes, climbs stairs with ease, is faster than a Segway, and is as compact a normal non-folding wheelchair.

And he has been working on a true compact Stirling Engine using modern materials for quite some time. Supposedly is quite close to getting it working affordably. Such a device could do wonders for the energy problems of today (not to mention providing electric power even in the most remote areas).

This is also the guy that invented several key medical devices used in much of modern cardiovascular and vascular medicine. Things such as a blood pump that due to the design of the turbine blades within it does not damage blood cells as they pass through the device.

Dean is also the founder of the US FIRST program designed to get children of the US (and other countries) interested in science and invention at an early age. The US FIRST robotics competition has inspired some very interesting advances in robotics.

I just graduated hs and am doing the community college bit this year because I never got around to applying to a 4 year college. I work 3 days a week(24hrs) and have 14 credit hours.

Working great for me so far. We see how I do next semester when the robotics season starts.

I am a team mentor (Team #824, Students Working Against Time). I'm proud to say that our robot, from chassis to firmware, is 100% built by students, both from the University of Washington, and Roosevelt High School with whom we are partnered. In fact, the most that our corporate sponsors do is mail us a check and show up at the pre-ship event to pick up a team T-Shirt.

It is *not* a cheap program. It costs $5000.00 to register, each additional competition that you go to costs another whopping $4000.00. The money from registration pays for the kit parts, which is a big collection of motors, pneumatics, and control systems (Innovation First's controller, complete with 900Mhz radio modems). Additional competitions *are* expensive to go to, expecially if it's the championship at Epcot; just flying the entire team there with a 130 lbs robot and support equipment can be very taxing.

My kids learn a lot every year. Some of the HS students joined the team not having used a hacksaw before; by the end of the build period, they were operating our CNC milling machine. Others became good 3D Animators, CAD users, and web gurus. It's also about APPLYING what you learn in the class room. Kids can learn all the physics from a book, but the concept is really reinforced when you have to sit down and calculate gear reduction ratios for building a ball pickup scoop. As for mentors, we get about as much out of a program as the kids; I was a horrible manager when I first started, and slowly I've managed to hone my managerial and leadership skills. Of coures, like anything in life, you get what you put into the program. The students that learn the most are going to be the ones that always show up and volunteer to help. We were at a pre-ship competition, and the kids from the Micro$oft team (The X-Bot, insert booing here)were just sitting around playing basketball, while we were busy troubleshooting our robot. We can all guess how much of *their* robot is student-buit. :-)

Would I mentor a BattleBot IQ team if I have the chance? Why not? FIRST is a great program, but it still have miles to go as far as marketing goes, compared to Battlebots, and if it's another way to get kids interested into science and technology, who cares what banner they compete under?

Links:

FIRST's website:
F.I.R.S.T
Team #824 - Students Working Against Time

I think someone is about 10 years late on this subject... The FIRST robotics competition has been stressing math and science for that long.

I am involved in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) program. The main difference between FIRST and battle bots is that battle bots focusses on money and ratings, while FIRST focuses on educating our nations youth. You can go to FIRST's website to find out more--it's a huge program, the stadium for nationls (which is rebuilt each year) is bigger than the Orlando Magic stadium (we even have teams from England, Canada, and Brazil). Also to note, the founder of FIRST (Dean Kamen) is the guy who invented the segway. Basically, I would much rather see more schools enter into FIRST than battle bots, because FIRST focuses on LEARNING and GRACIOUS PROFESIONLISM, while battle bots focusses on MONEY.

I really didn't give this much thought until i noticed somebody mentioned the FIRST competition being held in spring there. US FIRST I've been to the competition before, and they try to give internet access/network drops in the pit area for contact and information (it helped save us last year, grabbing a copy of the bot's code of our site that we forgot to bring) so I do believe we'll have indirect access to the network through wired access points. Why create another network when one's in place. So it is very possible that internet access on the network, also you never know what kinda db software their using, if they connect to a local system or a system for the three disney parks. It would seem to me that it is highly unlikly that they don't have internet access, even if it's only for disney exec to look at the latest people flashing at splash mountain -LOWORBIT

I've often considered giving teaching a try, and the one thing which has consistantly held me back is that pesky salary thing. It's just not worth it at this point in my life to take a 50%-70% salary cut.

I think I'd really enjoy teaching, and perhaps more importantly, I think I'd be very good at it. I have a BSEE, with almost 10 years of industry experience, plus uncounted hours spent studying science and physics and building robots in my basement. I've spent time tutoring math and physics, and have always had positive responses from my students. I'm just not ready to lose my house, car, and lifestyle in order to be abused by students (and their parents) who didn't get a proper background to support a high school level science class.

Plus, don't forget that in addition to the huge salary cut I'd have to take, I'd also have to take some additional classes (no big deal), and then pay for the privilige of being allowed to teach for free for a year, in order to complete my teaching certificate.

So. While I'm waiting for society to wise up and make it easier for engineers or other scientists to even consider teaching, I indulge my wish to be involved in molding young minds by volunteering for FIRST Robotics Competition teams, and email mentoring of high school students.

This was the second year of competition for the GSGIS Mech Techs (team 422), whose website can be found here. Also, many team websites can be found on FIRST's page.

For those who think this is Battlebots for high-schoolers, you should really do some research; FIRST does their best to be as far removed from Battlebot-style games as possible. This year, for example, the game involved a radical new concept: four robots on the field at a time, all on the same team. You all shared the same score (with one exception), so if something went wrong for your teammate, you took the hit with them. In the end, it was in everyone's best interest to make sure that every team built the best, most reliable robot possible. This is meant to simulate real-world engineering challenges; as Dean explains, companies like Coca-cola do better than their competitors by creating better products and advertising more, not by blowing up PepsiCo's international headquarters. In the real world, teamwork is the only way to get things done, and if you go out and destroy the competition there is no-one to team up with.

While I was at one of the regional competitions, I saw a great example of this. There was a team who had basically been logistically screwed; their parts didn't arrive in time, they didn't have enough help from their community (in terms of engineers), and their robot was even shipped upside-down! They put out an SOS over e-mail before the competition, and when they arrived there were three teams (ours included) lined up to help them out. Their robot wasn't the best out there, but it went from completely unfinished to running in a few hours. At the end of the comp, they won a judges' special award for having the courage to swallow their pride and ask for help. Everyone cheered.

In real life, teamwork is more important than competition. If only the nations of the world could learn that lesson...

Take care,
Mark

The control system used is built by InnovationFIRST. It consists of three Basic Stamp 2X controllers where one is user programmable. These are remote controlled robots but sensor input can be taken from the robot and used to preform certain tasks (for instance, several robots could "autobalance" on this year's bridge).

For more information on FIRST, the following websites might be of interest.

• FIRST's web site
• Alstom & RIT & Edison Tech - Team 73 - my team
• Chief Delphi - Delphi & Pontiac High School - Team 47 - the web site for team 47 also provides message boards and photo galleries used by many FIRSTers
• FIRST Robotics.net - provides pictures of many robots
• InnovationFIRST - makers of the control system we use

Matt Leese
Team Leader
Team 73

The control system used is built by InnovationFIRST. It consists of three Basic Stamp 2X controllers where one is user programmable. These are remote controlled robots but sensor input can be taken from the robot and used to preform certain tasks (for instance, several robots could "autobalance" on this year's bridge).

For more information on FIRST, the following websites might be of interest.

• FIRST's web site
• Alstom & RIT & Edison Tech - Team 73 - my team
• Chief Delphi - Delphi & Pontiac High School - Team 47 - the web site for team 47 also provides message boards and photo galleries used by many FIRSTers
• FIRST Robotics.net - provides pictures of many robots
• InnovationFIRST - makers of the control system we use

Matt Leese
Team Leader
Team 73

I'm a College Student Mentor for a FIRST Team based out of RIT. My team page can be found here

I just wanted to comment on some of the posts. This is not a battlebots clone. Far from it. The goal is not to disable/destory the other team, and although the game itself changes from season to season, it has been trending towards a cooperative effort.

The messages and encouraged behavior while somewhat idealistic are exatly what today's highschool students need. If anything, (refering to some other posts i skimmed) it will prevent violent behavior by providing kids with afterschool activities. I encourage everyone looking for a way to fill free time to check out www.usfirst.org

I can say personally that FIRST ( this being my first year ) was a great experience and very personally rewarding to feel as if you are making a difference in others' lives.

and my brother's team

fp!

They aren't NASA robots, they are FIRST robots. What's FIRST? FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology"

The robots in the competition are made by kids (not NASA scientists).

FIRST is an organization funded (and founded) by Dean Kamen. Kamen is a genius inventor. A profile of him is on the FIRST web site here. His company, DEKA, is the one making the so-called 'IT', or 'Ginger' (that scooter thingy).

For informetion on the rules of this years game, go to US First's website... Or click here

For informetion on the rules of this years game, go to US First's website... Or click here

For those who just tuned in and are confused (why aren't they destroying each other? thus su><ors!!!), the rules of the game are here. It's co-operative, and there are several objectives... read this, and enjoy the show :)

"Dude! NASA's doing RobotWars! I got $5 on the Martian Pathfinder!"

"RobotWars/BattleBots/CowboyNeal is much cooler than this and here is a link cause I'm karma whoring."

"RobotWars/Battlebots is way better than RobotWars/Battlebots!"

"This is actually the FIRST competition and is a NASA-funded educational program. The focus of this competition is not to break the other robots (which is actually against the rules), but to score points by putting balls into goals"

"Robots+destruction=bad"

"Robots+destruction=good"

"All your bots are belong to us"

Each regional is held as sort of a practice for the big event being held down in Orlando, FL April 5-7. Check out the FIRST website for details and rules for the competition. This is a little bit more then BattleBots. The only destruction that goes on here is poorly build robots.

Each regional is held as sort of a practice for the big event being held down in Orlando, FL April 5-7. Check out the FIRST website for details and rules for the competition. This is a little bit more then BattleBots. The only destruction that goes on here is poorly build robots.

Actually, we have seen it before, but it's http://www.usfirst.org

Another robot competition that is heavily funded by NASA (the program itself isn't, but more than a majority of high schools receive funding and sponsorship via NASA to compete in this) is the U.S. FIRST Competition. The focus of this competition is not to break the other robots (this is actually against the rules), but to instead achieve points by putting balls into goals and then they can receive bonus points by doing certain tricks. E.g.: hanging from the rail. Our school, Sylvania Northview, gets local funding from Dana Corporation Headquarters in Toledo, OH. It is a bit costly, but if the school can find the sponsorship, it's an excellent educational experience.

The link posted with the story didn't provide a whole lot of information, but you can get all you need to know at the 2001 documentation section of the FIRST Web site.

This competition is a lot more education-oriented than "battlebots," and looks like a lot more fun.

The link posted with the story didn't provide a whole lot of information, but you can get all you need to know at the 2001 documentation section of the FIRST Web site.

This competition is a lot more education-oriented than "battlebots," and looks like a lot more fun.

That's the stuff we've been looking for to get our robot working! (See US FIRST)

Anyone who went to the national FIRST competition last year saw Dean demonstrate the wheelchair he/DEKA created. I actually have a picture of the thing, but I'm at school right now and can't post it. The wheelchair is designed to make a disabled person feel completely independent and reduce the feeling of inferiority that might come from having to sit in a wheelchair while someone stands over you. The chair has a gyroscope for stability. This means it can switch positions from a normal two wheels on either side, to a one wheel on top of the other position. This makes the person in the wheelchair at the same height as a non-disabled person so that they can look eye to eye. It can actually walk like this, balanced on one wheel. While Dean showed it off, he sat in it the entire time. The thing is designed to work in various terrains, including sand. Another feature Dean showed is one's ability to climb stairs with the device. Using the railing on a set of stairs, one can easily pull themselves up the stairs, while the wheels circle around to climb the stairs. Dean Kamen's done some pretty cool stuff with robotics.

Here's a bio page for Mr. Kamen. He's got a few patents over on the IBM Patent Server, starting in 1975 and going to the present, mainly for medical devices. You can find more stuff by running a quick Google search.

Well, as far as PR stunts go, I doubt this is one. It's not Dean's style in the least. And before you ask, yes, I have met him although I do not know him personally. In fact I saw him last Saturday. Above all things Dean isn't really all that interested in making money anymore. He's more interested in changing the world (witness what he's done for FIRST). R Deka Research, Dean's company, is a completely R&D firm. They do contracts for some companies but I believe most of that's just to pay the bills. The real work is the stuff that Dean directs them to do. The iBot was one thing that Dean directed Deka to work on that was not something a company asked Deka to research. The more important projects Deka does (ie. those started by Dean) are usually too risky for any corporation to want to develop. In all honesty I almost expect Dean to reveal what this new invention is at either FIRST's Kickoff (January) or National Championship (April) next year. As to what it is, my guess is that's it's a Stirling Engine that actually works. They're pretty cool and can burn almost any fuel. Is this as big as they say it is? Knowing Dean, I would bet on it. Matt Leese

Well, as far as PR stunts go, I doubt this is one. It's not Dean's style in the least. And before you ask, yes, I have met him although I do not know him personally. In fact I saw him last Saturday. Above all things Dean isn't really all that interested in making money anymore. He's more interested in changing the world (witness what he's done for FIRST). R Deka Research, Dean's company, is a completely R&D firm. They do contracts for some companies but I believe most of that's just to pay the bills. The real work is the stuff that Dean directs them to do. The iBot was one thing that Dean directed Deka to work on that was not something a company asked Deka to research. The more important projects Deka does (ie. those started by Dean) are usually too risky for any corporation to want to develop. In all honesty I almost expect Dean to reveal what this new invention is at either FIRST's Kickoff (January) or National Championship (April) next year. As to what it is, my guess is that's it's a Stirling Engine that actually works. They're pretty cool and can burn almost any fuel. Is this as big as they say it is? Knowing Dean, I would bet on it. Matt Leese

Gotta be. I agree. Can't you see NYC full of sidewalk surfing hovercraft techno-weenies replacing their Razors with i-mac colored hovercrafts.

Link to his bio ---> http://www.usfirst.org/bios/dean.html

This guy is talking about Canadian FIRST and I think you're talking about US FIRST (At least, I remember a Wildstang team from US FIRST before). How long has Canada's FIRST been around? It sounds to me like they're either underprepared, just getting started, or a real scam. (Their website is certainly better-looking than US FIRST's).

But this competition is remote controlled. Check it out. Wireless controls, wired controls, joysticks, etc.

Steven

Wait a minute,
http://www.usfirst.org/whatis.html is (c) 1996 ...

Perhaps they need a competition for someone to write an 'include footer' for their site...

I am a highschool student in South Florida and i dont have any electronics classes, but i am involved in the US First competition. I recommend that you look into making the classa team. If they are as gifted as you say they will be very competative.

US First is a national robotics competition unlike any you have ever seen before. It is about gracious professionalism, and the main point is learning not winning. Winning is fun though. Last year my team was number 11 in the nation.

Anyway... You can get information about it at US FIRST's site. And if you feel you have any question is would be happy to help! Goodluck

Matt Leese

Matt Leese

Matt Leese

Matt Leese