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HS Students Compete In FIRST Robotics Competition
A trio of teams have banded together to succeed in the 'FIRST Robotics Competition'. The teams Bobcat Robotics from South Windsor, Connecticut, Highrollers from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Gompei and the HERD from Worcester, Massachusetts combined to create a versatile robot geared to succeeding at a number of odd tasks. "These young people had six weeks to perfect their machines. And they had the enthusiasm of any athletic competition. From tie-dyed shirts to human hair dyed in school colors, competitors from 23 countries showed that math, science and brains can provide a lot of excitement ... Whether it is computer programming, wiring a motor or scouting rivals to develop strategy, students said the skills they develop often go beyond the contest. Clearly, the event has piqued the interest of major sponsors such as NASA, which will broadcast webcasts of the competitions."
FIRST is great. I was involved when I was in high school. We need to get the word out even more so that people will know more about it and will support it more!
Yay, I have a sig.
As someone who was involved in FIRST for the last three years, I wouldn't say that the competition has just now piqued the interest of major sponsors such as NASA - I'd say that they were integral to the development of FIRST from the beginning, most especially NASA.
The summary also gave the impression that the three teams combined to create one robot - well no, each team has a seperate robot in FIRST, and this years' competition allowed three teams per side.
On a personal note, oh how I miss FIRST. Last year (my senior year) was when I had the greatest enthusiasm for the program, and I did indeed dye my hair blue and orange. It's a shame that was also my school's last year before the team disbanded. I would strongly encourage any slashdotter to volunteer for a local FIRST team - the whole robot-making experience leaves a lasting thirst for engineering that mentors can help shape into a high schooler's bright future.
I am pretty sure I have heard of previous robotics competitions... so FIRST much be an acronym and not capitalized for emphasis. Anyone know what it stands for?
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FIRST is quite good - I was in a team competing from the UK, unfortunately, for teams outside the US/Canada it's fairly hard to raise the money to build the robot and get the team to the event!
Some sort of initiative to help teams outside of North America would be good I think - there is a fair bit of interest over here in the UK.
I'm an Alpha male /b/.
Sorry buddy, if you have to say it, you ain't it.
But most people forget that, just like most teams forget what the actual prize is - by the time the finals roll around, the kids are so pumped to be doing this the actual prize is almost an afterthought.
Returning from our first FIRST regional in NH in 97, my boss asked me how it went. I told him I'd been teaching for 17 years, and this was the first time I had to sit down and put my head between my knees becasue I was about to pass out watching my students do something academic.
In retrospect, it is the single most effective thing I've seen in now 27 years of teaching to get kids to "do their darndest, no holds barred" like we always imagine kids should do in school.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Shouldn't "Robotics Competition" be limited to Robots?
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
While this probably won't get too much play outside of the tech community, it's good to see there is at least an interest in computer science/robotics in the high school level. It wasn't until college that i had the ability to tinker with some robots, and it was a great experience and definitely taught me a lot about the field, not just theory.
Now i just can't wait for robotics teams to get a slice of that high school football budget.
Were these really robots or were they simply radio-controlled devices...with a human in control?
Anybody there ever read "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov? That series of short stories will enlighten you to what robots are/will be.
Fata viam invenient.
ROFL at /b/tard troll.
Just for the heck of it, here's a couple robot kits worth a look:
- Lego Mindstorms NXT (note: flash-based site with music)
The Lego Mindstorms kits have been around for a while now, but they offer almost infinite possibilities to those willing to experiment with different approaches to accomplishing a particular goal. Devices as complicated as photocopiers have been built using these kits.
- VEX Robotics Kits
The VEX kits are fairly new compared to the Lego Mindstorms sets, but are a bit more advanced and could be dubbed as an "Erector Set", but with a brain. The VEX kits were developed in part by FIRST and were briefly distributed by Radio Shack in a move to get more people interested in robotics.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Ok.
r /
FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology".
These are not just remote-control toys. Camera systems are used for fully autonomous operation during portions of the competition. More hi-tech teams use sonar, infra-red and other devices. Indeed, for the geeks out there I'll point out that the "remove control" is actually a 900 mghz modem - not your standard little 2 joystick controller.
Teams compete in alliances of 3 robots. 2 alliances are on the field at the same time, and each trys to score the highest. Defense (aka contact) is DEFINITELY allowed, although intentional attempting to damage other robots is highly discouraged.
The motto of first is one of "Gracious Professionialism". I.e. - if your robot is broken at a competition, you can be sure of getting half a dozen teams all trying to help you get it back on the field.
There are very few limits placed on the overall robot developmenet - you must use their motors, radio system, and batteries. There is also a limit on robot weight and size.
Go over and read the rules at www.usfirst.org - or better yet, go over here and watch some of the semi-final matches at the world championships that went on in Atlanta this weekend:
http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/movies/cu
The movies you want are at the bottom with the longer names - the semifinals and finals on that field. There are thousands of teams and this is competitive as all heck. Every big-name company you can think of that is involved in technology sponsers it - from Motorola to Ford.
Bobcat Robotics! Wow. We won the Philly Regional last year with them in our alliance. You always find the coolest stuff. To the Alpha Male post, you suck, because we've all seen that copy pasta on 4Chan, and that's where it should stay. This is truly a worthy subject to talk about, because it's so rewarding.
I've been in FIRST Robotics (Counting FIRST Lego League) since 2001. It's been an amazing experience, going from building little lego robots to grab boulders in 2001 to going to Atlanta to compete in 2006. It's an amazing thing, and all students should be involved in FIRST. It's very rewarding, it helps you succeed and it helps you meet a great group of people.
I want you to rtfa and think: How many times can you go to another town across the country with a football team and say "Oh Yeah, I'm from place X." and have someone know? Probably never. Try the same thing with FIRST Teams, and they will probably instantly recognize you. It's happened before, trust me. There is a camaraderie in FIRST that can't be duplicated anywhere else, and it truly showcases the minds of tomorrow, while enriching them. Not To Mention that it is a WHOLE LOT OF FUN TOO!!!
If you read this, and are in a high school, or have a parent with a child in school (anywhere from 4-6 grade to high school), start a FIRST Team. Get people together and make a team. It will draw a lot of people and bring a lot of good attention to your school, and not to mention, the local businesses and sponsors you can get. It's a great thing, and you can (and should) really consider it. It's worth every moment.
If it ain't broke, it will be soon enough. And if it is, duct tape can fix it.
My FIRST team beats you all. Parkville HS's number alone makes them awsome.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
I participated in FIRST robotics this year as a mentor for a local school. Prior to this, I had never even heard of it. The whole thing is amazing. It gives students a fun and creative way to learn about science, math, engineering, technology, and industry. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun and I learned a lot. The regional competition was magical -- excitement and enthusiasm was difficult to imagine without seeing it in person. I think the best part of it all is the mantra "gracious professionalism" is expected at all times. I saw it plenty of times at the competition.
The robot controller was based on PIC 18x microcontrollers. Most teams used either EasyC Pro or MPLAB to program it. Robots consisted of a mixture of motors, pneumatics, electronics, and mechanics to make it work as intended. It was amazing to see some of the different designs.
I highly recommend the program to any high school student or adult who might be interested in being a volunteer or mentor.
FIRST has been around for years. Its been in ESPN2 since at least 1997, when I competed. NASA and many, many other agencies and corporations have always been involved. If robotics were actually going mainstream, we would be treating this as routine by now. The only new should be who won, innovative strategies, etc. The fact that the competition itself is still treated as new and novel after all these years shows that it has failed in its basic goals.
As someone who was involved in FIRST for the last three years, I wouldn't say that the competition has just now piqued the interest of major sponsors such as NASA - I'd say that they were integral to the development of FIRST from the beginning, most especially NASA.
Indeed, I competed with my high school in the U.S. FIRST robotics competition in 1995, and there were serious contenders sponsored by major companies like Proctor and Gamble back then. Actually, I think they sponsored two teams - one that used Tide as its logo, and the other that used Sunny D...
Too bad our team had a relatively poor sponsor. Our robot's basic design worked, but a reload mechanism was designed too weak to operate, and the sponsor wouldn't/couldn't pay to rebuild the parts scaled up to handle the load. Still, I have some great memories of our matches. Ours was one of the few "shooting" robots that year, and our final match - with three shooters competing - was considered one of the most exciting of the competition.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
"the whole robot-making experience leaves a lasting thirst for engineering..."
Not just engineering, but also programming, game theory, management, and accounting. I personally cant imagine anyone having a thirst for accounting, but I've seen it happen.
wait... what? I read the first part and almost shrugged this off, and then I read the last part. Apparently you're acknowledging that this is a troll (and for some reason an astonishingly EPIC troll for being so goddamned obvious), and yet you're serving as his chef...
/b/.
slashdotters really ARE that dumb...
Seriously people, let's be introspective for a bit and perhaps realize that slashdot really HAS been reduced to an exercise in pseudointellectual elaboration rather than serious discussion on current events. Seriously, when trolls from 4chan can bring this shit out of you, perhaps you should consider reevaluating the way you conduct yourself on this forum.
That having been said, "!!3YJU/k9Wuhz" is my tripcode on
+5, Truth
I love FIRST, I'm currently on Team TRX 145. This program is awesome, it makes me think out side of the box to play the game every year........ sadly next year will be my last year as a student member.
As a founder of my schools FIRST team I'd like to say this is a great opportunity for people to get into. I was a part of my team from the first year and for the next four years. One of the harder parts I had and this I'm sure had to do with the school I was in, was getting other people to work as hard s I did. I took part in building, fund raising, programming, and other overall work. While in the program and for a year or two after I started and continued a FIRST Lego League program which is a sub of the FIRST Competition. It uses the Lego Mindstorm units and has a similar competition which is again national with regional competitions. As for NASA being a huge sponsor, its true that for the first year or two they give you sponsorship but after that you have to be a fairly special team to still be in their pockets. Same goes for Microsoft and a few other of these bigger corporations. Anyway, I think its a great program for people to find, found, and get into. I've tried going back and helping out my high school team but there just doesn't seem to be enough motivation there unfortunately, I hope other people have a better time with that.
Utinam me logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.
couple corrections: it's 4 weeks, you spend the first 2 arguing with teammates about what you should build, and any real programming work starts at your first regional, because the robot was only "finished" on midnight before ship day, and broke down in every one of the practice rounds. --team 100's former programmer
A mouse is a device used to point to the xterm you want to type in
Or finding out - at regionals - that you need to drop 30 pounds off your robot within a few hours. Fortunately, my old team invested in a scale for this year.
-Team 246 alum
yup, been there.
A mouse is a device used to point to the xterm you want to type in
As a faculty member in engineering, I totally support FIRST robotics and FIRST lego league.
At the same time, it seems that the results skew toward pushing students into ME, not EE or CS (or my favorite, CHE).
Although the robotics could involve neat sensing and computing (EE) and algorithm development (CS) the students take home message is that all engineering is levers, gears, etc (ME). The high schoolers don't do much with the automation side of things (their adult mentors sort most of that out usually) and the middle school FIRST lego kids only do very simple programs (move forward 5 seconds, turn left, move forward again...).
At least it gives them some motivation to check out STEM careers.
As someone who did FIRST for three years, I gotta say, it beats the hell out of sitting in class. I love theoretical matters too, but damn, Sitting around doing similar activities all day every day for years and years on end? FIRST is insanely fun because it lets you do something different. Not only that, you learn so much about producing things, team dynamics, and tons of other highly relevant experiences.
Possibly one of the most interesting things that happened in team was that because we spent so much time with each other in and out of the lab, we became the closest friends ever, and a few years later, that's still true for some of us. Also, very interesting was that there were a lot of couples that came out of there ;-), so unlike what that troll was implying in a previous thread, the nerds got the girls too :D
In summary, FIRST - good stuff all around.
And now to bring this entire chain of posts to the ultimate low! Mr. Anonymous Coward if women like "Alpha Men" like yourself, how come this geek was about to fuck your Mom? Over and over and over...
There are lots of robot competitions for students, but I'm not a student anymore. Does anyone know of non-student competitions (preferably in Europe, but for other readers, post freely)? I would really like to participate in one, but don't know where to look.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
The high schoolers don't do much with the automation side of things (their adult mentors sort most of that out usually)...
I would say that depends on the team. My son's team (which competed in the nationals--we've just been home an hour or so) did all the work--hardware, software, control systems. Their rule is "The coach doesn't touch the robot." They placed several rings in the autonomous period (at both regional and national competition) using only the camera (unlike teams whose adult advisors added ultrasonic sensors). They made it to nationals by winning the Chairman's Award at their regional.
I have heard that there are reasons why the rules allow adult "mentors" to essentially design and build the entire robot. As I understand it, actually driving the robot in competition is the only thing that adults can't do--they can even be the strategist on the field. I think they should get away from that. Kids that age really are young adults, and do have amazing capabilities if you give them some basic training and support. What's the best way to learn? Do it yourself!
A mouse is a device used to point to the xterm you want to type in
Right, it depends on the team. But in my experience, it seems like the electronics side of things is MOSTLY done by adults and the kids are just there to build mechanical things and run the remote during competition. In regionals, a lot of robots don't attempt anything during the autonomous period (in my experience).
At the same time, HS kids should know something about mechanical things with some intuition as to how to put gears and levers together. They may not know a lot about programming and the probably know nothing about sensing and automation. So it makes sense that the mentors have to be a lot more involved in that side of things.
Team #306 has been holding down some top positions over the years, considering it's a team entirely made of hard working students, and not a bunch of kids who let the engineers tell them what to do. FIRST is about the kids working out the designs and design problems, not about following instructions to some Lego-kit. Team 306 has always left every part of the work up to the students, which is why they've always been one of my favorites to watch online, since I've started following along online. If you don't watch the competition online, I encourage it - it's agood time, and the quality of the video feeds has increased over the years (as expected, but nevertheless...).