Slashdot Mirror
FIRST Robotics Competition Announced
Z80xxc! writes "FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) has officially announced the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition. This competition, started by inventor Dean Kamen, encourages high-school students to design and build robots to compete with and against other FRC teams. The competition overview video is available from NASA. This year's competition is called 'Lunacy.' The game consists of a series of 135-second face-offs during which the student-designed robots must pick up 9-inch game balls and deposit them in trailers hitched to the opposing teams' robots. The game field is coated with regolith, a slick polymer material, and special wheels are used to create a low-traction interaction with the crater's surface. Together, these combine to simulate the one-sixth gravity on the surface of the moon. For any readers who are interested in participating, FRC teams can always use more adult mentors."
None of the links in the summary work with the www in there...
The game has a moon theme. The playing field is being called a crater due to its shape. "Regolith" should have been in quotations, as the hard polymer sheeting is being used for a visual representation only. There are no rocks and dust and other fun things. The whole point was to create a slippery surface that's hard to drive on.
Because journals are not tagged 'story', and /. seems to be moving to a different comment/story management system. Maybe they'll move to comment tagging in the future, or tag other things in addition to stories?
(Perhaps a) Better question... How do these tags work in the first place?
Why can there be a tag I've never seen before and is likely to have a very low probability of having more than one person think of - especially when that tag is not referenced in any comment below TFS?
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
You probably already know but just in case: the Chief Delphi forums are a great place to discuss and anticipate the game. That being said, this years game has many unique challenges and I wish your team the best of luck.
Greetz from 675
It gets better: another high school robotics competition is the BEST Competition (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology)
I call bullshit on this one. I'm pretty sure there have been robotics competitions before. Pretty sure as in around 99%.
Sorry.
[ah, mis-moderation, clearing]
I am competing in team 2811. It's slightly interesting, other than the fact that 98% of the other people are both mentally and socially retarded.
Whereas you are only socially retarded?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"