IndianaFIRST

Robotics Teams Kick Off Season

January 11th, 2007

The 2007 FIRST Robotics Competition game was released January 6th. From that date, teams have six weeks to design, build, and ship a robot to play the game titled “Rack N’ Roll.” The following is an excerpt from an article in the Kokomo Tribune by Tribune staff writer Danielle Rush:

The clock is ticking for Howard County’s three high school robotics teams.

Saturday, Kokomo’s TechnoKats, Taylor’s Robo-Titans and Western’s PantherTech teams received their kits and instructions for the 2007 competition game, as did the other competitors around the world.

The three local teams attended the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology robotics kick off regional at Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana’s Kokomo campus, to watch a satellite telecast from FIRST headquarters in Manchester, N.H.

They’ve seen the game for this year’s game, and now have six weeks to construct a robot to play that game in competition.

In this year’s game, competitors will form three-team alliances and will play as either the red alliance or the blue alliance. Robots will attempt to pick up inner tubes and place them on metal forms, similar to jungle gyms, to score points.

At the end of the game, teams may score bonus points for being able to get a robot completely off the ground.

Baker said there is nothing on the field for the robots to get off the floor on, so “you have to use your partner or one of your partners to get you off the floor.”

He said teams have to decide what kind of robot to build — one that will score with the inner tubes, or one that can lift another robot off the ground.

Click here for the full article.

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