Robotics teams package robots to ring it up

Nine student teams from the San Diego Unified School District will join over fifty other teams at this year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, Ring It Up. Teams from Madison High, Scripps Ranch High, Mission Bay High, Kearny Complex, San Diego High Complex, Lincoln High, Henry High, Crawford High and High Tech High have been building their robots since the kits were distributed on January 5, 2013.

The students rely heavily on the concepts they are learning in their Project Lead The Way Engineering courses. Each team was supplied with a kit of parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC, and a mix of automation components – with no instructions. The teams work with adult mentors over a six week period to build, program and test their robots. The deadline for packaging their robots for the competition event was midnight February 19, 2013. No more work can be done on any of the robots until the day of the event.

This year’s event will be held at the Valley View Casino Center on Sports Arena Boulevard on March 7-9, 2013. This year’s game, Ultimate Ascent, is played between two alliances of three teams each. Each alliance competes by trying to score as many flying discs into their goals as possible during the two-minute and 15-second match. Discs scored in higher goals score alliances more points. Matches end with robots attempting to climb up pyramids located near the middle of the field.

At the launch event in January 2013, Dean Kamen, FIRST founder, said, “FIRST isn’t about competing, it’s about cooperating, and recognizing that if you have the right tools, you’ll be able to make this world a better place for yourself and for the county. This is not stimulus package that will have as much return as stimulating a bunch of kids to become the workforce of the future, the problem solvers, the creators of the future.”

For more information about the FIRST Robotics event in San Diego, please access http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/regional-events.