Robots are COOL!

I freely admit that I am a nerd. I like engineering, solving problems, computer games, lasers and ROBOTS. Let me just say that before you judge, seeing six robots try to hang inflatible tubes on pegs was never so much fun. Sounds boring I know, but when you're in a crowd who's loving it, listening to songs from The Scorpions, Van Halen, Lit and AC/DC it's hard not to get excited.

What am I talking about? It's called The FIRST Robotics Competition (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and..... it's awesome. There are over 2100 teams, 52000 participants from nine countries and they all build robots to complete specific challenges. From what I could see it seems like an excellent way of teaching children about Math, Science, Technology, Teamwork, Sportsmanship, Communication and Self Esteem. All worthy goals, yes?

The competition this year consisted of six robots on a playing field for about 4 minutes. The first 15 seconds of which the robots had to guide themselves to accomplish a goal of lifting a yellow innertube onto any one of 9 metal pegs from about 3 to 10 feet in the air. The next 3 minutes or so, the robots were controlled by drivers to accomplish the task of putting red, white and blue inner tubes onto the same pegs, points were awarded for placing the tubes in certain positions, configurations and heights. The final 30 seconds the robots had to get to one of 4 vertical poles, deploy a mini robot which would climb the pole to press a button at the top, points for first second and third place.

It was very much like robot soccer/basketball since robots could block others from getting innertubes and entering the scoring area, but not interfere with them in the scoring area. There were cheer leading teams, professional wrestling style announcers, and light shows. This was a very much family and student oriented event. If you have kids, I would strongly suggest you check it out, I can personally vouch that while involvement may not be appropriate for the under 6 set, it is highly entertaining for all ages (at least down to 22 months of age).