I referee'd the FIRST Tech Challenge yesterday (don't I look professional wearing my striped shirt and holding my penalty flag???). This robotics contest is the next level up from the LEGO robots - a contest designed for high school kids (mostly freshmen and sophomores). This year's theme is
Ring It Up. The robots have to retrieve plastic rings from dispensers on the sides of the playing field, and hang them on pegs made out of PVC pipe in the center of the field. It's a little trickier than it looks, because the pegs are at 3 different heights and span across 3 separate columns.
This little robot was its own worst enemy, because the kids built a long arm to reach the top of the pegs, but the arm kept flopping over and catching on the poles and other robots (not to mention it tended to drop the rings a lot). During the last 30 seconds, one robot can try to raise another robot off the ground for some bonus points. The robot in the back of this photo has a ramp that it deploys, allowing another robot to drive up onto it - in theory, a clever solution, but I only saw this actually work twice.
The kids get judged on a number of other factors, including team spirit. I thought this team had a really clever costume for their mascot.
