FIRST Robotics Competition Design Requirements Revealed Here

The FIRST (for inspiration and recognition of science and technology) Robotics Competition kicked off today, with 42,000 students from around the world gathering in their local communities to plot their robot making strategies. A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) feed simulataneously telecast the 2009 FIRST robotics design criteria for this year's competition.

My son Andy departed for Vecna Technologies in Greenbelt, Maryland this morning where he and the rest of the Blair High School robotics team from Silver Spring, Maryland prepared to analyze the requirements of the 2009 FIRST robotics competition and determine how they will meet the challenge. The Blair High School Robotics Team was advised to arrive at today's FIRST Robotics Competition kickoff with rested brains, equipped with pads and pencils for sketching.

Upon returning home, Andy informed me that this year's FIRST Robotics Competition challenge requires building a robot to move on wheels on a low-friction field. Each robot will transport a bucket and competing teams and their robots will attempt to toss balls into the opposing team's robot's bucket while the robots attempt to dodge the balls. In a mere 6.5 weeks, teams of high school students must design, build, test and perfect the robots they will submit to perform the ball dodging maneuvers on a low-friction field for the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition. For more details, check the NASA webcast here .

Once the robots are designed, built and tested, they are shipped off to regional competitions. From the regional competitions, the FIRST robots judged superior progress to the World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia.