FIRST Robotics champion crowned, Dean Kamen elated

Tossing up autonomous robots into the galaxy to perform a variety of prototypical tests is intriguing to say the least, but a trio of high-school teams were able to bring robotic competition a bit closer to home as they took home the gold in the highly-anticipated FIRST Robotics corrivalry. Cooked up by Dean Kamen (you know, the Segway inventor) in 1989, the challenge garnered entrants from a whopping 23 countries this year, and teammates from Bobcat Robotics from South Windsor, Connecticut, Highrollers from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Gompei and the HERD from Worcester, Massachusetts were able to craft the most dexterous and successful machine. Their creation reportedly excelled at "completing simple -- albeit goofy -- tasks such as shooting balls or stacking inner tubes," but we can already imagine the evil potential these innocent bots already posses. Apparently, "thousands of screaming high-school participants" were in attendance to witness the unveiling of a new champion, and if the popularity of this contest is any indication, we could be seeing these uber-intelligent, entirely autonomous robot armies being constructed an awful lot sooner than previously expected hoped.

[J @ Apr 17th 2007 8:44AM]

Go Worcester!

[Mike @ Apr 17th 2007 9:14AM]

Is it possible to say "Robot Army" without sounding like a dork? Nope. Dang it....Now I'm one too. Damn You Dean Kamen!!!!

[Liqwid @ Apr 17th 2007 9:18AM]

Why do you not have a link to the FIRST web site? http://www2.usfirst.org/2007comp/events/CMP/awards.html

OMG! The First Finale was awesome this year. Makes me wish I was still in high school, they had a Midway Games booth.

And my old team, Rockets 34, got the Imagery Award again.

[Kevin @ Apr 17th 2007 9:29AM]

I was actually at the event. This article is a little misleading. There wasn't 1 robot built by three teams but 3 separate robots, each built by one of the teams. Around 90 teams competed on 4 different fields for a day and a half, trying to place as many of their colored inter tubes (as seen in the image) on the "rack." The game consisted of 6 high school teams divided into two alliances of three teams, which then had 15 seconds of "autonomous" mode in which the players could not control the robots at all, followed by two minuets where the students drove the robot. At the end of the match, bonus points were awarded for raising the robots off the ground (15 points for 4-11 inches, and 30 for 12+ inches per robot raised). After the first day an a half of competing, the top 8 high school teams on each of the 4 fields of play were allowed to each pick two other teams to form an alliance that then competed in a set of competitions to determine the winner for each field. The winners from each field advanced to the finals, where the alliance mentioned above was the overall winner. It was a great event, and the head of DARPA and co-creator of YouTube came to talk to the kids.

[Wildcat @ Apr 17th 2007 10:07AM]

The Final's competition used to be held in my highschool gymnasium. Things have certainly changed.
--Team 151--

[Sean C. @ Apr 17th 2007 10:25AM]

Oh ya, I was cheering for the bobcats throughout the finals (stoping to listen to Dean's verrrry long speeches in between) We all had a fun time overall

-Team 176-
http://www.aceshigh176.org/

[[e-mail] @ Apr 17th 2007 10:59AM]

Go WPI!

[matt @ Apr 17th 2007 11:08AM]

I left before the championship and finale, but this was a pretty good year overall.
TEAM 435 the ROBODOGS!!!!

[Josh Brunelle @ Apr 17th 2007 11:13AM]

I am from WPI, and indeed george, go WPI! Let the goat hold it's head high!

[Andrew Lynch @ Apr 17th 2007 12:55PM]

To see the actual game check out the Blue Alliance for the last final matches http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/matchlist.php?eventid=50

[Nick @ Apr 17th 2007 6:32PM]

Wow, that's my teams robot on the front page

go team 180
S.P.A.M.

[Andrew K @ Apr 17th 2007 12:27PM]

FIRST was developed not for the children but for the engineers. It forces them to tackle a problem without the limitless resources they are accustomed to. Almost all of the robots are built by the engineers. And a few lucky teams get the robot ready-to-assemble in a box with instructions. It's really sad that most of the students are on the teams only for the trip to Disney World.

[The Infamous @ Apr 17th 2007 1:16PM]

Almost true...but too true. The competition is for the students, but unfortunately the engineers tend to take over most teams.
~Team 573~

[Thomas M. @ Apr 24th 2007 9:15PM]

FIRST was made to recruit students to eventually become engineers. I've seen a lot of teams being taken over by engineers, but I am happy to say that I lead a team that is completely run by the students, including the design and fabrication of the actual robot.
~Team 611~

[Reasonable @ Apr 17th 2007 1:07PM]

I was in a regional, and I must say, "screeming" does not cut it. The energy was amazing, and some of the bots were too. This is an incredible engineering experience, especially at the high school level. Next year, the nationals will be making room in the winners circle for 167!!!!!!!!!!

[Dixonij @ Apr 17th 2007 1:43PM]

Ah... FIRST Robotics... boy does that bring back memories of high school...

Go Diablo!
~Team 87~

[ethanzonca @ Apr 17th 2007 3:27PM]

Yeah, the article was very misleading, but it was nice to get more publicity for FIRST.

--
HOT Team 67
--

[Peter @ Apr 17th 2007 6:57PM]

Finally Engadget posts an article on this year competition, been emailing them about it for a while. The energy and excitement is overwhelming, but so are the robots. Engadget is posting this as if we magically make robots appear out of nowhere, forgetting to write about the drama, headache, stress, and all nighters that's put in to the 6 build weeks.
This was my senior year on the team, and was glad my team got to go to Nationals, was a fun and worthwhile adventure.

~334 Tech Engineers~

[Farwest @ Apr 18th 2007 7:56PM]

Go Error Code 1425 from Wilsonville, Oregon. This was a great robotics year.

[Damien1247 @ Apr 17th 2007 9:27PM]

To Andrew K

As a student on a FIRST team this year (27) I have to say that at least on our team the students do a lot of the work. Yes we have engineers to help us out and guide us but students do a great deal of work. I am the programmer and I know for a fact that I had NO mentor support. Now there are teams out there that the engineers build the robot. That is sad. But not all teams are like that. Take as an example Team 4 out of California, they have 1 mentor. He is a history teacher and the schools wrestling coach, oh and it is his first year. They still built a competitive robot.

In short, its NOT about the mentors.

[Ryan @ May 16th 2007 2:48AM]

Kamen unveiled video of this arm at TED last month, and a clip made the rounds taken from the back of the room. As luck would have it, Kamen was in Honolulu today, and included the robotic arm in his presentation to Oceanic (a local tech firm). Here's an excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hzRja9eunY