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With the national championship robotics competition less than a month away, 66 teams of young engineers have their bots throw down in New York City
March 23, 2009 | 3
Robot Michael 1, built by Stuyvesant High School in New York City, rolls up to the arena.
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Seth Berg, 17, of Stuyvesant High School demonstrates the spongy ball delivery system of rubber tubes, a central feature on the school's successful robot, Michael 1, designed by the students using Autodesk Inventor software, then pieced together inside an aluminum frame....[More]
Robotics rookies from from Essex County Vocational Technical Schools in N.J., the Robo Cougars held their own with a tried-and-simple design. "Building the robot was going to be the most difficult, so we decided to do something simple and it's working so far—it hasn't messed up," says team captain Jorge Garcia, 16, pictured....[More]
The rubber tube pulley system was a favored means of scooping spongy balls from the floor and plopping them into opponent's trailers. Featured here is the Harlem Knights's robot from New York City's Frederick Douglass Academy and Rice High School ....[More]
Brooklyn's Science Skills Center High School 's robot was crippled before its last competition by a broken chain.* Raymond Castro, age 15 and captain of the Skillz Tech Gear Botz team, first noticed the problem and began repairs that were later completed with Super Glue before the bot took to the field one last time....[More]
Robots get locked in pushing matches during competition. Here, the "Technobots" robot on the left from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx butts bumpers with Stuyvesant High School's Michael 1....[More]
Science Skills Center High School's Jamel Dennis, age 15, examines his team's temperamental robot before its last round.*
* Correction (3/24/09): This article originally identified Dennis's high school as Brooklyn Tech rather than Science Skills Center High School....[More]
The competition is brightly colored and fierce as robots try to collect balls and dump them into the trailers their opponents pull behind them, marked by pink and green posts.
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Trapped in the corner, the Robo Cougars's bot takes the brunt of an opponent's motorized ball dump into its trailer.
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3 Comments
Add CommentI'm from the smaller FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge). It's quite a fun event. I was there at the Javits Center, but not doing that event. The FTC participated in "Face Off" this year, a different game involving hockey pucks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur robot had a lot of bad luck though, with parts breaking that we had no control over, and the system they use to control the robots failing once. But it's quite fun to design these robots and see them work (both autonomously and driver-controlled).
If you want to check out our robotics team's website, feel free: http://polygnomes.blogspot.com
what, not a single shooter? i'm currious to see if the strategy changes in the nationals. a great shooter beats a dumper any day. (if your not on a team you won't understand) thank you, to our founders for giving us these great opertunities. Thanks again, Mr Flowers and Kamen
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thischaos, 131
Only humans worry about human elements.Why would robots care?
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