Starting today at KeyArena, 39 local students, members of an Auburn Mountainview-based team, will compete in the 2009 FIRST Robotics regional competition.
The competition will feature 49 high school teams from Washington pitting their remote-controlled robotic creations against each other in a game called “Lunacy,” which calls for the robots to collect randomly placed balls and put them in trays mounted on the backs of opposing robots.
For Team 2907, which includes members of the Auburn Mountainview Robotics club, as well as students from Auburn and Kentwood high schools, it all began early this fall when team president Kenny Wells first heard about the competition.
“We started robotics at the beginning of the year,” Wells said. “And one of the student’s dads worked at Boeing and told us about the competition.”
According to Wells, the team applied and received a $6,000 grant from Boeing to purchase the kit to build the robot.
On Jan. 3, teams across the country gathered to watch a teleconference on the NASA satellite system, detailing the rules of the competition.
“No one had any idea of what the competition was going to be about,” Wells said. “Afterward, we had exactly six weeks to assemble the robot.”
Wells said all of the teams involved in the competition were tasked with building a robot without instructions, out of identical kits of parts provided by FIRST.
“In this year’s game, we have a specific wheel and surface material,” Wells said.
According to Wells, when the wheels and the surface connect, it simulates reduced gravity, similar to driving on the moon.
“It’s like you’re in limited gravity,” he said. “It’s like driving on ice.”
After six stressful weeks of eight-hour days, Team 2907 crated up their robot and shipped it up to the arena, where they were reunited this week for the competition.
Wells said his team’s robot is about 4½ feet tall and weighs in at 120 pounds.
“Finishing and shipping it off was the highlight,” Wells said. “There has been other teams that didn’t complete the robot.”
This year’s competition began at 9 a.m. today and is free to the public. It continues tomorrow, Saturday.
Originating in 1989, FIRST – which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – seeks to inspire interest in science and technology careers in students through competition.
Winners of the regional competitions will qualify to compete with teams from around the world at the FIRST Championships April 16 to 18 in Atlanta.
More information is available at www.usfirst.org.
