Robotic Adventures at the FIRST Competition

Popular Science attends New York's high-school robot showdown and sees celebrities, breakdowns, and mechanical lunacy

By Paul Gleason Posted 03.25.2009 at 9:06 am 8 Comments

Selene, the RoboWarriors' robot, in the crater: Paul Gleason

The RoboWarriors from Warren, New Jersey, are defending regional champs, and look the part. They've erected a tall entryway in front of their workspace. It proudly displays their name, coat of arms (a shield with white and blue interlocking gears), and dual Samsung flat screens. The TVs show technical specs for the RoboWarrior itself ("Selene") and pictures of team members, who lean back in mock-thuggish poses, arms across their chests. The TVs also play game footage. In it, the blue Selene -- whose tall, slender midsection and roughly triangular head give her a snaky look -- hunts down her prey and bombards it with moon rocks from a high turret. Despite their intimidating setup, the team is surprisingly friendly. They crowd around excitedly (the words Popular Science work like an Old West supper bell all weekend long) and describe their high school's tiny machine shop and how last year was all about precision but this year is all about quantity and how they had problems with Selene's cannon at the New Jersey Regional but replaced it last week with a simple dumper.

They lost the New Jersey regional to Team Overdrive, a group of ten local Christian home school students. This is technically their rookie season in FIRST's top division, but several of them have competed in engineering contests for years. The students seem reluctant to talk at first, but one of their mentors, Tom Moser, says the team's goal is to help home schooled kids the scientific education they normally lack. He happily claims he has no idea how to turn the robot on. For weeks, says Kenny Shotyk, a freshman who picked up machining from an older teammate and 24 hours of instructional video, this was all Team Overdrive did. They worked six days a week, from two in the afternoon until late at night, in a two-and-a-half car garage. They followed the precept of K.I.S.S. Not, it turns out, an allusion to another great hair band, but an acronym meaning "keep it simple and stupid."

Practice rounds are supposed to begin around 11 a.m., but most of the robots still need to pass a judge's inspection. Over the loudspeaker, an announcer pleads: "Once again, if your robot is alive and well, take it to the field now!" Six teams eventually arrive, and the first game begins.

At first, after an electronic trumpet blasts the familiar "charge!" theme, it's a blur of flying moon rocks and crashing metal. The evil-eyed robot from Stuyvesant tailgates the Brazilians and unloads five or six moon rocks into their trailer. The Brits can't seem to fire. Stuyvesant catches the Brazilians again. After two bewildering minutes, the judges tally points and declare a winner.

Practice matches continue until after six in the evening. The game slowly starts to make sense, and, after weeks of careful design, what does and doesn't work is clear by the end of the day. Teams with robots that dump moon rocks do well. Teams that try to shoot them, out of cannons for instance, are in trouble. They can't score in bunches. It is also enormously important to be able to reload, to pick up and fire the stray moon rocks that roll around the crater after missing their first target. The RoboWarriors and Team Overdrive can. Hauppauge can't. Ben Wasser, a thinly-bearded four-year veteran of the RoboWarriors, thinks one of four robots will probably win: his, Overdrive's, Stuyvesant's, or another New Jersey robot named Robbe. In terms of their basic designs, these robots all work a lot alike.

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8 Comments

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gianthornet

03/26/09 at 12:06 pm

When will these robots benefits the human race? It does not focus at the impending catastrophes we're experiencing right now.

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robowarriors

03/26/09 at 7:25 pm

"When will these robots benefits the human race? It does not focus at the impending catastrophes we're experiencing right now."

I don't know if you are unfamiliar, but this is a program for high school students, not adults. These students who had no interest or even knowledge of engineering (I can speak for myself and dozens of others) suddenly became captivated through this competition, and even though our robot may not be navigating Mars or protecting our country, in 10 years, something that I create, inspired by this program, may be doing just that. This is about building massive interest in the science and engineering fields. Its already too late to convince the current work force to do this, so FIRST is making a huge investment in the future.

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dgraves702

03/27/09 at 12:58 am

"When will these robots benefits the human race? It does not focus at the impending catastrophes we're experiencing right now."

I'm sorry, but since when were HIGH SCHOOL Students being counted on to save the world? This program is for high school students to get them interested in Math and Science and encourage them to go into engineering. I am right with robowarriors here. As a former student in these competitions and now as a mentor who came back to FIRST after going to college and getting my Engineering degree, I see the success of this program every single day. These robots were all designed and built in SIX WEEKS. My team recently came to my job for a demonstration, and engineers with 30 years of experience were shocked at the amount of knowledge that these kids have and the fact that they are able to design and build a robot practically from scratch in only six weeks. On a more personal note, my own participation in FIRST led me into engineering and definitely helped me prepare for both college and the Engineering Industry.

Our country lags far behind other countries in terms of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education, and FIRST, which has programs aimed at Middle School ages and even younger, is helping to close that gap.

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david01

03/29/09 at 3:37 pm

FIRST is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved. It may not directly address the issues our world faces, but it equips students with the skills they need to excel in their future endeavors. Furthermore, they have fun doing it. I hope FIRST robotics continues to grow and have success.

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esherk

05/18/09 at 7:01 pm

Having been involved with FIRST both as a mentor for an FRC (High School robotics) team for 4 years and as a coach for an FLL team (Junior High school Lego robotics) for 5 years I can assure you that the FIRST organization does focus on critical problems facing us.

FLL is VERY focused on real problems and the kids learn a LOT. In addition to the "robot game", the kids do research and are expected to think of a solution to a (local) problem and then SHARE that with their community. Trust me, that is challenging and rewarding. I encourage you to check out previous years' challenges (focusing on climate, energy, etc), I know you'll find a lot of substance there. This coming season, the "puzzle" involves transportation and its challenges.

At the high school level, the focus is on learning/exposure AND on bringing that impact to others. The key here is that they gain a real hands-on appreciation for science and technology, work side-by-side with practicing engineers and scientists, and then help bring that experience to others. It is in the sparking of their creative and technical interests that we can help seed their future impact on the world.

The intangibles they all learn are perhaps even more important. Teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving, dealing with adversity, and "coopertition" (although there is a "winner" no one loses).

I invite you to find a local team and get involved. If one doesn't exist, start one! It is incredibly rewarding. And, you can help make the very impact you seek! These are the future scientists that will help solve these problems.

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dwatts1

05/21/09 at 6:02 pm

Man, I wish they had this when I was growing up... Very interesting article and congratulations to all of those involved!

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quasi44

10/02/09 at 5:14 pm

I'm glad it's here for my kids.

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romaniamac1

10/21/09 at 5:04 am

poker robots can even play poker nowadays -> www.pokerbot-smart.com