Robotics Competition in Hartford, March 29/30

RAGE Robotics would like to invite you to come watch us participate in the upcoming robotics competition taking place in Hartford this weekend. Forty teams from all over New England will be vying to see who has the best robot. Please bring your whole family to see our robots compete, meet our team members, and see all the robots up close. It takes place this Saturday and Sunday (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days) at Hartford Public High School, and admission is always free.

RAGE (Robotics And Gadget Engineering) is made up of high school students from Tolland, Vernon, Manchester, and East Hartford; engineers and teachers from local companies and schools; and involved parents, and is housed at Tolland High School. The team is a member of the nonprofit FIRST organization, which promotes science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to students of all ages through various types of robotics programs. In the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), teams of high school students are given a new challenge each January and then have six weeks to design and build a robot to meet that challenge. The build period is followed by a six-week competition season where regional events are held around the U.S. and in Canada and Israel. The season culminates in St. Louis at the FIRST Championship where the best of the best compete for the overall title.

Working side by side with engineering mentors, students get hands-on experience brainstorming, prototyping, making design tradeoffs, solving problems, and building and programming actual hardware. Other team members have the opportunity to create spirit and marketing campaigns, balance the funds coming in from sponsor companies with the expenses of producing a robot and traveling to competitions, and learn the game inside and out to most effectively drive the robot.

In this year’s game, called Aerial Assist, robots must manipulate a two-foot-diameter yoga ball, passing it between alliance members to move it down the field. Points are scored by propelling it over a mid-field truss located five feet above the floor, then shooting it into a goal at the end of the field seven feet off the floor. The game is played on a 54’ x 27’ field between two alliances, with each alliance made up of three teams. During the course of the event the alliance makeup is always changing, so a partner in one match may be an opponent in another match.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen in an effort to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. Programs exist for students of all ages from first grade through high school.

Information about the competition may be found at http://www.nefirst.org/portfolio/ct-hartford/. RAGE may be found at http://ragerobotics.com. FIRST is at http://usfirst.org. Be sure to stop by our team pit (look for team 173) and say hi.