Frisbee for robots or the game of future engineers

The competitions of robots will not surprise anyone now - they are held in various disciplines (wrestling, making a route, overcoming obstacles, etc.) literally in all countries of the world. However, large international competitions are not so frequent and always arouse great interest. That is why we decided to tell you in hot pursuit about the FIRST Robotics Competition, an international robot competition created by high school students, which ended on Saturday, April 27 in St. Louis, America.
Details about this momentous event under the cut.

This year, the participants were waiting for the game called “Ultimate Ascent Challenge” - a kind of frisbee game, where robots were required to earn points by throwing flying discs at the ends of the field, measuring 27x54 feet (~ 8x16.5 meters). The first 15 seconds of the game, robots had to operate completely autonomously, earning as many points as possible without human intervention. The remaining time of the game, the robots are controlled remotely by the "driver" and "operator." The first is responsible for the movement of the robot, and the second - for everything else. During the game, robots must move around the field, following the points of loading of new disks, and, in fact, throwing disks at the target. Also, it is not forbidden to push with the robots of competitors. Finally, the final part of the competition required the robots to climb the pyramidal tube construction, remotely resembling a sports projectile. And points were awarded for each level of the pyramid, which the robot overcame.


Competition field

Video explaining the essence of the game:

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In addition, the game is a command - several robots can play on each side. Therefore, as the games approached the finals and semifinals, the teams of robots united in alliances.
Every year, the participants are offered a new task, and therefore, the robot that won the competition a year ago will not necessarily be a good solution for a new task. Since January, when the task of this year was announced, the teams had only 6 weeks to go from sketches to blueprints, hardware, software and a fully working system. After 6 weeks, the teams stop working on the robot and literally do not touch it, except for the preparation before the start of the games and in the breaks between rounds.
The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) program began in 1992, and was born thanks to Dean Kaimen, best known as the inventor of Segway and other mechanical devices. His idea was to provide students with the opportunity to work on specific engineering tasks under the supervision of professionals.


Segway police.

This year, FIRST Robotic Competition (FRC) attracted about 54,000 high school students (14–18 years of age), who organized more than 2,700 teams, with the participation of 16,000 adult mentors and advisers and about 3,000 corporate sponsors. While FRC is indeed a major event, the FIRST program also includes FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) for schoolchildren aged 12-18, FLL (FIRST Lego League) for 9-14 year olds and Jr. FLL for those who are only 6-9 years old.


One of the teams FIRST Lego League

The main sponsor is NASA, which is explained by the interest in creating robots for interplanetary intelligence. Other sponsors are major aerospace and technology companies (including Intel and Wind River), including those specializing in embedded software. This year schoolchildren participating in the championship also received more than $ 16 million in the form of scholarships through the FIRST program, not counting other sources of funding.

Corporate support primarily comes from application companies that aim to educate the next generation of their employees. Even in the worst years of recession, there was a shortage of engineering specialists, and unemployment in this sector remains incredibly low. FIRST really gives young people a unique opportunity to start an engineering career. In addition, this is what can make them a "star" in school. :)

Also, many supporters say that FIRST gives students experience and knowledge that they simply cannot get into the school walls, even if the core subjects for them are technical subjects. Practical skills gained in participating in such competitions include: designing mechanical and electrical parts, working with professional design and development tools, creating your own unique parts, assembling robots, and programming embedded systems.
"For what looks like a movement, perhaps a thousand lines of code have been written," says the captain of one of the teams. “Only programming took 2 weeks of work and three programmers” (out of 6 weeks set aside for the creation of the robot).
Championship participants learn how, taking an idea, turn it into a reality, taking into account the limitations of the real world, such as: time, budget and materials. For example, this year participants had to make the following crucial decision: how much to optimize their robots for pyramid lifting, speed, maneuverability and throwing discs. In some cases, these criteria are mutually exclusive.

A bit of "game" video:


The robot of one of the teams turned out to be low enough to pass under the pyramids, which allowed shooting at “expensive” targets from a smaller distance and not spending time on maneuvers while driving across the field. The other team managed to create a robot, dexterous enough to pick up the discs that fell on the field and throw them, instead of driving across the field for a new "ammunition". Another team managed to create a single robot capable of climbing the third tier of the pyramid over and over again. The secret of their design, which they proudly tell about, is that the lifting arm of the robot also serves to launch the disks. For comparison, all other teams for this developed two independent devices.

The prototype of one of the robots is taken to the third level of the "pyramid":


Another rising robot:


By the way, with regard to lifting up, there has not been without curiosities. The fate of one of the semi-finals was hanging by a thread. In the literal sense of the word: one of the robots who rose from the ground to the lowest level of the pyramid did not receive points because of the thread that hung from it, touching the ground. And the cancellation of these points changed the result of the semi-final. “Victory or defeat, such competitions teach things that cannot be learned from school lessons,” says the captain of the losing team, “A robot is a laboratory for itself — it is a reality, not a theory, and it should work. To successfully do his job to win, he must be of high quality. "

And the robot is the result of teamwork. One of the most important components of the competition for the majority of participants is the opportunity, along with knowledge of mathematics and other sciences, to learn to communicate with each other, and work in a team. This knowledge is needed not only to build a cool robot, but also to prove to the sponsors and judges why your team is so cool. Even if they do not engage in robots in the future, the skills of communication, persuasion, or even flattery and banter on each other will still be useful to them.

The amount of money involved in the championship can scare off potential organizers. Especially in the first year when your team has no robot to demonstrate it. And although the rules require that the robot can not cost more than $ 4,000, and not one of its individual parts can cost more than $ 400, but the costs associated with transportation and travel, quickly increase this amount by several times. On the other hand, it allows, among other things, to gain some skills in marketing, business management and writing press releases. Even with an impressive annual budget (~ $ 50-70 thousand), team members must show where and how they are going to spend this money.

This year the championship winners became an alliance of three teams (two from Canada and one from Texas). We will follow with interest what the organizers will offer the participants next year, and be sure to tell you about it.