Rolla Robotics sends two teams to world FIRST Tech Challenge – The Rolla Daily News

For the first time in four years, the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center will be sending two teams to a world-level robotics competition. The Rolla Patriots and Maniacal Mechanics will be competing in St. Louis this Wednesday, and staying there until Saturday night as they put the robots theyve spent a year creating through a series of challenges in the FIRST Tech Challenge competition.

For the first time in four years, the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center will be sending two teams to a world-level robotics competition. The Rolla Patriots and Maniacal Mechanics will be competing in St. Louis this Wednesday, and staying there until Saturday night as they put the robots theyve spent a year creating through a series of challenges in the FIRST Tech Challenge competition.

According to Leigh Ann Tumbrink, the head coach of Rolla Robotics, it is extremely rare for two teams from the same school to both compete at the world competition. One team, the Rolla Patriots, climbed through the ranks in the traditional way, competing in the State and Regional levels, and coming out on top. The Maniacal Mechanics also competed in the State and Regional competitions, but advanced to the world tournament through a lottery.

The two Rolla teams will be competing against 120 different teams from around the world, and potentially against each other. The competition will take place at Union Station, and lasts from 8 a.m. on Wednesday until 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Its even more exciting because we didnt think we were able to go, said Leigh Ann, referring to the lottery drawing that allowed the Maniacal Mechanics to attend the competition along with the Rolla Patriots.

Along with their robots, these teams will bring with them their notebooks filled with the work theyve performed over the last year. From engineering notes to the marketing strategies they used to raise funds for the competition, the first round of judging touches on more than just the final product. Competitors submit any and all work ties to their project,

Its not all about Robots, said Leigh Ann, everything is taken into consideration. The students will have 15-20 to make a presentation to the judges, highlighting a years worth of work before the matches are randomly assigned.

These matches take up the bulk of the teams time, lasting from Wednesday all the way into Saturday before the closing ceremonies. Each team is paired at random with another to work together against another pair in a series of challenges. Each mach begins in an autonomous period, where the the robots move only by pre-programmed instructions, traveling around the small arena. The robots have thirty seconds to move obstacles, shoot projectiles or claim beacons. These beacons are lit up objects stationed around the square-shaped arena that can be found using color sensors on the robots, and claimed by each team by touching them.

From there the contestants are allowed to directly control their robots, completing the same challenges using wireless controllers to direct their creations. The final thirty seconds of the match, called the End Game, can move or raise additional obstacles for extra points.

After climbing to the top, the four highest ranked teams are able to pick their own partners and compete to be the winner in their division. This year there will be two divisions in the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the winners of each will face each other, granting one team the honor of being the overall winner of the competition.

This is the last year the world competition will be held in St. Louis, according to Leigh Ann, who added theyve spent the past four years fundraising just to pay the entrance and travel fees for the St. Louis location. Detroit will be hosting the world competition in the future, considerably raising travel expenses for the robotics program. Leigh Ann said they intend to go right back to fundraising when the season is over.

This year however, Leigh Ann, Kaleidoscope, and the rest of the Rolla robotics community is excited to see two local teams compete with others from all over the world, doing something they love. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 to increase students interests in science and technology. The organization sponsors the competition each year.

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Rolla Robotics sends two teams to world FIRST Tech Challenge - The Rolla Daily News