First Annual Tech Valley FIRST Robotics Exhibition

Yesterday's Tech Valley FIRST Robotics Exhibition was a resounding success. The Exhibition was held at the RPI Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations in Troy. Six Teams participated, four from the Capital Region, plus two Teams from Avon, Connecticut and Rutland, Vermont.

An estimated 300-400 people attended, many of whom were Team members, but others were community members curious about what FIRST Robotics is. Several of those who attended were families with children who already have a spark for inventing, the Lego users!

The "Overpass" game field is 27' x 54'; most schools don't have that much free space with a high ceiling to devote to a field. Having access to a full size field at the exhibition was a major benefit, enabling the Teams to work out bugs with their robots that never would have been detected until they got to the competition.

As usual, when multiple Teams get together, there is major variation among the robots. The Team 20 robot has a small chassis with an arm/claw mechanism to manipulate the 40" ball. The Team used "omni-wheels"; their arm was constructed from extruded aluminum. That bot is very fast and nimble. They are able to lift the ball onto the overpass and "hurdle" by dropping it on the opposite side.

The Team 1493 robot has a low chassis with a tower supporting a device that looks like a playground slide that is used to dislodge the ball from the overpass. They used casters as wheels in the front for increased agility. I don't think they can lift the ball.

The Team 250 robot was the only one that actually threw the ball to hurdle. Our robot is built low with a substantial chassis running on lawn mower wheels modified by the Team to suit our purposes. The arm that JEgan described in a previous blog worked very well. Two forks are lowered to the floor and capture the ball. They arc upwards to transfer the ball to rails atop the robot which position the ball over the catapult. The catapult easily shoots the ball over the six and a half foot high overpass.

Being at this Exhibition really ramped up the students' excitement and expectations for the upcoming competition in Rochester, especially since Team 20 will be competing there with us. They have a "laundry list" of things they want to get back to school to work on in preparation for our Regional competitions.

Isn't it amazing that teenagers, who are on winter vacation this week, are pressing the mentors to figure out how they can get into the school to work on the robot, their strategy and the presentations for the technical judging at the events!

Many thanks to Teams 20 and 1493 for their efforts in organizing the Exhibition; they did a terrific job. A special thanks to RPI for providing the space for the game field and support of FIRST in general.