Robot Competitions

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Robot Competitions

• By Paul Fanone

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Competitions

• FIRST Robotics
• Botball Robotics
• VEX Robotics
• Best Robotics

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FIRST Robotics

• Previously known as Canadian Association for
  Student Robotics
• Established in 2001
• Targeted towards high school students
• Originally hosted only in Toronto, expanded to
  take place also in Waterloo
• Annually takes in over 140 volunteers to run the
  event
• Won the Yves Landry Technical Career Awareness
  Award for their work

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FIRST Robotics cont
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Botball Robotics

• Started in 1997 by the KISS Institute for
  Practical Robotics (KIPR)
• Like FIRST also made for high school students
• Botball is located in many cities across the USA
• Contestants are given a kit to work with
• They must report on their robot with online
  documentation
• In the kit they receive a Handyboard, Lego RCX,
  XBC and an iRobot Create

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Botball Robotics cont
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VEX Robotics

• First started in 2005 as a spin off of the FIRST
  competition
• The difference being the vex competition uses
  more accessible and affordable parts
• The goal of the competition is to get young
  people more involved with robotics
• In the first year of the competition there were
  130 teams in 6 regions
• In 2007 the competition was renamed the FTC

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VEX Robotics cont
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BEST Robotics

• Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology
• Est 1993 by Tad Mahler and Steve Marum from Texas
  Instruments
• In its first year had 14 schools with 221
  students attend
• From 1995 to now the competition has gone through
  a steady expansion spreading to more than 7
  states

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BEST Robotics cont