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Hardware

NASA Robots Beat Each Other Up 78

Shturmovik[KGB] writes ""Let's get ready to rumblllllllllllllle!" On Saturday night NASA is webcasting the big robot fight. A total of 49 machines, constructed by 2,000 high school students, will battle it out at the LA Arena. Should be good. Be there! You can watch it on the JPL website"
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NASA Robots Beat Each Other Up

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  • *shrug* NASA TV was running some battlebots-ish stuff a few weeks ago during the day. Students had robots that had to pick up some big beach balls and carry them around on a field. A non-violent variant (though the things did trip over a few times..)

    They might not run this, though, since the Shuttle is up right now..
    --
  • They aren't NASA robots, they are FIRST robots. What's FIRST? FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology"

    The robots in the competition are made by kids (not NASA scientists).

    FIRST is an organization funded (and founded) by Dean Kamen. Kamen is a genius inventor. A profile of him is on the FIRST web site here [usfirst.org]. His company, DEKA, is the one making the so-called 'IT', or 'Ginger' (that scooter thingy).

  • This is great! I was on team Team 190 with the Mass Academy for Math and Science (along with WPI) for two years during high school... the program was a blast, and we traveled to the New England and Mid Atlantic regionals and the finals, both years... it was a phenomenal experience, and was a total blast

    I've missed out on seeing the competitions since I came to college in '98, and might be attending the Great Lakes regional in Ypsilanti, MI (I go to college in Ann Arbor) next weekend... having this on RealVideo is awesome! I hope someone brings the bright idea to Epcot in April so I can watch the finals. =)
  • In Europe, the BBC has a weekly show called 'Robot Wars'. It's been running for years and is really popular. Really nice entertainment.

    Does anybody know if any US network has bought the rights to re-broadcast it in the US?

  • Actually, the FIRST National Championship of 1998 was streamed live on the web... I remember watching it from my dorm room (I was a team member throughout high school).
  • Actually, we have seen it before, but it's http://www.usfirst.org [usfirst.org]
  • I'd rather see the NASA Scientisits beat each other up.

    Nothin says warrior like a PhD in Astrophsyics...

    ---------------------------
    "I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
  • And thats why they have a preview button...for those of us who can't spell "physics"

    ---------------------------
    "I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
  • And also for those of us who can't spell "scientists"

    ---------------------------
    "I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
  • about time you changed your sig...

    Anyone else annoyed that it's been cut? There's no robots fighting here, just half an hour before they wake up the astronauts on the space station. I doubt that will have much action.
  • Yep... I was watching too... then we lost sound, video, and now we're on board the shuttle...
  • "All your bots are belong to us"

    <Ahem/> I believe it should read "All your bot are belong to us"

    Just stirring :)


    --Gfunk
  • The winning robot gets an all-expenses paid trip to Valles Marineris, Mars to beat the crap out of Elvis.
  • Here is a link [rr.com] to some pictures/movies taken by my friend Jay at a recent highschool robotics match we attended recently. It was held near the Rocket Garden (the well-maintained one on the Nasa side, not the dilapidated but cooler one on the Airforce side) of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, FL. Only bad part was the price of a (lousy) beer at the concessions ($4+!) but overall a very cool time. Yes, it's pretty nice living in Melbourne. :)
    JMR

  • Agreed, the competition was much more real-world than just "destroy the other guy" this year, and you could see that the teams worked really hard (Cordzilla and others had very entertaining cheering sections, as well). See my other post for a link to some pics (possibly including one of Cordzilla!) taken by my friend Jay W. I will probably be at the Disney World championships this year, too. Good luck!
    JMR
  • by Amoeba ( 55277 ) on Saturday March 17, 2001 @08:36AM (#357863)
    All posts regarding this article probably can be summarized by:

    "Dude! NASA's doing RobotWars! I got $5 on the Martian Pathfinder!"

    "RobotWars/BattleBots/CowboyNeal is much cooler than this and here is a link [battlebots.com] cause I'm karma whoring."

    "RobotWars/Battlebots is way better than RobotWars/Battlebots!"

    "This is actually the FIRST [usfirst.org] competition and is a NASA-funded educational program. The focus of this competition is not to break the other robots (which is actually against the rules), but to score points by putting balls into goals"

    "Robots+destruction=bad"

    "Robots+destruction=good"

    "All your bots are belong to us"

  • Despite what the incredibly uninformative story says, this is not a competition for destruction. In fact, it is a task-based competition. in this case, they are trying to get balls into goals and then move the goals around for points. Very fun.
  • Actually, this isn't the first competition, although it may be the fist one webcasted. This competition is one of several regional competition held around the US partially sponsored by Dean Kamen (yes of "IT' fame) and FIRST [usfirst.org] (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).


    Each regional is held as sort of a practice for the big event being held down in Orlando, FL April 5-7. Check out the FIRST website [usfirst.org] for details and rules for the competition. This is a little bit more then BattleBots. The only destruction that goes on here is poorly build robots.

  • The link for the video seems to be working now. All it seems to say is:

    Coming Up:
    JPL Robotic Competition
    11:00 AM CST
    LA, California (or something like that)

    then
    Stand by to satelite switch California...
  • I'm going to need stitches if you don't shut up cause I'm laughing so hard. You have a dark sense of humor man... so you're not into Battlebots then?!
  • Thanks for the info. I checked that listings and found out that my PBS affiliate in Maryland also carries Robot Wars UK. I'm watching it right now, in fact, but for some reason I don't care for it quite as much as Battlebots.

    --
  • Another robot competition that is heavily funded by NASA (the program itself isn't, but more than a majority of high schools receive funding and sponsorship via NASA to compete in this) is the U.S. FIRST Competition [usfirst.org]. The focus of this competition is not to break the other robots (this is actually against the rules), but to instead achieve points by putting balls into goals and then they can receive bonus points by doing certain tricks. E.g.: hanging from the rail. Our school, Sylvania Northview, gets local funding from Dana Corporation Headquarters in Toledo, OH. It is a bit costly, but if the school can find the sponsorship, it's an excellent educational experience.
  • While I am glad to see NASA braodcasting this FIRST competition will they be broadcasting nationals in a couple of weeks?
  • The robots don't destroy each other smart guy, they work colloboratively to devise a strategy and score the most points.
  • Actually, there isn't any fighting at all. Last year the FIRST competition was sort of like a two on two basketball game. This year, to further the founder's socialist ideals, four robots are on the field together trying to get the highest score possible. Really not as exciting as last year's competition. The competition mentioned is only a regional, the finals aren't until the middle of April. Nationals, held outside of Epcot Center, has about 370 entries this year.

    You can check out MBHS' entry into the competition (I'm head of pneumatics by the way :-), The Blair Robot Project. [mbhs.edu]

  • As usual, the big one gets the most coverage. ESPN has even covered it in the past, not sure if they will this time.
  • In case anyone cares the live show is up and streaming now at 4:55 pm (EST).
  • useful? Having robots kill each other is, at best, mildly entertaining. Battlebots is a lousy show, it takes them like 20 minutes just to get new bots into the ring. I would think that NASA would be more interested in robotics as it might apply to some of their responsibilities. The best they've been able to do so far is a robotic arm on mars that dug up some dirt and a little shoebox with wheels that rolled around for awhile to look at things. Honestly, what about a robot that, if it survived its crash-landing due to a conversion error, could walk for a couple hundred miles and really survey the area?
  • If your cable company carries the NASA Channel (I don't think that is the official name), which many do, it is being broadcasted live on it.
  • the video seems to be the current space station mission - which at times is boring, but you get to listen to the live communication between ground control and the shuttle/station.
  • On the NASA cable channel we get to see all matter of taped video from space shuttle missions. And yet, when cool things like a NASA robot fight come up, we have to watch on a lousy Internet stream.

    The same goes for those balloons they send up during meteor showers. Oooh, we can watch the meteors from a live webcast... but the thought of broadcasting the feed on cable television is apparently too tacky. Nevermind that cable reaches more people and with better visual clarity.

    Yeesh. I'll stick with BattleBots.

  • I'm watching the competition on cable right now. Apparently NASA thinks people who use the web don't watch TV, so there's no reason to mention on the web site about its broadcast availability. Oh well.
  • Yeesh, how horrible. This thing is terribly boring. Good realvideo encoding for the bit stream size, but that is about it. Crap, you could get ALOT more kids intrested in robots by telling them that they get to blow crap up then by having these snail paced matchs. The amount of innovation to be seen here is somewhat resembling null, unlike Battlebots where you have alot of various styles of building the robots.
  • they call it Battle Bots only it's a good show
    ---
  • And CST is what in UTC?
  • Not Orlando! The EPCOT parking lot at Di$ney World is sooo much nicer than anywhere else near Orlando. (Yes, I do mean parking lot)

    Tell me what makes you so afraid
    Of all those people you say you hate

  • This is the FIRST Robotics Competition - just the poster didn't really understand the non-competitive nature when they posted this link.

    There was a good thread on this competition a while ago at Half-Empty [half-empty.org] titled FIRST 2001 Strategies.

    Tell me what makes you so afraid
    Of all those people you say you hate

  • NEW YORK (AP) -- In a move that signals a new direction for sports entertainment, Vince McMahon, owner of the World Wrestling Federation and the Extreme Football League, announced today that he had successfully purchased the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from the United States government. President Bush, ignoring the pleas of NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, approved the deal as part of his administration's move to make government agencies pay their own way.

    "This is a great day for this organization," said McMahon. "I think that the merger of sports entertainment and space research is a no-brainer. It can only work to the benefit of everyone. And The Rock has been after me for a while to give him something more science-oriented to do. I think he'd be a natural in Martian geology, or maybe even tracking solar magnetic field variations."

    Goldin, however, had a different view. "I can't believe this is happening. We've got a space station to take care of, a dozen extra-planetary missions and the Hubble telescope on the go right now, and I'm supposed to make room somehow for some wrestler on my data analysis team?"

    McMahon's attention had been drawn to NASA by its recent sponsorship of robot battle contests, originally intended to interest high school students in science. "Once I saw that," said McMahon at the press conference, "the wheels just started turning. I mean, come on! They weren't doing pay-per-view on that thing -- just sending it out free on the net!"

    As newly-appointed Big Kahuna of NASA, McMahon took the opportunity to announce that future astronauts would need new abilities and skills. "Yes, flight experience is important. But so is hair. And you've got to have a schtick, some sort of hook to keep viewers watching. And I don't even want to hear from you if you can't take a fall without getting hurt."

    Free Software Foundation guru Richard M. Stallman could not be reached for comment. A source close to the programmer said that he was "busy working on his Iranian throat lock."

  • fp! [usfirst.org]
  • OK, some corrections. First, this is just the west coast regional competition, there are in fact 13 regionals. There is also a national competition in Orlando. Second, and far more important, this is NOT BATTLEBOTS. The goal of this competition is not to destroy your opponents, its to build a robot that can cooperate effectivly with teammates to perform a specied goal

  • These things are fun to watch. I have been going to our local regional every year for several years. I went to the regional competition in grand rapids last weekend. I highly recommend it.

    There is a misconception here. This is nothing like battle bots. If the robots are damaged, it is an accident. The robots are not fighting each other, they are cooporating to get the highest score.

    The robots can be very professional, too. The kids put a lot of effort into this. My local school has about 60 kids working on their robot. The sponsors typically put up more than $100,000 per robot.

    I am truely impressed by the level of sportsmanship at these things. I have not seen the level of sportsmanship that is routinely displayed at this event at any atheletic event that I have ever been to. I wish they had this when I was in high school.

    Rules
    There are four robots from four schools in the ring at a time, randomly selected. For this years game, you can get points for each small ball placed in a goal, placing a single large ball on top of the goal (higher than a person), and ending the match with your robot in a certain position on the field. In addition, your score is multiplied by a factor if you buzz out of the round early, or if your robot has balanced one or two goals on a see-saw at the end of the match, without the see-saw touching the floor, or supported by the robot. (!) The field is divided in half. The robots start on one side and the balls start on the other. To traverse between the two halves, the robots must either go under a low bar, or drive up the see-saw ramp, causing it to tip to the other side. (leaving it in the up position for the next robot) Also, the kids have an allotment of balls they can pass into the ring from outside the ring.

    My favorite bot It is truely facinating to see all of the different approaches the teams have. Many of their robots are very innovative. My favorite was a robot shaped like a ramp, which had an arm for manipulating the see-saw. It would maninpulate the see-saw in the horizontal position and allow the other robots to drive on top of it and get to the other side more quickly (less incline than the see-saw--many robots did not have enoung power to drive up the see-saw and come down the other side), and it could use its little arm to balance the goals on the see-saw, which is worth a huge number of points. It completely controlled the see-saw. There are size and weight limits, too. In order to fit in the allowable space at the beginning of the match, the ramp-bot had to be folded up. When the match would start, it would unfold, making itself about 50% wider and twice as long as it was. It reminded me of the old transformers cartoon.
  • better-then-battlebots?

    Uh, no. As corny as it is, the whole Comedy Central practice of having comedians do the play-by-play has given the event a certain flavor I don't think NASA scientists will be able to repeat.

  • Sometimes decent music, sometimes not. For example, right now they're playing the goddamnmotherfucking macarena. I guess even geeks can have disturbingly bad taste.
  • Just a moment ago, they were preparing for the final round, to break the tie. Then it cut to a view of Mission Control, with nothing happening. Now they're showing a view of the Earth from some orbiting body, probably the Space Shuttle. The view of the Earth is cool, but what the hell happened to the robots?
  • Actually I wasnt fully ironical. This competition inspires creativity, learning, some fighting spirit and it's probably good fun.

    Those are good things to spend your tax money on, i'd say....

    But then.. im from the Old World, so its not my money.. i can just enjoy the show!

  • Finally NASA uses their money for something useful :)

    Thats about time!

  • For those seriously addicted to this stuff - WGBH TV (A PBS station) in Boston MA has been carrying a British show called Robot Wars (schedule here [wgbh.org]) [generally Saturday mornings at 19:30 am on boston's channel 2] The British Site is here [robotwars.co.uk]. It is Really cool (tm).

    It is hosted by Craig Charles, formerly of Red Dwarf fame. Not just a simple elimination match, but you get to over come challenges like obstacle courses, etc. All while avoiding the infamous house robots.

  • that's generally Saturday mornings at ten thirty (10:30) am on boston's channel 2
  • For anyone out there interested in such things, up here in Canada we've already run our FIRST competition this year (www.canadafirst.org [canadafirst.org]).

    Basically it's similar to the US FIRST competition, but with less money, and generally the robots are built by the students, not the corporate sponsors.

    Sadly enough, Canada FIRST is usually full of screw ups. Two years ago, the wireless modems they gave us didn't work, so we had to do the whole competition on tethers. This year, the control boards they gave us blew up if you pulled too much torque from the motors. Go figure.

    It was fun anyway though, I got to shoot at targets with compressed air, and damn that thing could shoot if you charged it up enough.

  • I was there. I helped construct my schools robot, however I was unable to go. I'm helping with the botball robot my school's building.

    And the competition started Friday morning!

  • No, your an idiot. Battlebots is made in AMERICA! Robot Wars is british and I have seen it on UPN. It has british people with accents and it is A LOT better.
  • Alien54 said:

    "generally Saturday mornings at 19:30 am on boston's channel 2"

    Uhm, 19:30 am? if you're using the 24 hour clock, you omit specifying AM/PM. If you're going on a 12 hour clock, then you're kinda messed up as your TV Guide lists the show at 19:30.

  • I followed the link to the JPL website, and found it uninformative and quite sparse. No mention of the date or time of the webcast was given, merely a link to the Real media video stream (and of course that link is broke at the moment, since I'm sure the match is not going on right now).

    Perhaps someone could post a link to the story which actually gives the details!

  • ... and there doesn't seem to be any beating each other up. What I'm seeing are seemingly unarmed remote control robots using tall hexagon(can't tell exactly, something around 8) shaped carts to move balls of various sizes and colors around for points. They're in an approximately 50x25 foot rectangular arena with a seesaw bridge in the center.

    RealPlayer required.
    http://realserver.jpl.nasa.gov:8080/ramgen/encoder /live.rm [nasa.gov]

    "// this is the most hacked, evil, bastardized thing I've ever seen. kjb"

  • The five million dollar BattleBots! :)
  • Nasa has good servers - but the /. effect is apparently more powerful still.
  • My local trade school (Live Oaks) computer dept. was participating in this.
    What they basically do is Build a robot that lifts up large Balls, and puts them in a goal.
    It also had to go around or through multiple obstacles, like a teeter-totter, and humps.
    And there not really robots, there controlled by remote control by 2 guys.
  • "I think it says something about human nature that the first form of life we have created is purely destructive. We have created life in our own image." --Stephen Hawking, years ago at MacWorld Expo on viral code Seems like no one saw a necessity to wisen up. Oh, well it's another Bush administration, so what the heck...
  • From reading some of your responces to this article i get the feeling you dont truely understand what FIRST is. It mean "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." The competition is not about robots killing eachother, but about Team work and Graceous(sp?) Professionalism.

    It is a great program that gives students a real taste of what engineering has to offer. I believe it has been a great success.

    I am a member of team 37, Cordzilla. We received 2nd place at the Kenedy Space Center Regionals. We also recieved an award for sportsmanship. You see Gracous Professionalism is rewarded. We helped other teams in many cases; We donated some wheels to one, Gave our spare grippers to team who needed it, and i myself even programmed for 3 other teams.

    Well you are all probably bored of hearing about how my team did, but maybe this article will interest some of you to atted the National competition in Disney World. Ohhh and this years game is not the first to be streamed on the net, as i know for a fact this was done last year and all the other regionals this year as well...

    See You At Nationals!!!
  • For informetion on the rules of this years game, go to US First's website [usfirst.org]... Or click here [usfirst.org]
  • Actually, make that "Robotwars"...
  • For those who just tuned in and are confused (why aren't they destroying each other? thus su><ors!!!), the rules of the game are here. [usfirst.org] It's co-operative, and there are several objectives... read this, and enjoy the show :)
  • I'm watching, or I should say I was watching this via CNN's site - but now I am watching the main control room of NASA. Looks like they had a minor glitch in their satellite feed - gotta love those backdoor features to change channels!

  • ./rant
    Why is it always about destruction? It seems that the only purpose people see for robots is to fight with other robots.
    Agreed, I wonder why there isn't a comparison a la rap music, television, to this, but being devils advocate, there can be some advantages to programs such as this.

    Pros:

    If aliens ever show up, we'd use battlebots (hehe)

    US spends most on military (less lives lost using robots)

    Inventors (students) get a grasp of teamwork and engineering skills

    Funding for students is less than hiring vendors (NASA keeps the robots I think)

    NASA looking to improve so it doesn't lose another MARS probe

    Cons:

    Waising tax payer dollars

    Creating violence in schools

    Isn't telecast with XFL or Survivor for ratings

    So there's more pros than cons. Seriously though, we all know about violence in schools, and society as a whole, but these are engineering and science students, not the typical misfit you see shooting up his school. Sure it can have violent tendencies to show this program or even scheme it up in the name of science, but its no different than Gene Rodenberry's Star Trek shows (well its real) on television battling it out week after week.

    Think for a second about the pro's involved here. Now when a student brings a bomb to school, we have robots that disengage those bombs (nice comparison huh), well picture the future, a robot who not only disarms the student's bomb, but gives then beats on him afterwards and arrests him (very true there's the LAPD for that). ;)

    I find this disturbing, because as an area of research, robotics has great promise to actually contribute to the good of the human race. Robots of the potential to effectively accomplish many dangerous and difficult tasks that are today done by poorly paid overworked people.
    There are plenty of robots in the workplace we all use everyday, then there are those who'll protest the use of robots in the workplace for fears of losing their jobs.

    Robots should be encouraging the formation of a classless society, where everyone has leisure time and a fulfilling creative job. Instead, robots are being developed primarily as a tool of destruction.
    Nonsense, that would be scary to have a "leisure" society where no one did anything. Double check that thought. Who would control the robots? Hence who would control society...

    Unfortunately, geeks seem to thrive on violence and don't realize the massive potential that is being thrown away.
    Your right just yesterday I was mugged by two geeks who armed with EMP weapons [antioffline.com] demanded all of my LED lights. They tied me up using synthetic wire (environmentally friendly) and proceeded to cure my diseases with their Palm Pilot database filled with DNA sequencing. I tried to explain to the cops their identities, but failed to describe their pencil pouches.

  • it's against the rules to damage the other robots in this competition...
  • Also re-run at 11:00 pm and 11:30 pm. I sumbitted this as a story a while ago, but /. wasn't interested. I still say Robot Wars is better than Battlebots. You forgot to mention the house robots in the original post.
    BTW, the Robot Wars website says that Robot Wars will be coming to th U.S. soon, but gives no further info.
    -----------------
  • Look like fun, the kids and adults appeared to be having a good time. There was one test were a robot has a grab dolly with a PVC "bucket", take it to one side of the arena and the kids fill it with beach balls, then grab another empty dolly on the other side and try to balance on a rocking platform, all by remote control (R/C). Neat stuff.

    As an aside, I think that the flying autonomous robots, such as MIT and others participate in, are really tough challenges. They have to use sensors, etc. to carry/move/push/navigate/hover under/above walls and stuff in 3D maze, where wind, etc. may tip or blow away either a helicopter or helium balloon implementation.

  • by CyberDawg ( 318613 ) on Saturday March 17, 2001 @07:51AM (#357917) Homepage

    The link posted with the story didn't provide a whole lot of information, but you can get all you need to know at the 2001 documentation [usfirst.org] section of the FIRST [usfirst.org] Web site.

    This competition is a lot more education-oriented than "battlebots," and looks like a lot more fun.

  • Why is it always about destruction? It seems that the only purpose people see for robots is to fight with other robots.

    I find this disturbing, because as an area of research, robotics has great promise to actually contribute to the good of the human race. Robots of the potential to effectively accomplish many dangerous and difficult tasks that are today done by poorly paid overworked people.

    Robots should be encouraging the formation of a classless society, where everyone has leisure time and a fulfilling creative job. Instead, robots are being developed primarily as a tool of destruction.

    The world is already filled with enough violence and devastation. It is disgusting to see every advance warped to that ugly end. Unfortunately, geeks seem to thrive on violence and don't realize the massive potential that is being thrown away.

    - qpt
  • Finals start at 1:00, Semis are on now, Some type of obstacle course and some descent house music in the background
  • I think Lego [lego.com] should definately get with the program and start creating a contest of that sort for its "Lego Mindstorm" [lego.com] robots.
  • You make good points about technology, but I'd like to carry it a few steps further.

    You may recall Bill Joy's essay in Wired that was published April of last year? In it, Joy outlined the very real dangers of GNR technologies (genetics, nanotechnology, robotics) which face the human race in the near future.

    The fact is, people pushing overzealously to further these technologies are ignoring the very real danger that they could spin well beyond our control. Make something that reproduces, and you have a potential worldwide Jurassic Park on your hands. Also, such technology wielded for malicious intent is potentially devastating to the human race.

    The utopian vision of robots serving humans you set forth is very seuductive, but it needs to be reevaluated. There are situations in which we must ask ourselves if we really want to allow any research at all in GNRs.

    A good place to start would be a comprehensive program in values education in schools, starting at an early age - and something even more rigorous for scientists and engineers.

    --

  • by jimiUK ( 409362 )
    despite being one of the bastions of high tech in our society, how does nasa manage to consistently have one of the slowest websites on the planet ?
  • These shows just contain remote-controlled machines. They have more in common with that stupid "robot" boxing game (something akin to Hungry Hungry Hippos) than actual robotics (or at the very least, the robotics that you describe) - and I like these shows.

    Anyway, we've had remote-controlled machines for decades, so I hardly think that these machines qualify as "advances".

    At any rate, watching a robot flip hamburgers for half an hour would lose it's appeal fairly quickly, I would think...

  • i didn't watch the web cam, but if any of you say this looks boring does this competition no justice. I was a driver for one of the teams in the finals, and what happened was we tied for a score of 552(a really good score for both of us). to break the tie we used the average seed points for each team, and the other alliance beat us by 2.6 points! it was a really close match, and all of the other robots on teh field showed innovation and good engineering skill. I look forward to attending another regional in Philly, and then going to Orlando!
  • One of the US FIRST teams maintains a great site [chiefdelphi.com] to help teams involved in FIRST that includes a huge collection of pictures [chiefdelphi.com] of robots and regionals starting from last year. Its definitely worth a look if you have some spare time and want to see some of the really cool machines.

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