Robot Competitions

Robot Competitions By Paul Fanone

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

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 FIRST Robotics

FIRST Robotics cont…

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 Botball Robotics

Botball Robotics cont…

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 VEX Robotics

VEX Robotics cont…

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 BEST Robotics

BEST Robotics cont…

Robot Competitions