Keywords
Citation
(2001), "Robotics event online", Industrial Robot, Vol. 28 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2001.04928dab.008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
Robotics event online
Robotics event onlineKeywords: Robots, Sport
US First (for inspiration and recognition of science and technology), a non-profit organisation, is trying to make science and engineering as interesting to students as sports. A national competition sponsored by US First teams high school students with engineers from local companies. Contestants get a standard kit that includes 240 different parts, from which they design and build a functioning robot in six weeks. The robots are pitted against each other on a playing field in a type of Darwinian survival of the fittest.
The robots must pick up basketball-sized balls and drop them into bins. Points are awarded according to what colour balls the robots pick up; if they can climb a ramp in the centre of the field, as well as hang from a chin-up bar. Also, points go to robots capable of helping one of their colleagues hang from the chin-up bar. Some guidelines apply – expenses are capped at $425 for additional parts; robots may weigh up to 130lb, and can be no larger than 30 6 36in at their base and no more than five feet high in the starting position.
US First is a pet project of Dean Kamen of DEKA Research and Development Corp., Manchester, New Hampshire. Kamen is an entrepreneur/inventor who would like to see society, and specifically students, idolise inventors in the same manner as sports stars. He sees encouraging students to enter science and engineering fields as a way to make this a reality.
Sponsors include Forbes Magazine, DaimlerChrysler, Lockheed-Martin, Motorola, and Xerox, to name several. New to this year's competition is a Web-based library of special parts for participants. This lets teams view all components and information about sizes and functions, download models of needed components into AutoCAD, IDEAS, or any other CAD file format, and experiment with assembly and mechanism options without having to model the components from the kit. Also, the weight of various assemblies can be tested, and components be integrated into locally developed CAD models of platforms, assemblies, and drive trains.
For more information visit www.usfirst.org
The3D part models for the competition are all at www.Mdcybercad.com