"Greetings. I am the AWESOM-O 4000. I have been sent from Japan to serve as your personal robot. … I will be your new best friend."
-- Eric Cartman playing AWESOM-O on South Park
Though they might not resemble C3PO (or, even, South Park's AWESOM-O), the robots on display at last week's FIRST Robotics Great Lakes Regional, held at Eastern Michigan University, impressed and entertained in equal measure.
More than 60 high school teams from across the Midwest (and one from Santiago, Chile) brought their homemade robots to the weekend competition in Ypsilanti. Over the course of six weeks students designed, built, and learned to operate their robots, culminating in the regional final competition.
"What may be even more remarkable about the FIRST Robotics experience is the fact that these high school kids – along with the guidance of teachers, professional engineers and other business mentors who volunteer huge amounts of their time – complete in six weeks what many companies would give their technical staff a full year to work on," says Francois Castaing, a member of the national board of director’s for FIRST Robotics.
The contest gives students their first introduction to the world of robotics by teaching them to build the same types of robots used in manufacturing and even by NASA (like the lonely robot from the Superbowl commercial).
At the competition, each teams' robot performs in the equivalent of a robotic gladiator match. Think of the old Comedy Central TV show BattleBots but with far less violent tasks to perform.
The program has been so successful that universities nationwide have created $9.5 million in scholarships available solely to participants in these competitions.
Source: Tom Lang, spokesman for the FIRST Robotics Great Lakes Regional
Writer: Jon Zemke
Pictures courtesy FIRST Robotics Great Lakes Regional
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