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BobcatRobotics.org / About

AboutThis page contains information about FIRST, our team, and the awards we have won over the years.

» About FIRST

About FIRST

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology", and is a multinational, non-profit organization. It was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. He aspires to make math, science, engineering, and technology more appealing to kids in the way that sports are today. Each year the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Lego League, and FIRST Vex Competition are held to promote science and engineering to kids all around the world.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting multinational competition held yearly. It teams professional engineers and young students together in order to provide a solution to the given problem each year. The program promotes cooperation between everyone in it, and is intensely competitive while maintaining the concept of 'Gracious Professionalism'. Each team designs, builds, and programs a robot capable of performing the specified task at the various competitions held around the world. This year, the competition has reached 132,000 high school students on 1,300 teams over 30 competitions, ranging from Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. The FIRST Lego League also reached thousands of middle-school aged students, and the FIRST Vex Competition is in its second year, which is no longer a pilot program.

FIRST is an inspirational experience that changes the lives of people who gets involved in it. It provides high-school students with a chance to work with professional engineers and learn how to deal with real life situations. The ideals behind engineering and technology are shown through it and give students a chance to learn and develop skills. The end-results of it includes lots of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines, and deadlines.

History of FIRST

We have a full archive of FIRST competitions located here: FIRST History. This archive contains the FIRST competitions with and without our team.

» About This Year

Our Team

Our team this year is one of the largest we have had yet, with nearly 40 students and 10 engineers on it, in addition to the four teacher volunteers. We meet for three hours each Wednesday and Thursday during the build season, and for seven hours on Saturdays in addition to any other hours put in off the clock. Thousands of man-hours end up being put in throughout the build season to make our robot run in time for our regional events in Hartford, Trenton, and Atlanta.

The Game

The game this year is called "Rack 'n Roll". It consists of two alliances with three teams on each alliance. In the center of the field there is a giant metal structure. This structure is called "The Rack". Within "The Rack", there are chains holding up "spider legs". On these spider legs, you put pool dingies called "ringers". This is the main scoring system.

At the start of the game there is a 15 second autonoumous period. In this period you score "keepers" which are the same "ringers" except they have a stripe around them. During this period no human player/driver can control the robot. The robot must rely on pre-programmed routines developed by the controls team.

After the autonoumous period comes the teleoperated period, which is two minutes long. During this period, drivers control the robot around the field to score points for their alliance. The last 15 seconds of the match is the "END GAME" where a robot from the opposing alliance cannot enter the "HOME ZONE" of the other alliance. During this "END GAME", an alliance can score bonus points by lifting up other robots and being behind the line of their "HOME ZONE". This gives us a total of two minutes and 30 seconds a match.

Our Robot

Our robot this year has the same drive base as last year. The six wheel drive enables us to play defense against opponents effectively. The tower and claw enable us to score quickly and efficiently.

We call it the "Ring Wrangler" in memory of our robot from 1997.

Mentors

Thanks to the many engineers from UTC Corporations, Gerber Scientific, and other local companies, our team has many engineers who help students learn engineering concepts and apply them to real world problems. We wouldn't be able to consistently build the robots and compete as we do without their support, and they make a huge difference in everyone they work with through their willingness to teach.

Student Leaders

The other key group of people that helps hold the Bobcat together are the student leaders who have been with the team and through their time here, gradually fallen into positions of student leadership where they are able to help new team members learn skills and become used to the way things operate. Although every student on the team contributes a great deal to the success of the team, these individuals are the ones who makes sure everything runs smoothly and things get done.

» About This Site

BobcatRobotics.org Version 2

This new site for the 2007 Season has been under development since December 2006. The main design and most of the coding was done by David W. Chris J and Chris M also help contribute to the site's elements and programming. This site is more accessible and (hopefully) better designed than previous years.

This site is programmed in PHP along with the help of Magpie RSS for our video. Our photo gallery is powered by a script made by Chris J with the help of Picasa for thumbnails.

» Awards

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

© 2007 Bobcat Robotics