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State Fair Showcase is Next Stop for MN FIRST Teams
July 25, 2010
By Ken S. and MN Regional Staff
The 2010 Minnesota State Fair is your next chance to see local FIRST Robotics teams in action. Look for FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition teams in Carousel Park during STEM Day, Thursday, August 26. Daily competitions for FRC teams will be held in the Education Building throughout the entire run of the fair, and there will be tournaments featuring FTC teams too.
Before you go, check out the latest photo of Prior Lake’s FIRST Tech Team, 3855-Tempered Steel. Not only did the team finish second in tournament play at the 2010 Championships in Atlanta, but a photo of the team in action there is a homepage feature on the updated FIRST website (http://www.usfirst.org/, click on button 4).
"This year was Magic!” said Joseph Passofaro, lead mentor for FRC Team 2169-KING TeC and FTC Tempered Steel. “Both our FTC and FRC teams did very well and more importantly they had a great time. We can only hope that we have a chance to go to St. Louis (site of Championships) next year."
All nine of the Minnesota FIRST teams attending the Atlanta competition carried a Minnesota banner into each match. This banner showcased all of the teams present in Atlanta in 2010, as well as highlighted Minnesota’s two FRC regional competitions and the Snow Drift FTC competition. The banner was created by members of FRC Teams 1816-The Green Machine, Team 2500-Herobotics, Team 2169-KING TeC, and FTC 2887-The Bucket Brigade.
FRC teams attending the Championships were: Team 1816-The Green Machine, Edina; Team 2169-KING TeC, Prior Lake; Team 2500-Herobotics, Minneapolis; Team2574-Robo Huskies, St. Anthony Village; Team 3038-ICE, North Branch; Team 3299-Warehouse Crew, Chaska; Team 2667-How ‘bout Dem Apples. Apple Valley. FTC teams were 2887-The Bucket Brigade, Edina, and 3855-Tempered Steel, Prior Lake. All of the teams even found a moment to gather for an All-Minnesota photo! Click here for a side view of our photo op, and here for a close up in front of the FIRST banner.
Patrick Henry’s Herobotics team, the largest FRC team in Minnesota with 54 members in 2010, won the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional Engineering Inspiration Award, which gave them an opportunity to go down to Atlanta for the Championships, report several student members of the Minneapolis-based team. There, the team was challenged by team mentors to run a self-operated team led by all of the newest members of the team. All members felt supported in their efforts as they were thrust into the challenging, high-energy atmosphere of Championships. It made attending championships an impressionable experience for all members.
A Video Blogger's View of the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional
July 15, 2010
By MN Regional Staff
Join University of Minnesota student Beth Gibbs for her video report of the 10,000 Lakes Regional, featuring Team 2177-The Robettes.
Woodbury’s Fighting Calculators, East Ridge Robotics Ominous Raptors, Make Shared Spaces Work
July 15, 2010
By MN Regional Staff
What’s it like to share robot build and construction space? During the 2010 season, the Math & Science Academy’s Fighting Calculators and the East Ridge Robotics Ominous Raptors found out that combining their FIRST teams’ strengths overcame many early obstacles. Click here to read the March 31 story; read the follow-up story from April 7 here. Both stories appeared in the Woodbury Bulletin.
Join Go FIRST! at the University of Minnesota
July 15, 2010
By MN Regional Staff
Attention FIRST alumni who are now incoming University of Minnesota students: You’ll want to check out Go FIRST, a College of Science and Engineering group composed of students who participated in the FIRST Robotics Competitions while in high school. The members both mentor area high school students in the competition and help assist the program on campus through activities and participation at the dual Minnesota Regionals.
Click here to read the story as it appeared in the online edition of the Minnesota Daily.
Get a Jump on the FRC season via the FIRST Tech Challenge!
May 26, 2010
By MN Regional Staff
Looking for a way to jump-start your FRC Team this season? The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics program is growing in Minnesota, and there are tremendous benefits to add it to an existing FIRSTRobotics program. FTC offers a small group, competitive robotics experience, using a mid-sized robot (18” x 18"). These robots are modular, providing hands-on building without hours of instructional time needed. FTC robots can be programmed in either robot C or Labview, which neatly dovetails programming required for FRC robots. Participation in FTC is a terrific “warm up” to the FRC build season or can be developed as a Junior Varsity or Junior High School program. Participation and entry fees are reasonable; the winners of the State Championship tournament are invited to the World Championships. FTC announces the game challenge in early September; tournaments begin in December. There’s no shipping deadline – teams bring their robots with them to the competition. Contact Joe Passofaro, MNFTC at prodigy dot net, for more information about starting or renewing an FTC team. More details are available at the US FIRST website here.
2010 Season Team Forum
May 11, 2010
By MN Regional Staff
Attention Minnesota FIRST Team! A Team Forum will be held Monday, May 17, at 6:00pm at 231 Smith Hall on the east bank campus of the U of MN. This meeting is an opportunity for team leaders and mentors to provide feedback on the recently completed season and to hear about plans for the coming months and next year. Please make sure that team mentors know about this forum, we have no way of contacting them directly.
Checklist for Competitions
February 23, 2010
By MN Regional Staff
Your robot's in the crate, the tools are packed, and what's next? Getting organized and ready for the regional competitions! Team 2220-Blue Twilight and Team 1816-The Green Machine have put together a checklist and tips to help you get your team ready for the regional competition and then a list of what to do when you arrive at the venues. Click here to get started!
FIRST “Breakway” Poses “Soccer with a Twist” Game Challenge
January 13, 2010
By David F.
Kickoff for the 2010 FIRST Robotics competition took place January 9, as eager robotics team members all over the world watched this year’s Kickoff event via NASA satellite. More than 1,800 teams worldwide waited in anticipation as this year’s game challenge, “Breakaway”, was unveiled. No one wanted to miss this event, and got to Kickoff any way they could; including one team member Fairmount, Minn., who arrived on a snow mobile -- talk about dedication! It was a standing-room only audience at the University of Minnesota’s Northrop Auditorium, about 1,500 team members, mentors and volunteers from 110 FRC teams gathered for the morning from Iowa, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
FRC teams now have six weeks to design, prototype, build and program a robot able to meet the game challenge. “Breakaway” involves two alliances of three robotics teams each competing on a 27’x54’ field. The field this year has mid-field bumps, dividing the field into three segments. Robots attempt to earn points by collecting regulation-sized soccer balls in their goals. Additional bonus points are earned for each robot not touching the field (they are on a ramp or lifted off the playing field) at the end of the match. Each match consists of a 15-sec. Autonomous period, a 2-minute “teleoperated” period, where human players control the robots to score points, and a 20-second ‘finale’ period, where the robots will attempt to climb a ramp or hang above the playing field. Click here to see an animation of this year’s game:http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=16209
FRC now reaches more than 45, 000 high school robotics students world wide, from Israel to Bosnia. During the 2010 season, teams will compete in 43 regional events in the U.S., Canada and Israel. Minnesota host two regional competitions: The Minnesota North Star Regional and the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional will run concurrently, April 1 – 3, 2010, at the University of Minnesota’s Mariucci and Williams Arenas.
At Saturday’s Kickoff, teams were shown the game field and received a Kit of Parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC, and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. During the broadcast, Dean Kamen, FIRST Founder, Woodie Flowers, FIRST National Advisor, and many others spoke on the spirit of FIRST and what purposes it serves. Thank you to all teams to participated in this year’s Kickoff, including viewing the game field elements at Coffman Union and picking up the Kit of Parts. We wish you good luck for the robot build and competitions!
Preparing for the 2010 Build
November 20, 2009
By Greg B.
It’s what you’ve been waiting for all year and it’s almost here, the 2010 FIRSTRobotics Competition Kickoff! But first, to prepare everyone for the season, Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816-The Green Machine, will host Minnesota Splash, a day devoted to all things FIRST.
Minnesota Splash this year will take place Saturday December 5th, and will run from 8 AM to 1 PM. The day begins with a 75-minute team gathering and presentation in the auditorium of Willey Hall, University of Minnesota, on the West Bank campus. After, everyone will head over to Anderson Hall for a series of back-to-back 45- minute seminars and presentation that will cover everything one needs to know about building a robot.
On the schedule this year: chassis and manipulators; pneumatics, presented by William Durfee, professor of mechanical engineering, University of Minnesota; robot programming by Teams 1816, Team 2220-Blue Twilight and Team 2129-Ultraviolet; Website development and media; a seminar packed with new information about the Chairman’s Award, offered by Renee Becker, an alum of FIRST Team 1675; Team 2169-KingTeC will make recommendations regarding game strategy, and new to Minnesota Splash this year, a special presentation by a Lead Robot Inspector on “How To Stay Out Of Trouble with the Robot Inspectors!”
Best of all, no reservations are required for Minnesota Splash, and the event is free to FRC team members and mentors. Parking is available nearby, click here for maps and directions. We look forward to seeing you at the third annual Minnesota Splash!
KARE-11 Spotlights Herobotics
November 11, 2009
By Ken S.
One of the most often heard phrases today is "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything!" This is certainly true for Team 2500-Herobotics, a Minnesota FIRST team now beginning its third year out of Patrick Henry High School, Minneapolis. In spring 2009, the team won the coveted “Engineering Inspiration Award” at the FIRST Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional. That earned the team the chance to compete at the Atlanta Championships. But, even more than that, this Minneapolis team eagerly reaches out to the community, especially to younger students. Their message: that one doesn’t have to be an engineer or know how to build the robot in be a vital part of this team. Click here to catch Herobotics during their recent appearance on KARE-11.