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!