An alliance of three high school teams took top prize in this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The trio built and controlled the autonomous robot that beat out robots from more than 460 teams in the two-day competition. The event, held 21 to 23 April, drew more than 9000 contestants from 19 countries including Canada, China, France, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States.

The winners were a coalition of the BeachBots from Hope Chapel Academy in Hermosa Beach, Calif.; Frog Force from Novi High School in Novi, Mich.; and The Hot Team from Huron Valley Schools in Milford, Mich.

Now in its 16th year, the FIRST robotics competition is the brainchild of Dean Kamen, president of DEKA Research and Development Corp., in Manchester, N.H. Kamen created FIRST—For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology—to spark interest among young people in these fields. Working with adult mentors, including hundreds of IEEE members, a team of 15 to 25 students at each school designs, builds, and programs a remotely controlled robot from a kit of standard parts. Included in the 300-part kit are microprocessors and a remote control system as well as wheels, gearbox, 12-volt battery, and cooling fans.

Each team began designing its robots in January and had to be ready to compete in regional competitions in March. The meets resembled major sporting events. Teams dressed in colorful uniforms, rock music blared in the background, and fans, composed mostly of schoolmates, friends and relatives, cheered wildly from the stands. Finalists from the regional competitions faced off at the championship match in Atlanta in a series of elimination rounds.

The tasks the robots perform are similar each year, although the details vary. This year they had to move across the playing field, pick up an object, and deposit it in or on a “goal.” Each robot had 2 minutes 15 seconds to move as many pieces as possible.

This year’s challenge required the robots to pick up triangular game pieces called tetras and place them in or on top of triangular goals. The tetras, positioned in four locations on the field, were made of 3-centimeter-diameter plastic pipe. They stand about 71 cm high, weigh 4 kilograms, and come in red and blue. Nine goals are placed in sets of three in the middle and at the ends of the field.

The task of competing is made all the harder by requiring the students to organize themselves for the finals into three-team alliances. The teams had to cooperate in choosing which of their robots would compete in the playoffs and formulating a strategy.

In the finals, two of the three-team alliances faced off across the shorter opposite ends of the 9-by 17-meter playing field. At the start of the 2.25-minute match, the robots had to operate autonomously for 15 seconds to position themselves next to the tetras. They react only to sensor inputs and to commands programmed by their team. For the final 2 minutes each team takes its robot under remote control and guides it to put as many tetras as it can in or on top of the goals, for which points are awarded. Arranging tetras of the same color in a row on the goal and returning the robot to its starting point at the end of the match scores the alliance additional points.

IEEE RECOGNITION For his work with FIRST, as well as for innovating a number of useful medical devices, Kamen is being made an honorary IEEE member in June at the institute’s Honors Ceremony in Chantilly, Va. He holds more than 150 U.S. and foreign patents, many of them for medical devices such as the first insulin pump for diabetics, a dialysis machine, a heart stent, and the Independence 3000 IBOT Transporter. The IBOT is a personal vehicle that carries a person with disabilities. It can climb stairs, traverse sandy and rocky terrain, and raise its occupant to eye level with a person who is standing.

For more information about FIRST or to volunteer, visit http://www.usfirst.org.