The 2009 FIRST Championship starts today at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Thursday through Saturday, teams from all over the world will compete in three separate competitions.
The largest attendance (and largest bots) will be competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Many of these robots exceed 100 lbs, utilize multiple 12V batteries and have significant programming for both the autonomous portion of the match as well as to assist the drivers during the controlled portion of the match. This year the better teams will be sporting state of the art traction control to help them out maneuver the competition on the slippery playing field.
I’m cheering for the local favorite, Team 148, the Robowranglers with a shout out to the following teams: 1114 The Simbots, 217 the Thunder Chickens, 2775 Liberty High School and 2056 OP Robotics. May the best robot[s] win!
If you are near Atlanta I encourage you to go see a lot of students get excited for science! Admission to the competition is free to the public and there are a lot of other things to do. Atlanta pulls out all the stop in welcoming FIRST, you can see more at Atlanta.net.
For the rest of us who have to stay behind and hold down the fort, we’ll be watching on NASA TV.
