Monthly Archives: April 2017

LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and VEX Robotics are thrilled to announce the elementary school through college winners of the 2017 VEX Robotics World Championship. Student-led teams fromCanada, China, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States were awarded top honors this week in each of the following programs: the VEX IQ Challenge Elementary School World Championship, the VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Championship, the VEX Robotics Competition Middle School World Championship, the VEX Robotics Competition High School World Championship, and the VEX U World Championship for university students.

"The VEX Robotics World Championship is an exciting ride from start to finish. It's truly inspiring to witness the hard work and dedication of these teams, who competed all year to get an invitation to Louisville," said Paul Copioli, president of VEX Robotics. "We're thrilled to see students from Canada, China, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States excelling in STEM as they proudly take home World Champion titles for their outstanding performance, teamwork and sportsmanship."

The 2017 VEX Robotics World Champions and Excellence Award Winners are as follows:

VEX Robotics World Champions

VEX Robotics Competition Middle School World Champions

VEX Robotics Competition High School World Champions

VEX Robotics Competition Robot Skills Award

VEX Robotics Competition Excellence Award

VEX U World Champions

VEX U Robot Skills Award

VEX U Excellence Award

VEX IQ Challenge Elementary School World Champions

VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Champions

VEX IQ Challenge Robot Skills

VEX IQ Challenge Excellence Award

This year's VEX Robotics World Championship hosted 1,400 teams from over 30 nations worldwide. The week-long competition is a celebration of STEM education, the year-long work of each student-led robotics team, and diversity in the high-tech field of competitive robotics.

"While competition is at the heart of the VEX Robotics World Championship, our time in Louisville is meant to unite the global STEM community. Each year attendees, teams and event volunteers all have the pleasure of experiencing the magic of robotics through the fantastic work of these students and their instructors," said Jason Morrella, president of the REC Foundation. "As we celebrate our 10-year anniversary, we're humbled to see the exponential growth of the program, and honored to be working with the Northrop Grumman Foundation, VEX Robotics and all our amazing partners to host another successful world championship."

The VEX Robotics World Championship kicked off at the Kentucky Exposition Center on Thursday, April 20 with an Opening Ceremony and the Parade of Nations. A week of head-to-head matches followed, concluding with the Finals and the Closing Award Ceremonies on Tuesday, April 25.

The VEX Robotics World Championship is comprised of five programs:VEX IQ Challenge Elementary School World Championship(ages 8-10),VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Championship(ages 11-14),VEX Robotics Competition Middle School World Championship(ages 11-14),VEX Robotics Competition High School World Championship(ages 14-18) andVEX U(ages 18+).

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The event is presented by the REC Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation, and is sponsored by Autodesk, Chevron, Dell EMC, NASA, Google, Texas Instruments, HEXBUG, Robomatter, Rack Solutions and Innovation First International. For more information, please visit http://www.vexworlds.com.

About the Robotics Education & Competition FoundationThe REC Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, sustainable and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally. The REC Foundation develops partnerships with K-12 education, higher education, government, industry, and the non-profit community to achieve this work. For more information, please visit http://www.RoboticsEducation.org or for details on upcoming events, please visitwww.RobotEvents.com.

About VEX Robotics VEX Robotics is a leading provider of educational and competitive robotics products to schools, universities and robotics teams around the world. Their VEX IQ and VEX EDR product lines span elementary, middle, and high schools with accessible, scalable, and affordable robotics solutions. Beyond science and engineering principles, a VEX Robotics project encourages teamwork, leadership and problem solving among groups. It allows educators to easily customize projects to meet the level of students' abilities as they inspire & prepare the STEM problem-solvers of tomorrow.

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VEX Robotics World Championship Crowns 2017 Winners - Yahoo Finance

Over 210 elementary, middle, and high school teams have registered to compete in the final Regional Autonomous Robotics Circuit (RARC) competition of the 2016-2017 school year this Saturday, April 29, 2017, at the Bossier Civic Center.

Public, charter, and private schools as well as homeschool and afterschool programs in Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Natchitoches, Sabine, and Webster Parishes and Miller County, Arkansas will be represented.

RARC is a series of three cyber and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) competitions for students in grades 3-12. The competitions build upon one another and allow teams to showcase their STEM and 21st Century skills by competing against other teams within their division. Liberal arts lessons are also integrated to provide a context for the content.

The theme for the 2016-2017 RARC competitions is Powering the Future. The challenges require teams to autonomously navigate a newly discovered, uncharted island with their robots and learn about energy resources. Competition 3 also includes a mystery challenge that will be revealed to the teams during the event.

Elementary school teams will compete in the morning beginning at 8:00 a.m. and will receive their awards at approximately 11:30 a.m. The middle and high school divisions will begin at 12:00 p.m. with winners announced at approximately 3:45 p.m. In addition to trophies for Competition 3, technology awards for the 2016-2017 grand champions in each division will also be awarded. The competition is open to the public and media.

The competitions are sponsored by the Cyber Innovation Centers National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (NICERC), the City of Bossier City, Bossier Parish Schools, Caddo Parish Schools, and Sci-Port: Louisianas Science Center. To learn more about RARC, please visit http://nicerc.org/rarc/ or http://www.facebook.com/CIC.NICERC.

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Final school robotics competition set for Saturday - Bossier Press-Tribune Online

Photo: Science Robotics This construction robot can make you a foam igloo in 13.5 hours flat.

Construction seems like an industry that, were I still living in Silicon Valley, I would be tempted to call ripe for disruption. Researchers at the MIT Media Lab agree, pointing out in a paper just published in Science Robotics that construction relies on traditional fabrication technologies that are dangerous, slow, and energy-intensive. Hey, sounds like a job for some robots, right?

The Media Labs paper introduces the Digital Construction Platform (DCP), which is an automated construction system capable of customized on-site fabrication of architectural-scale structures. In other words, its arobot arm that uses additive construction techniques to build large structuressafely, quickly, and even (in some cases) renewably.

Some of the most interesting robots weve seen over recent years have used additive manufacturing to build small-scale structures, or even build themselves. Large-scale robotic construction has also been an area of active research, but none of the concepts or prototypes have really panned out. There have been bricklaying robots, gantry robots that can 3D print buildings out of concrete, and even drones that build walls by transporting one brick at a time. The most practical of these solutions are probably the gantry-based 3D printers, but the big disadvantage of them is that they work best if you set them up somewhere and let them churn out prefabricated buildings.

MIT Media LabsDigital Construction Platform (DCP), on the other hand, is mobile (with a top speed of 0.5 m/s) and self contained. Its battery powered (with a few solar panels on it and an option for more to be attached), so it can potentially run forever, or as long as you have sun. Otherwise, the DCP mimics much of the functionality of a 3D building printer: It has a long reach, giving it a maximum printable volume of 2,786 cubic meters. The robot itself is made out of two arms, modeled loosely on a human: Theres a big long arm with 4 degrees of freedom (DoF) that does all the gross motions, and one small, dexterous 6-DoF Kuka arm that takes care of fine motions like our hands and fingers would. Put it all together, and the total system cost comes to US$244,500, which is really not that bad.

The construction technique that the DCP uses is straightforward: Theres a sprayer at the end of the small arm that combines two chemicals into a liquid polyurethane foam that rapidly expands and hardens. You can program the DCP to print anything you like, but in the demo in the video above its whipping up a 14.6-meter-wide, 3.7-meter-tall hemispherical open dome at a rate of 1.728 cubic meters per hour, printing layeron top of layer. Rather than build the entire structure out of foam, the DCP is actually creating a concrete formwork: Two foam walls, one nested inside the other, with a space in the middle that you can pour concrete into to make a more permanent and resilient structure (or backfill it with dirt or anything else in a pinch), after dropping in plumbing and electrical and stuff. Leaving the foam in place after you do this just adds to the insulation of the resulting building. But even as-is, with just foam and no concrete, the structure is still strong enough for a well-fed grad student to play hopscotch on top of it:

Because the foam dries so quickly, it really is possible to make a dome out of it, since successive layers don't have to be directly on top of each other. They can even be offset by 90 degrees, enabling flat roofs or unsupported shelves and benches. When additional support is required, the researchers have been experimenting with autonomously embedding rebar, and also with chains that have been autonomously welded into rigid shapes, as shown in the concept below:

In order to be able to build on-demand structures anywhere, the DCP needs two things: power, and materials. Power is a hassle, but theres no real technological barrier, since (hypothetically) you can just add as many solar panels and batteries as necessary to keep the robot powered up and running. Building materials are a bit more of a challenge, because you cant easily make spray foam ingredients from scratch. Fortunately, spray foam isnt the only useful building material, even if it might be the most optimal one for these purposes. The researchers have also successfully done some preliminary experimentation with electro-sintered powdered glass, thermally deposited ice, and compressed earth containing gravel and hay fibers. Depending on where you want to build stuff, all of these materials are potentially available locally and in bulk.

This is a very compelling ideaas long as you supply sun and raw materials, these robots could built structures quickly, autonomously, and at very low cost, which are not three characteristics that you usually find together. The researchers have imagined several scenarios, including fabricating ice structures in polar environments and creating fractal structures out of sand in deserts to be later immersed in the ocean to provide coral reef habitat.

At this point, it seems as though robots like these would be most valuable after natural disasters or during refugee crises, when you need to be able to create an enormous amount of housing in low infrastructure areas very quickly and cheaply. Whether or not such robots will prove to be more practical than other solutions for rapid construction in the near term remains to be seen; as with many robotics applications, humans are still the cheapest and most efficient way to do things.

Toward site-specific and self-sufficient robotic fabrication on architectural scales, by Steven J. Keating, Julian C. Leland, Levi Cai, and Neri Oxman from the MIT Media Lab was published in Science Robotics.

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IEEE Spectrums award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

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Robotic Construction Platform Creates Large Buildings on Demand - IEEE Spectrum

China. Brazil. Australia.

Those are just a few countries Mill Valley and De Soto high school robotics students will compete against this week during the FIRST championship in St. Louis.

More than 600 teams will compete in the international competition this year.

The Jaguar team, which features students from both high schools, is only one of five Kansas teams participating.

The trip to St. Louis comes on the coattails of another big success: earning 9th out of 60 teams at the Greater Kansas City Regional Competition last month.

The Jaguar robotics team last made it to the FIRST championship four years ago, which means all the students on this years team will be heading there for the first time.

Its great to make it this far, but its definitely nerve-wracking to compete against teams from around the world, said Jacob Tiehen, a Mill Valley senior. These are the best of the best.

Making it to any competition, much less the international one, isnt an easy feat.

Each year each robotics team is given six weeks to design, build and troubleshoot a robot to fit a specific game, one that usually involves the robot picking up and dropping objects.

Earlier this year, during that slotted time, it only took the Jaguars three weeks to build their robot; the rest of the time was spent perfecting it.

This year we had a lot of time to practice and that definitely played a part in our doing so well, said Taylor Barth, a Mill Valley senior, who is also president of the team. A lot of math, research, detail went into figuring an efficient design.

Tiehen told the Dispatch that ironing out all the fine details this year helped the team succeed.

It can be time-consuming and stressful, which gives us a lot of appreciation for engineers who design mechanisms for a living, he said. In the real world, you cant make big mistakes when youre building something.

The end result for the Jaguars was a sleek copper-colored robot the team affectionately calls Lightning McSteam, a nod to the competitions steampunk theme this year.

Photo by Victoria Wright/MVHS

Pictured is the teams robot, Lightning McSteam.

While going to the world championship is a big deal, robotics as a whole is much more than shiny trophies and snazzy robots, the students insist.

Its about friendship and leadership and teamwork.

Plus, there are many robotics team members who never even touch the robot.

The team includes graphic designers, social media aficionados, and artists.

Quinn Sheehan, a Mill Valley senior, helps handle the teams marketing, for instance.

I was never into engineering but I like the creative side of it, he said. I joined to make friends and experience positive energy and be around fun-loving people. Being in this group has made me realize engineering is pretty cool.

There are currently 45 students on the Jaguar team.

And surprisingly, theyre a tightknit group, despite their large size.

Well, for six weeks, we saw each other more than our own families, so we kind of have to be friends, joked Barth.

Her outgoing demeanor is a direct result of being on the robotics team.

Barth admits a few years ago, she was a very shy freshman.

Now, her teammates tease her that they cant get her to stop talking.

Barsh blushes at the jests.

Her story is a common one, however.

Gary Hannah, a mechanical engineer from Shawnee, said in the nine years he has mentored the Jaguar robotics team, he has seen several students blossom.

People with creative and mechanical minds tend to be more introverted, he said. Theyre not social butterflies. But by the second or third year in robotics, theyre surrounded by people just like them and they come out of their shell.

Hannah became the mentor of the team in 2008, when his son, Ryan joined.

After Ryan graduated, Hannah decided he wanted to stay.

Some people play golf, this is what I do, he said, with a grin. I get to hang out with fun people and watch them make robots. It doesnt get better than this.

He says Ryan, who lives in Utah, still keeps up with the team each year and watches each competition online.

Former Jaguar robotics member Sarah Soriano, a 2016 Mill Valley graduate, also keeps up with the team.

Soriano, who is majoring in industrial design at the University of Kansas, is also acting as a mentor this year.

She drove to Mill Valley High School every weekend during the six-week build season to offer the students guidance.

I love seeing how theyre doing and Im very proud of them, she said. The robot this year is one of my favorites.

She went to the international competition her freshman year, so she understands their excitement.

Her advice to the robotics kids?

Wear good shoes, she said, with a laugh. Youre going to be walking from building to building with that robot. Youre going to be on your feet for 12 hours.

The Jaguars are looking forward to that organized chaos.

Theyre especially eager to meet other teams and make friends with like-minded people from around the world.

And at the end of the day, theyre simply excited to do what they love.

I just like building things, said Jacob Howe, a Mill Valley freshman. I think its amazing to see things come to life, from start to finish.

To keep up with the Jaguar Robotics team or watch the world championship online, visit bluealliance.com.

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Robotics team heads to world championship - The Dispatch

With four previous trips to the world championship coming in second place in 2015 the Daredevils' goal is to win the world championship this year, coach Tim Velner said, adding that it's a "cool thing" that this year's team has the specific mission of taking home a first-place win.

"They've had this self-consciousness that we're just some little team from Duluth ... then two years ago, we won second place at the world championships. So this team is believing that it belongs on this stage and that's so cool. It's one thing to want to get to the world championships, it's another thing to have a team that believes that they can win it," he said.

SubZero Robotics' goal this year is to have fun throughout the tournament, coach Justin Scheider said.

"That's been our team goal is to just go out there and have fun, whatever happens happens and we're going to do our best," he said.

The team's division will be competitive but the kids are excited and they feel good about their robot. He said "it's an incredible accomplishment" that the team is going to the championship for the second time since it started three years ago.

The team has two large groups of ninth graders and 11th graders, Scheider said. "The juniors have been here once, most of them, so they got the experience and it really inspired them last year. And our freshmen coming in will get a lot of cool things to see and do and they're excited to have the opportunity to learn from and see some of the best teams in the world."

Teams spent Wednesday speaking with representatives at the competition's College Row. In the past, Velner has had Daredevils figure out which colleges they want to visit based on those they spoke to at College Row. He added, "Even if they don't go to any of those schools, they engage in that conversation with some really high-powered schools."

Students could also spend Wednesday at the Innovation Fair, where national companies such as Boeing, Lego and Nokia demonstrate their industries and technology.

"I have seen kids literally develop dreams of what they want to do because of that, because they're talking to somebody and they go, man, I didn't even know that existed. All of a sudden, they have an idea of where they want to go. This isn't just about the world competition, this is also about them finding what their next steps are, what their dreams for the future may be because it's all here," Velner said. "We're here because people develop their pathways here. It's so cool to watch that happen and it's a big part of being here."

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Northland robotics teams ready for the world stage - Duluth News Tribune

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ST. LOUIS (KTVI) - Competitors from around the globe are gathering for the last time in St. Louis this week for the First Tech Challenge World Championships.

John Burroughs School from Ladue is the only local team to make it through the regionals to the big meet. They're going to have nine matches over the next three days and they're really hoping to make it to the finals with Sharpie Bot 2.0.

It took the John Burroughs Bombers more than 400 hours to build. The students are in grade 7 through 12.

On student explains, "For our ball transfer we have a conveyer belt mechanism that brings the balls up the robot."

Sharpie is designed to be a sharp shooter to help the team gain points by making baskets.

Another continues, "So it actually comes up cradling the ball and the way we score is a like a reverse slam dunk."

But before they can get into the pit the kids need to present Sharpie to the judges.

Senior Ben Stegeman says it's good practice since he wants to go into marketing.

"Give like an overview for everybody to understand because you may know how it works, but you also need to let everyone else know," he says.

Director of First Tech Challenge Ken Johnson says that's just one of the many skills organizers hope to foster with this competition.

"These kids are going to change our world. These kids are the future. What our mission is to inspire them to go on to do great things," he explains.

For Hannah Stroup that was learning to code and work as a team.

She's proud to show Sharpie off to the 30,000-people expected to check out the competition this week.

"I mean this is the world championships so we're hoping to win but that's not the most important thing. the most important thing is having fun and the journey there," she says.

The Bombers are in the Edison Division and the finals start on Saturday at 10:45 am.

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John Burroughs Bombers competes in robotics championship - fox2now.com