Robotics after FRC

[AlexH]

http://buildersdb.com/ hosts registration for most "battlebots" (robot combat) events, except for RoboGames/ComBots where registration happens on http://robogames.net/. I compete in events hosted by North East Robotics Club (http://nerc.us/)

[pwnageNick]

I haven't seen VEX mentioned yet. I'm currently a college student mentoring a high school VEX team, and it works much better than FRC for me schedule-wise. Since the competition runs year-round, our team holds once-a-week meetings on the weekends, meaning that I don't have to sacrifice my school nights to come help out.

VEX also has a collegiate-level competition division you might be interested in, but I don't know much about it.

Not talking about mentoring but participating, does working on a VEX Collegiate team seem like you would be keeping to "in the box"? I've considered doing VEX in college next year, but feel like maybe that would be sticking with something I'm already too familiar with.

I've also been considering the C.A.R.D. competition but wasn't sure if it was still happening/planning to continue/how strong it was.

This is a great thread.

-Nick

[torihoelscher]

At Embry Riddle they have a Robotics program like F.I.R.S.T. Its pretty cool! I cant wait to join them! They dont have enough girls! If you want, I can give you the information about it!

[Colin P]

Shameless pitch for Michigan Tech.

The Robotic Systems Enterprise is expanding, working on the beginning stages of an underwater glider and possibly CARD if we happen to find one of those elusive money trees lying around anywhere.

We also mentor a few FIRST teams. It's a challenge, but a lot of us have been through it.

[Jenn Feathers]

Originally Posted by torihoelscher

At Embry Riddle they have a Robotics program like F.I.R.S.T. Its pretty cool! I cant wait to join them! They dont have enough girls! If you want, I can give you the information about it!

is it only offered there?

[popnbrown]

I would recommend that you seriously think about mentoring as a freshman, but that you don't rule out. Spend time with the team and slowly ramp up your availability, if at a certain point you can't handle it then ramp it down. I worked with two CAT engineers and a freshman in college this Fall from October to December, and the freshman was there more often than me, and was there at every single meeting. He even continued to mentor the FRC team, and was basically there 6/7 days of the week, for our meetings for FRC (I'm pretty sure I made less meetings). It's definitely possible, just be careful.

Originally Posted by torihoelscher

At Embry Riddle they have a Robotics program like F.I.R.S.T. Its pretty cool! I cant wait to join them! They dont have enough girls! If you want, I can give you the information about it!

What program is this?




Also currently a junior in college, I run a club, that has several teams that compete in:
JSDC - University of Illinois competition, jsdc.ec.illinois.edu
IGVC - Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition hosted by AUVSI at Oakland, MI
Lunabotics - which someone already mentioned
VEX College Competition - which probably comes the closest besides CARD, and is relatively cheap to get a team started in

Beyond that there are these:
Battlebots - you know what that is
AUVSI - in addition to IGVC hosts a bunch of different competitions, land, water, and sky based
RoboCup - You build a team of robots that compete in a game of soccer
RoboOlympiad - or something like that, I'll look it up for you, they have a multitude of competitions, from SumoBots, to RoboCup type games, to building like a MazeBot (MouseBot or something).


Wanted to add info about CARD as well. Probably the closest to FRC, and it tries to spread the same values of FIRST unlike other competitions, but it's currently having a lot of difficulty getting up and running. As of now the competition for this year has been postponed, because a lot of the involved are also heavily involved in FIRST. If anyone is ever interested in CARD, I suggest going to the website and e-mailing them.

[JohnSchneider]

I believe shes referring to Riddles CARD team

We have a world champion formula SAE team here at A&M but its not open to freshmen-sophmores.

[Jamie Kalb]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

Not talking about mentoring but participating, does working on a VEX Collegiate team seem like you would be keeping to "in the box"? I've considered doing VEX in college next year, but feel like maybe that would be sticking with something I'm already too familiar with.

If you're asking about whether collegiate VEX is limiting in the level of robotics you get to use, I don't think so at all. I know the rules are much more "open" than the high school competition about the use of custom electronics. More motors and sensors are allowed, and there's more of an emphasis on programming - I'm fairly certain the game is 1 minute of autonomous mode, then 1 minute teleop, as opposed to 20 second auton and 2 minute teleop of high school VEX (and FRC). In that sense, it's a more accurate simulation of real-world robotics than the "glorified RC cars" of FRC. I don't think being "too familiar" with this area is a problem at all - there's plenty of room for expansion and lots to learn still.

[Foster]

In college VEX you build both robots in your alliance. This gives you those ability to create robots that partner together.

There are also relaxed rules on sensor electronics, so you can add Arduino type boards to do off board processing. You also can build / machine components out of polycarb blocks and hefty metal items. There are about 80 teams and growing. Two biggest areas are New Zealand with about 8 teams and the 2011 Championship along with Mexico with 10 teams. STEMRobotics supports a PA team KTOR and a FL team CAKE.

See the VEX site and forums for more details.

[Racer26]

The one I didn't see mentioned (and maybe thats because it's currently idle) is the DARPA Grand/Urban Challenges, for fully autonomous vehicles.

I didn't know about Lunabotics, that's pretty cool; is that a yearly thing with different games each year, or is it new, or what?

[CarterM]

I highly recommend either Formula SAE, as it's already a huge competition around the world, or C.A.R.D. Here at Milwaukee School Of Engineering, most of our teammates were FRC members and, as stated above, it's simply a year long, less restricted FRCompetition. Both are really quite fun in their own ways!

[Jenn Feathers]

Originally Posted by Foster

In college VEX you build both robots in your alliance. This gives you those ability to create robots that partner together.

There are also relaxed rules on sensor electronics, so you can add Arduino type boards to do off board processing. You also can build / machine components out of polycarb blocks and hefty metal items. There are about 80 teams and growing. Two biggest areas are New Zealand with about 8 teams and the 2011 Championship along with Mexico with 10 teams. STEMRobotics supports a PA team KTOR and a FL team CAKE.

See the VEX site and forums for more details.

How much does these competitions cost? Like entry fees and materials for the VEX bots?

[Nick Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Jenn Feathers

I am realizing that I only have one more year that I can be a student on a FRC team. I know that I could come back as a mentor after I graduate, but what other robotics competitions are there that are NOT like battle bots but are more like the FIRST competitions?

College VEX is great.

-Nick

[tsaksa]

Originally Posted by EricH

Now, why limit yourself to robotics competitions? Sure, you know them quite well. But you're also depriving yourself of the opportunity to grow in another direction. I've been on the SAE Aero Design team for 5 years now, but my senior design project is the NASA Lunabotics competition. (Aren, if you're going to that competition, we should meet up sometime.) I've learned a lot about teaming, flight, crashing (), and dealing with (lack of) success from the Aero team that I really don't think I picked up in FRC.

...

Glad to hear you say that. I would have, but you beat me to it.

Robotics is great (I am sure everyone can agree on that) but there are also a lot of other engineering challenges out there. In addition to the points you made, it is can be very expensive and require a large variety of skills to help put together a quality robotics program. It is sometimes easier for a smaller school to fund and staff some more focused competitions than robotics. A collage with a very strong mechanical engineering program but a limited software or electronics program might find a different kind of competition fits their focus better. I hope I do not offend anyone too much here, but in my opinion, there is at least some chance, robotics may not the be the absolute be all and end all of all engineering achievement.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by tsaksa

I hope I do not offend anyone too much here, but in my opinion, there is at least some chance, robotics may not the be the absolute be all and end all of all engineering achievement.

I got a nice challenge working on the high mileage vehicle in college...not robotics at all, and it taught me a lot.

I dont think it matters too much what you do, as long as you do something that lets you apply what you're learning in class.