Alternative FIRST competitions

[Alex Burman]

I am trying to look for some FIRST Alternatives. Not for me personally but to show to schools who are interested in forming teams but may not necessarily want to start one with FIRST for some reason. It may even be good for those teams looking for some extra off (or on) season competition.

I thought I had seen a list of alternate competitions while at Atlanta in the pits but i can't remember the names of any.

can anyone think of any?

[EricH]

Let's see, there's VEX and FLL for schools with money issues. Those are branches of FIRST.

I have also heard of BEST (lower budget, same general idea) and I think OCCRA is also in this category. I have no personal or team experience with either. Of course, there is always Battlebots, but I don't think you'd really want that.

[Ryan Foley]

http://robots.net/rcfaq.html

A huge list of robotics/ engineering competitions. Enjoy!

[santosh]

In the past, BEST robotics is compeletely free. However, if you want to buy the bot, you must pay around $500. I believe the closest regional to you is the Pennsylvania regional

[Venkatesh]

If you want to work with water or are interested in the connection between space and sea, take a look at the MATE ROV Competetion, which is just about to start up.

It's a lot more flexible than FIRST, a whole different atmosphere, but is still very fun to participate in.

http://www.marinetech.org/rov_competition/index.php