I like FIRST programs, but can’t say they are the best because I haven’t participated in all the others. Yet.
But there certainly are lots of options out there.
*
Thanks to Miss Mary at Northrop Grumman for doing the legwork.*
VEX Robotics Competition
Websites: http://www.vexrobotics.com/competition/vex-robotics-competition & http://robotevents.com/
Ages: Elementary thru High School to Collegiate
Registration Dates: Open year round
Format: Teams of 2 - 10 students
Cost: ~$75 / team + ~$75+ / tournament + ~$800 for robot parts kit
VEX is a large, international robotics competition for students of all ages. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors will aim to build the most innovative robots possible and work together to obtain the most points possible. For students, there are six levels of programming / competition options: Remote Control (teleoperation) only; VEX Configurator; GUI Based Object Oriented; EasyC; RobotC; and MPLAB. For Educators, there are three affordable (co)curriculum options: Intelitek’s REC VEX Curriculum; Carnegie Mellon’s Robomatter VEX Curriculum 2.0; and Autodesk’s VEX Curriculum. VEX has also partnered with Technology Student Association (TSA), Project Lead The Way (PLTW) and other groups to provide curriculum and materials for their own group based challenges.
FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Robotics
Websites: http://www.USFIRST.org/roboticsprograms/JFLL/ & http://www.FIRSTLEGOLeague.org & http://www.mdfirst.org/programs/first-lego-league.html
Ages: ages 9-14
Registration Dates: May thru September
Format: Teams of 3 - 10 students
Cost: ~$700 / team
FLL Robotics is an international program for ages 9-14. FLL uses LEGO® Mindstorms™ NXT™ robots. FLL Teams consist of 3-10 members. Estimated cost per FLL Team is $700. This covers national and state registrations, a Field Set up Kit, a challenge table, optional parts, T-shirts, and a reusable LEGO® MindStorms NXT robot kit. FLL Teams meet 3-8 hrs per week during the fifteen week robot build cycle (Sept. thru Dec.). Completion of a research presentation is also required. Teams compete in Qualifiers events at year’s end. In Maryland, the State Championship is held in January at UMBC.
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FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics**
Websites: http://www.USFIRST.org/roboticsprograms/FTC & http://FTC.csmd.edu/ & http://www.mdfirst.org/programs/first-tech-challenge.html
Ages: High School, ages 14-18
Registration Dates: May thru September
Format: Teams of 3 - 10 students
Cost: ~$1500 / team
FIRST Tech Challenge is for ages 14-18. Starting each September, students spend 5-15 hours each week building and programming custom robots from packaged kits. Tournaments take place during the winter and spring. The kits include more than 500 parts, such as variable-speed motors, multiple gears, wheels, remote controls and a programmable micro-controller.
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)
Websites: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/ & http://www.mdfirst.org/programs/first-robotics-competition.html
Ages: 14 - 18
Registration Dates: May - December
Format: Teams of 8 – 25 students
Cost: ~$10,000 / team
FIRST Robotics Competition is an international competition for ages 14-18. FRC competition season is Jan. thru April, although many FRC teams are active all year round. In January, new industrial grade robot kits arrive. Teams then endure six weeks of intensive building (20+ hrs per week) during which they design, build, calculate, program, test, and re-test their creation. Registration is $6000. It takes $10,000+ to run a competitive FRC team. Registration and payments are due by early December. FRC competition season is Jan. thru April; although, many FRC teams are active all year round. In January, new industrial grade robot kits arrive. Teams endure six weeks of intensive building (20+ hrs per week) during which they design, build, calculate, program, test, and re-test their robotic creation. Many teams have only one high school teacher or “leader” coordinating their FIRST team. Depending on the amount of time the teacher can dedicate to FIRST, this may be fine, but it is ideal if two teacher/leaders can be involved. Most teams have 8-25 students (there is no maximum) and can be made up of one or more high schools or youth organizations. In addition, parents play a key role in supporting a team. Most teams also have a handful of technical and non-technical mentors. Each mentor may be skilled in different areas, including engineering.
SeaPerch Underwater Robotics
Websites: http://www.seaperch.org & http://seaperch.mit.edu/
Ages: 5th grade - High School
Registration Dates: open / informal
Format: Individual or Teams of 2 – 3 students
Cost: ~$75 per robot
The Sea Perch is a simple, remotely operated underwater vehicle, or ROV, made from PVC pipe and other inexpensive, easily available materials. The hands-on Sea Perch experience is a gateway to further study and careers in robotics, engineering, marine sciences and more. Students around the world are using their Sea Perches to collect and enter water quality data into the Sea Perch Data Bank, an international water quality database. Data collected by Sea Perch users is automatically integrated into state of the art GIS maps and comparative graphs. Students and teachers can use any of these graphs in their classroom and can customize the data for the subject or concept they are working on. And scientists around the world can tap into the database to use your data in their research. The first-ever National SeaPerch Challenge is a challenging, educational and fun opportunity for top teams from middle and high school districts and student interest groups with established SeaPerch programs. This exciting event, scheduled for May 2011, will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Drexel University. It will run concurrently with the Navy’s Intelligent Ships Symposium (ISS IX).
MATE International ROV Contest, Underwater Robotics
Websites: http://www.marinetech.org/rov_competition/
Grades: 5th grade - High School
Registration Dates: December - February
Format: Teams
Cost: ~$225 + / team
In addition to being fun and educational, these competitions connect students and educators with employers and working professionals from marine industries, highlight marine-related career opportunities, and promote the development of technical, problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. The MATE Center coordinates an international student ROV competition and a network of 19 regional ROV contests that take place across U.S. and in Canada, Hong Kong, and Scotland. Student teams from middle schools, high schools, home schools, community colleges, and universities participate in the events, which consist of different “classes” that vary depending on the sophistication of the ROVs and the mission requirements. The 2011 MATE international ROV competition Finals will take place at the NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab, June 16-18, 2011.
BotBall Robotics
Websites: http://www.botball.org/
Ages: Middle & High School
Registration Dates: September thru mid-February
Format: Teams of 5 to 15 students
Cost: $2500 / team
Any team of middle or high school aged students is eligible to participate as long as they have an adult team leader. There is no minimum or maximum number of students per team. Typically, teams are made up of 10-15 students. The Botball Challenge kickoff happens in September. Registration fees are due by early January. Educators’ Workshops are held in January and February. Cost to register a Botball team is ~$2,500 and includes: hands-on coaches’ workshop and robotics equipment that can be used year round. Each kit contains material to build two robots including Controllers; Sensors (light, touch, sonar, encoders, range finders); Motors; Vision System; software; tournament enrollment; 10 Botball T-shirts, and access to an online curriculum that provides experiments, explanations, and ideas to use with the Botball kit after the contest. Educator scholarships and grants are available - please see the website for details.
BEST Robotics
Websites: http://best.eng.auburn.edu/ & http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/best
Ages: Middle & High School
Registration Dates: April thru September
Format: Individuals or Teams
Cost: ~$125 / team
Take plywood and a box filled with items such as PVC pipe, screws and other hardware, an irrigation valve cover, piano wire, aluminum paint grid, a bicycle inner tube, a BRAIN (BEST Robotics Advanced Instruction Node programmable platform), and something called a micro-energy chain system and try, within six weeks, to design and build a functioning machine that can perform certain, specific tasks in three minutes. What do you get? You get BEST, a middle and high school robotics competition whose mission is to engage and excite students about engineering, science, and technology as well as inspire them to pursue careers in these fields. Through participation in our project-based STEM program, students learn to analyze and solve problems utilizing the Engineering Design Process, which helps them develop technological literacy skills. It is these skills that industry seeks in its workforce. Each fall, over 750 middle and high schools and over 11,000 students participate in the competition.
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Challenges**
Websites: http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/robot
Ages: High School
Registration Dates: September - November
Format: Teams of 2-5 students
Cost: ~$75-$100 / team
This is a Baltimore, Maryland based event. Designed for Maryland teachers, there is a Robot model suitable for whatever level students are capable of, for grades 9 to 12. A school’s first 2-leg robot kit is FREE. Teacher Workshops and kickoff occur in November, with additional workshops in the winter. Papers are due in March or April. Competitions are held in April at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
JHU’s CISST Robo-Challenge
Websites: http://www.cisst.org/K-12-programs & http://cissrs.lcsr.jhu.edu/JHRC2010
Ages: Middle & High School
Registration Dates: January - February
Format: Individuals or Teams
Cost: ~$50 / team + cost of Robot (~$150-$500)
This is a Baltimore, Maryland based event. The JHU Robo-Challenge is a day long competition consisting of five individual robotics challenges, speakers on robotics, tours of the Hopkins campus and the robotics buildings, and lots of prizes! BoE-bot (Board of Education) robotics kit are used for this competition. The Robo-Challenge is a robot competition for high school and middle school students. There are five competitions - Petite Slalom, Mystery Course, Innovative Use of BOE kits, Tumor Detection and Robot Dance. Students will build the robot before the competition and on the day of the competition students will need to be able to program them based on the obstacle course that day. The general layout of the course will be given to students before hand, but the actual path will be unknown, and may change. This event is brought to you by Computer-Integrated Surgery Student Research Society (CISSRS) - Johns Hopkins University Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) - Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association.
TSA VEX Robotics Competition
Websites: http://www.tsaweb.org/Vex-Robotics-Competition & http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/tsa/ & http://www.vexrobotics.com/competition/tsa-vex-robotics-competition
Ages: Middle & High School
Registration Dates: Open!
Format: Teams of 2-5 students
Cost: ~$90 membership fee + cost of Robot (~$500)
The Technology Student Association (TSA) is a national non-profit organization for middle and high school students with a strong interest in technology. The TSA-VEX Robotics Competition provides students with a hands-on, co-curricular competition for learning about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and complements the existing technology-related competitions offered by TSA. TSA-VEX Robotics teams compete either at events held at TSA state conferences or at other official VEX Robotics Competition tournaments. The season culminates with a championship event at the National TSA Conference. TSA serves more than 150,000 students at 2,000 schools in 48 states. Learn more about how TSA fosters personal growth, leadership and opportunities in technology, innovation, design and engineering at http://www.tsaweb.org.
(Battle) BotsIQ (BBIQ)
Websites: http://www.botsiq.org & http://www.battlebots.com/BattleBots.com/Rules.html
Ages: Middle & High School
Registration Dates: September - March
Format: Teams
Cost: ~$100 / team + cost of Robot (~$150-$500+)
BotsIQ is an educational program created by the producers of the wildly successful BattleBots television series in which homemade remote controlled robots faced-off in competition. As the television show grew in popularity, so did the number of student fans who wanted to build competitive robots of their own. The IQ program starts with our middle school through high school, to post-secondary schools and institutions, and includes our industry work centers across the country. BotsIQ program is an educational engine powering the United States to remain the world’s leader in innovation, manufacturing, and industrial technology. The program utilizes three distinctly different robotic competitions with the fourth program being developed. First, the task oriented (table top) competition where operator-controlled robots have to perform specific tasks that often mimic real-life robots such as the Mars Rovers. The second competition pits student-made robots in head-to-head competition. Teams design and build their own robots; for the first time they see their “ideas-come-to-life.” As they enter the “arena” their robots must answer the call, as equivalent to the rock, paper, and scissors question. Who has the strongest, most durable and technologically advanced robot? Finally, the newest program, to be unveiled in the near future is the Grand Challenge IQ (GCIQ) competition. The GCIQ is designed to challenge students with an autonomous robotic curriculum. Robotic vehicles will navigate through static and mobile obstacles while facing varying degrees of difficulty as they progress through the event at various levels of difficulties. The National Bots IQ tournament takes place in April.
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Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy & May Madness Challenges
Websites: http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/ & http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/content/lego/competitions/index.htm
Ages: 6 thru High School
Registration Dates: n/a
Format: Individuals or Teams
Cost: free +
The CMU Robotics Academy has great resources for students, teachers, and parents. The Academy holds student summer camps and educator workshops. Some FIRST teams use the CMU materials to work on their robotics skills year round. Check out their May Madness Challenges!
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Ion’s Mini Urban Challenge**
Websites: http://www.ion.org/outreach/muc/index.cfm
Ages: High School
Registration Dates: ~February - ?
Format: Teams
Cost: free
Free high school robotics competition offers real-world engineering lessons. The Air Force Research Laboratory and the Institute of Navigation are hosting the Mini-Urban Challenge in May at Wright State University in Dayton. The competition invites high school students to design, build and program a car using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® sensors to navigate at the contest site through a 20-foot by 20-foot city made entirely of LEGOs® building sets. There is no cost for schools or students to participate because the sponsors provide all necessary materials, sensors and software. The competition provides high school students with real-world engineering lessons in problem solving, technical language and teamwork with a goal of getting more students excited about engineering.
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National Robotics Challenge**
Websites: http://www.nationalroboticschallenge.org
Ages: Elementary, Middle School, High School & Post-Secondary
Registration Dates: September – February
Format: Individuals or Teams
Cost: ~$50 / team + cost of Robot
This is an Ohio based event which takes place each April. Teams select challenges to participate in. The available challenges change each year. For 2011, challenges include (1) Sumo Robot contest; (2) Mini-Sumo Robot contest; (3) Manufacturing Robotic Work Cell; (4) Pick and Place Programming; (5) Robot Construction; (6) Robot Maze; (7) Top of the Hill; (8) Robotic Problem Solving; (9) Robo Hockey; (10) Canine Companion Challenge; (11) Manufacturing Model; (12) Math Machines Challenge; (13) VEX Swept Away!; and others! This completion formerly had judged synchronized baby-doll robot dancing, where the robots where dressed up and would dance in teams, to popular music!
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Trinity Firefighting Robot Contest & RoboWaiter Assistive Robot Challenge**
Websites: http://www.trincoll.edu/events/robot
Ages: Middle & High School, thru Expert
Registration Dates: February - March
Format: Individuals or Teams
Cost: ~$60-$150 / team + cost of Robot
The 2009 contest drew more than 100 teams from around the world with first-time registrations from Portugal and Indonesia. In 2009 we featured two new events: the new “House on Fire” Expert Division, and the RoboWaiter contest. RoboWaiter is sponsored by the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities. We’re looking forward to high levels of participation in House on Fire and RoboWaiter in 2010. The contest survey showed that RoboWaiter participants felt a high level of engineering challenge, were curious about assistive robotics, and wished to increase awareness among potential users of assistive technology. Supporters and instructors felt it was important to introduce students to the assistive technology subject. We hope that many school and university teams will accept the RoboWaiter and fire-fighting challenges in 2010 and beyond!
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NURC Underwater Robotics**
Website: http://arizonapromotersofappliedscienceineducationaz.web.officelive.com & http://www.h2orobots.org/
Ages: Middle & High School
Dates: January -
Format: Teams
Cost: ~$350 / robot
This is an Arizona based competition. The mission of the National Underwater Robotics Challenge is to bring science and technology educational opportunities to the students of all ages across the country. This event is designed to stimulate the youth of America and to reverse the national “brain drain”. It contributes to the growing number of events, including FIRST Lego League, FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics, helping to make Arizona a focal point in science and technology events. NURC is also open to adult and corporate teams as well, helping to foster a STEM culture throughout the state in multiple demographics.
A listing of many other Robotics Competitions can be found here:
http://robots.net/rcfaq.html#LNK119
Event Listing by Date - Copyright © 1994 - 2010 by R. Steven Rainwater.
Nov 6, 2010 Bloomington VEX Tournament
Nov 6-7, 2010 Korea Intelligent Robot Contest
Nov 7, 2010 International Micro Robot Maze Contest
Nov 7, 2010 Roaming Robots Grand Final
Nov 13, 2010 DPRG RoboRama
Nov 13, 2010 Robotic Arena
Nov 15-18, 2010 Singapore Inter-School Micromouse Competition
Nov 18-19, 2010 Real World Robot Challenge
Nov 19-20, 2010 Texas BEST competition
Nov 19-21, 2010 All Japan MicroMouse Contest
Nov 20-21, 2010 Canadian National Robot Games
Nov 20-21 2010 RoboCountry
Nov 21, 2010 Robocon
Dec 2-5, 2010 ROBOEXOTICA
Dec 3-4, 2010 Robotex
Dec 4, 2010 FIRST LEGO League of South Africa Championship
Dec 14-17, 2010 IROC International Robot Olympiad
Dec, 2010 Penn State Abington Robo-Hoops
Dec, 2010 Robotics Olympics
Dec, 2010 South's BEST competition
Jan 11, 2011 FIRST LEGO League of Central Europe
Jan 25, 2011 Powered by Sun
Jan 25-27, 2011 Singapore Robotic Games
Jan 28-31, 2011 Robotix
Jan, 2011 Techfest
Feb 2-5, 2011 Kurukshetra
Feb 17-20, 2011 Techkriti RoboGames
Feb, 2011 Pragyan
Mar 6-10, 2011 APEC Micromouse Contest
Mar 11-12, 2011 AMD Jerry Sanders Creative Design Contest
Mar 12-13, 2011 RobotChallenge
Mar 22-24, 2011 DTU RoboCup
Mar, 2011 CIRC Central Illinois Bot Brawl
Mar, 2011 Manitoba Robot Games
Mar, 2011 METU Robotics Days
Apr 9-10, 2011 Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest
Apr 10, 2011 Robotics Innovations Competition and Conference
Apr 11-12, 2011 IEEE TEPRA Student Robotics Competition
Apr 14-16, 2011 National Robotics Challenge
Apr 14-16, 2011 VEX Robotics World Championship
Apr 15-17, 2011 RoboGames
Apr 23, 2011 Baltic Robot Sumo
Apr 30, 2011 The Tech Museum of Innovation's Annual Tech Challenge
Apr, 2011 Alcabot-Hispabot
Apr, 2011 Austrian Hexapod Championship
Apr, 2011 BotsIQ
Apr, 2011 Carnegie Mellon Mobot Races
Apr, 2011 FIRST Robotics Competition
Apr, 2011 Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge
Apr, 2011 Istrobot
Apr, 2011 National Electronics Museum Robot Festival
Apr, 2011 PARTS Indoor Challenge
Apr, 2011 Penn State Abington Fire-Fighting Robot Contest
Apr, 2011 Penn State Abington Mini Grand Challenge
Apr, 2011 RoboRodentia
Apr, 2011 Robot-SM
Apr, 2011 Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle Competition
Apr, 2011 Trenton Computer Festival Robotics Contest
Apr, 2011 UC Davis Picnic Day MicroMouse contest
May 7, 2011 RoboFest
May 9-11, 2011 FIRA Robot World Cup
May 9-13, 2011 ICRA Robot Challenge
May, 2011 Atlanta Robot Rally
May, 2011 Austrobot
May, 2011 CybAiRBot
May, 2011 Eurobot
May, 2011 Hawaii Underwater Robot Challenge
May, 2011 NATCAR
May, 2011 RObotX
May, 2011 Singapore Underwater Robotic Olympiad
May, 2011 SPURT
May, 2011 SwissEurobot
May, 2011 Western Canadian Robot Games
Jun 2-4, 2011 ION Autonomous Lawnmower Competition
Jun 3-6, 2011 AUVS International Ground Robotics Competition
Jun 25-26, 2011 International Autonomous Robot Contest
Jun, 2011 HBRC Challenge
Jun, 2011 MATE ROV Competition
Jun, 2011 Motodrone AFO Competition
Jun, 2011 UK National Micromouse Competition
Jun, 2011 World Robotic Sailing Championship
Jul 4-10, 2011 RoboCup Robot Soccer World Cup
Jul 8-12, 2011 Botball National Tournament
Jul 11, 2011 RobotRacing
Jul 12-17, 2011 AUVS International Underwater Robotics Competition
Jul, 2011 Chibots SRS Robo-Magellan
Jul, 2011 K*bot World Championships
Jul, 2011 RoboBombeiro
Aug 7-11, 2011 AAAI Mobile Robot Competition
Aug, 2011 AUVS International Aerial Robotics Competition
Aug, 2011 International Micro Air Vehicle Competition
Aug, 2011 ROBOMO Expo
Sep 2-5, 2011 DragonCon Robot Battles
Sep, 2011 Microtransat Challenge
Sep, 2011 National Junior Robotics Competition
Sep, 2011 RoboCup Junior Australia
Sep, 2011 Robotour
Sep, 2011 Robots at Play
Oct, 2011 CalGames
Oct, 2011 Chibotica
Oct, 2011 Combots Cup
Oct, 2011 Competencia Robotica (LARC)
Oct, 2011 Critter Crunch
Oct, 2011 Devyanin Mobile Robots Festival
Oct, 2011 MindSpark
Oct, 2011 Robothon
Oct, 2011 The Franklin Cup
Jul 10-15, 2012 CIG Car Racing Competition
