The FIRST robotics season kicked off for teams around the world with the announcement of this year’s challenge: FIRST Overdrive.

Dean Kamen, president of DEKA Research and Development Corporation in Manchester, founded FIRST in 1991.

Today, New Hampshire alone has 28 FIRST robotics teams supported through schools, community volunteers and corporate sponsorship.

Through a Web simulcast from Southern New Hampshire University on Saturday, Jan. 5, 37,500 high school teams from the all over the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Brazil, Chile, Israel and the Netherlands viewed the national FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Board of Directors’ presentation of this year’s charge, challenging teams to construct a robot that operates under “supervisory control” incorporating both autonomous and manual power.

The game
The 27- by 54-foot game field is set up like a race track with red and blue lanes. Over the track is a metal frame, 6 feet, 6 inches high and similar to monkey bars. Red and blue “track balls,” two for each robot, sit on the frame.

Teams score points in several ways: each time the robots pass their starting line, they score points. Robots move the track balls around the track, either by carrying or pushing them. Robots who can reach up to their track balls, carry bring them around the track, and place them again on top of the frame earn eight extra points each time.

If both of a robot’s track balls are back on top of the frame by the end of the match, the team earns 12 extra points. The track balls need to touch either the ground or another robot to score.

After the challenge presentation, Kamen and Executive Advisory Board Chairman Woodie Flowers, along with other board members, simulated the challenge by running around the track in Flintstones fashion inside wooden representations of possible robots, giving the teams some small hints about designs and what the robots might be able to do to score the most points in two minutes and 15 seconds.

Presenters used a mock game show, “Who Wants to Be an Engineer?” to explain the regulations of the game, which included mandatory bumpers on all robots, one adult and four students from each team on the field at any time, and no traffic obstruction.

Teams have six weeks to design and build a robot for competition using a kit provided by FIRST, including batteries, a controller, motors and other parts.

Gracious professionalism Kamen and other board members from NASA, which pilots the FIRST program, also reminded teams to think about what FIRST Robotics Challenge really means in terms of building character. The program’s key phrase is “gracious professionalism,” the ability to value the work of others as well as one’s own.

Dave Lavery, program executive for solar system exploration at NASA and FIRST Executive Advisory Board member, emphasized understanding the challenge’s real value. “If you think FIRST is about robots, you’re missing part of the mission,” he said, after demonstrating supervisory control using three different small-scale robots and a remote control.

Board members also celebrated the efforts of thousands of volunteers, both parent mentors and team coaches, who put in long hours for their team’s advance and growth.

The reaction
Dani Ithier, 15, of Hooksett, is a second-year member of Manchester West’s team, the Power Knights. The team gathered at Public Service of New Hampshire in Manchester to watch the simulcast and discuss other planning items.

The West sophomore is excited about Overdrive and the possibilities for the robot’s design.

“It looks really intense,” she said of the game, adding that the 40-inch diameter track balls will throw a curve into the competition.

Last year, she said, the team’s robot performed offensively. This year, with the game relying so much on speed and agility, they may want to try the opposite strategy.

“Playing defensively might be a big part of it,” she said. After the simulcast, teams immediately got started on building practice playing fields for their robots, using various materials gathered from their schools and homes.

David Kelly, the 13-year faculty coach of Pembroke Academy’s Team Discovery, said their team invited other local teams to brainstorm with them.

Without giving away too many details about the design, Kelly said the team has a pretty good direction after the brainstorming session.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of diversity in the robots,” Kelly said, adding that many of the them will likely be light and maneuverable.

Each year during the challenge presentation, Kamen assigns “homework” for the teams. This year’s homework was to get the media more involved in FIRST competitions to generate more public interest in the program as a spectator sport, something Kelly has been interested in.

“I’ve been really for trying to get the public more involved. I’m glad to see that’s a focus FIRST is taking,” he said.

Manchester Memorial and Central High Schools also have FIRST Robotics teams, The Cruisn’ Crusaders and Team Chaos respectively, as well as Trinity’s Checkmate 40.