FIRST Robotics Competition

Lunacy Robot Game could inspire a generation

By Mike Hanlon

19:54 January 3, 2009 PST

January 4, 2009 Lunacy is an international seat-of-the-pants learning game with the promise to inspire a generation. At yesterday’s Kick Off, 1700 international teams were given the rules and a kit of parts - motors, batteries, a control system, and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. The students have six weeks to design, build and program their robotic athlete ready for play on the low-friction playing surface. In each 135 second match, the robots score points by picking up 9" balls and dropping them in trailers hitched to their opponents. Lunacy ticks all the boxes for building important life skills – collaborative learning and adapting on the fly under deadline conditions with measurable results. With 42,000 high-school students from as far afield as Brazil, Germany, Israel, Turkey and the Philippines, the FIRST Robotics Competition is an evolving engineering talent showcase with the potential to become a TV sport with the international appeal to rival F1 one day. FIRST also runs the FIRST LEGO League for 9-14 year-olds, and the Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6 to 9 year-olds. The aim of this life-changing program is to inspire young people to become individual economic stimulus packages and pursue opportunities in science and technology. Read More