Vex Robots Views

General Goods

The VEX competition is a relatively new program in Hawaii. It/’s an intermediary program between the Lego League and First Robotics and offers it participants continued involvement with robotics initiated first by Lego League and building up to the more rigorous First Robotics competition. This competition took place this past weekend at the Honolulu Convention Center featured teams from Hawaii, China and the Mainland. The VEX robots are constructed using standard materials that conform to a specific size. Each design can be customized by each team although the materials used must strictly adhere to the program rules.

The FIRST Tech Challenge, formerly the FIRST Vex Challenge, is a mid-level robotics competition announced by FIRST on March 22, 2005. The FIRST Tech Challenge, according to FIRST, was designed to be a more accessible and affordable option for schools. FIRST has also said that the FTC program was created for those of an intermediate skill level. FIRST Tech Challenge robots are approximately one-third the scale of their FRC counterparts. The FTC competition is meant to provide a transition for students from the FLL competition to the FRC competition.

For the 2006 FVC Season (2007 FIRST Season), the FIRST Vex Challenge teams played the Hangin'-A-Round challenge using softballs, rotating platforms, a hanging bar, and a larger 'Atlas' ball which is significantly larger than most Vex robots and harder to manipulate. Competitions were held around the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

We returned to the shop the next day to continue our explorations into the VEX System. So far, our PackBot is little more than a remote controlled vehicle. Out in the real world, these robots are sent into hazardous locations, usually without the benefit of a direct line of sight to the vehicle. Next, we added the wireless camera to the PackBot for remote vision capability, and a host of sensors to help with driving over debris and obstacles, since the driver won’t always be able to see what he or she is maneuvering around.