20 Years - 20 Robots
A tour of Team 20 and FIRST history
1992 - Maize Craze
The Game:
Robots try to move tennis balls into their corner of the field. To make things more interesting, the entire field is covered
with a layer of corn kernels 1.5" thick.
Our Robot:
New and Interesting:
1 vs. 1 vs. 1 vs. 1 four-way competition. And the corn, too.
The Competitions:
28 teams in a high school gym in Manchester, NH. One regional/championship.
1993 - Rug Rage
The Game:
Robots move kickballs and water-filled balls into their own goals. In order to fit in the goal, the kickballs had to be lifted
over a bar (see video). Stealing from opponents' goals was allowed and even encouraged.
Our Robot:
New and Interesting
Robots were remote controlled for the first time. This meant the tethers seen in Maize Craze disappeared.
The Competitions:
25 teams in another high school gym in Nashua, NH.
1994 - Tower Power
The Game:
Robots compete to launch soccer balls into a tower with two buckets: a high bucket worth more points, and a low bucket.
Our Robot:
New and Interesting
An unusual match system allowed for three-way competition in preliminary rounds and two-way games in the finals.
This persisted for several years.
The Competitions:
43 teams in yet another high school gym in Nashua, NH. Notice the ESPN coverage in the video, though.
1995 - Ramp n' Roll
The Game:
Robots must pick up large vinyl balls and launch or place them over a 9-foot goal.
Our Robot:
New and Interesting
Pneumatics (air-powered systems) were included in the kit of parts for the first time. 1995 also marked the first national competition - in Disney
World.
The Competitions:
Sorry, no video this time. 59 teams participated.
1996 - Hexagon Havoc
The Game:
Robots tried to move small and large balls of their team's color to a shared central goal.
Our Robot:
New and Interesting
The weight limit for robots was increased to the present 120 lbs, allowing for larger and more complex robots. Also, human players directly interacted
with the game pieces for the first time - a human player was allowed to throw balls from the outside of the field. The Woodie Flowers award, celebrating
a mentor who inspires others in engineering, was awarded for the first time (to Dr. Woodie Flowers himself).
The Competitions:
94 teams competed in Disney World.
Next page (1997 - 2001)
1992 - 1996
1997 - 2001
2002 - 2006
2007 -
