COLUMBUS, Ind. — It’s back to work for a local robotics team as they work to understand a new game and build a new bot in time for this year’s competitions, which begin in March.
Team 4926 also known as GalacTech, invited members of the public into their workshop on Saturday for the 2023 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition Kickoff.
The organization unveils a new challenge for FIRST Robotics Competition teams every year. High school students work with professional mentors to solve the engineering design problem, then work with other teams in alliances to play the game at competition events where they are also judged on design, innovation, culture changing behavior and performance.
FIRST’s livestream ran from noon to 1 p.m., with about 4,000 teams from around the world tuning in to learn about the 2023 challenge, said Columbus Robotics president and Team 4926 founder Sam Geckler.
The 2023 game for FIRST Robotics Competition teams is called “Charged Up” and is presented by the Gene Haas Foundation.
“It’s a representation of how our world might think about community-based electrification and charging,” said Geckler.
According to a short animated video from FIRST, the game involves moving cubes and cones into areas referred to as “grids” so that teams can score points and “charge up their community.” Teams also score points by moving their robots onto a teeter-totter platform known as the “charge station.” The game will be played by two alliances of three teams each.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
