NASA Knights Finalize Competition Robot

It's almost two weeks into the design and build phase of this year's FIRST Robotics challenge, and the NASA Knights of the New Horizons Regional Education Center in Hampton, Va., are moving along at a good pace.

They have already built a "prototype" robot and are finalizing designs for their "mini-bot," which will both be used to compete in a game called "LOGO Motion" in regional tournaments beginning in March. For "LOGO Motion" high school robotics teams must design and build robots that can move and climb as well as position inflatable tubes and symbols on pegs, making up the FIRST logo.

The higher up an inflatable logo letter or tube is placed, the more points the team scores. At the end of the game, the main robot must deploy a mini-bot that will climb to the top of a nine-foot pole in under 10 seconds. The first mini-bot to the top gets the most points.

FIRST Knight senior team member Dave Holloway, whose father Michael Holloway works at NASA Langley, said the team is really excited about this year's challenge and considers the team to be ahead of schedule in terms of programming and fabrication.

Photo credit: NASA/Sean Smith

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