AERIAL ASSIST – 2014 FRC Game Challenge

Inventor and FIRST Founder Dean Kamen launched the 2014 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) season on January 4th with the Kickoff of a new robotics game called AERIAL ASSIST to nearly 70,000 high-school students on more than 2,700 teams in 92 cities around the globe via live NASA-TV broadcast and webcast. At each Kickoff location, students were shown the AERIAL ASSIST playing field and received a Kit of Parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC, and a mix of automation components – and only limited instructions.

6 Weeks to Design, Build and Test Robots

Stop Build Deadline is February 18th
Working with adult mentors, students will have only six weeks to design, build, program, and test their robots to meet the season’s engineering challenge. The Stop Build deadline is on February 18th at midnight. Once these young inventors build a robot, their teams will participate in one or more of the 98 Regional and District competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration, and the determination of students.

6 Regional FIRST Robotics Competitions in California

• February 28 – March 2, 2014: Inland Empire Regional
• March 6-8, 2014: San Diego Regional
• March 7-9, 2014: Central Valley Regional
• March 13-15, 2014: Sacramento Regional
• March 20-22, 2014: Los Angeles Regional
• April 3-5, 2014: Silicon Valley Regional

About AERIAL ASSIST

AERIAL ASSIST is played by two competing Alliances of three robots each on a flat 25’ x 54’ foot field, straddled by a truss suspended just over five feet above the floor. The objective is to score as many balls in goals as possible during a two (2)-minute and 30-second match. The more Alliances score their ball in their goals, and the more they work together to do it, the more points their Alliance receives.

The match begins with one 10-second Autonomous Period in which robots operate independently of driver. Each robot may begin with a ball and attempt to score it in a goal. Alliances earn bonus points for scoring balls in this mode and for any of their robots that move in to their zones. Additionally, each high/low pair of goals will be designated “hot” for five seconds, but the order of which side is first is randomized. For each ball scored in a “hot” goal, the Alliance earns additional bonus points.
For the rest of the match, drivers remotely control robots from behind a protective wall. Once all balls in autonomous are scored, only one ball is re-entered in to play, and the Alliances must cycle a single ball as many times as possible for the remainder of the match. With the single ball, they try to maximize their points earned by throwing balls over the truss, catching balls launched over the truss, and scoring in the high and low goals on the far side of the field.
Alliances receive large bonuses for “assists,” which are earned for each robot that has possession of the ball in a zone as the ball moves down the field. Points are awarded for each action per the table below.