CRC Robotic Competition 2011

The 10th annual CRC Robotics challenge “Mill-bornes” 2011 will take place on February 10 to 12 at Lester B.Pearson High School. RobotShop has been a long-term partner and supporter of the CRC and once again this year we will be present at the competition covering the event. We expect you will be coming to see us at our booth in great numbers! This year’s challenge is as follows:

You are the CEO of a major logging firm. Your job is to cut down trees, transport them to the mill, sort the lumber after the milling process and finally make sure to replant as many new trees as possible. The robots are trying to remove trees from a forest and get them to the mill, which involves running them through the tubes that make up the mill, sorting the lumber following the mill and replanting as many trees as possible. Robots are grouped into a single team of four robots for each heat. These four robots are attempting to score as many points as possible.

Teams earn points based on the number of trees re-planted and the number of trees cut which make it to the mill. Any parts of the robot left on the playing field are counted against the team. Teams must adhere to guidelines pertaining to the safety, power, and technical aspects of the robot. This footage from last year's competition provides a clear idea of the scope of the event (be sure to watch it till the end since it features some nice Daft Punk music):

[vimeo 14086064]

Aside from preparing a robot for the competition, teams must also prepare a video, website and kiosk. Sometimes the number of students working on the kiosk, video and website can be greater than the number of students working on the robot itself. Having multiple aspects to the competition allows students who want to pursue fields outside of robotics to still be enthusiastic participants in the CRC. Judging is done by a small army of volunteers from robotics companies and organizations.

CRC Robotics is a non-profit organisation associated with EAST (Educational Alliance for Science and Technology). It offers quality science and technology events to inspire tomorrow's inventors, engineers, scientists, doctors, teachers and leaders.