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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Carolina Martinez  (818) 354-9382 or (818) 653-9340 (day of event)
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
    
News Release: 2003-045                               
March 31, 2003  
       
Robots Stack Their Way to Victory in NASA-Sponsored Competition

Complete with alliances and the thrill of knocking out your
opponents, this competition is a little like the "Survivor" reality
TV show.  And although the location may not be as exotic as the
Amazon jungle, for these robot competitors it may as well be Mars.

After only six weeks to build their robots, 59 teams of students,
teachers, mentor engineers and their robots are ready to compete in
the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
Southern California Regional robotics competition on April 3 to 5, at
the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. 

The robotics competition aims to inspire students, provide hands-on
activities and foster teamwork. The program provides students with
opportunities to work side-by-side with professional engineers to
build a robot.  Each year, the teams are assigned a complex task
their robots must perform in competition. They receive a kit filled
with motors, control computers, raw materials and many other parts
they need to get started.

The nationwide competition is conducted by the non-profit FIRST
organization in Manchester, N.H. Teams entering the competition are
sponsored by NASA and a number of corporations. 

This year's game, titled "Stack Attack," requires robots to gather
plastic storage containers from a central platform, return them to
their side of the playing field and stack them.  Teams receive points
based on the number of plastic containers their robot can collect and
stack in the 2-minute match.  Each match will feature two-team
alliances playing on opposite ends of the playing field.  At the
start of the match, the robots will have 15 seconds to function
autonomously, without driver control, to collect container stacks or
knock down their opponent's containers.  The robots will then be
under control from their drivers for the remainder of the match.

NASA is supporting 20 of the 59 teams participating in the Southern
California Regional competition.  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., is providing nearly 20 mentor engineers to many of
those teams as well as approximately 50 volunteers to staff the
event.

The event is open to the public and admission is free.  Parking fees
may apply.  The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is located at 3939
S. Figueroa St. in Los Angeles. 

Media are encouraged to attend Friday and Saturday, April 4 and 5.
Thursday is an inspection and practice day.  Opening ceremonies begin
at 9 a.m. Friday, with competition matches from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m.  On Saturday, matches are from 9:30 to noon with final matches
from 1 to 3:30 p.m.  The awards ceremony is from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on
Saturday. 

The robotics competition is partially sponsored by NASA as part of
the Robotics Education Project. In collaboration with FIRST, and
NASA centers around the country, NASA's Robotics Education Project
is sponsoring seven of the 23 regional competitions and nearly 200 of
the 800 teams participating in the 2003 competitions.

An animation of this year's game is at
http://robotics.nasa.gov/archive/video.htm .

More information about the competition is at http://www.usfirst.org/

More information on NASA's Robotics Education Project is at
http://robotics.nasa.gov/ .

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