Over 3,500 young students and robotics fanatics will travel to Uniprix Stadium in Montreal on Thursday to participate in the Robotics Festival (Festival de Robotique).
Its the third year in a row for what the organizers call the “Stanley Cup of Robotics”. It will be divided into two main challenges, which spotlight both high tech and extreme sports. The challenge for 14 to 18 year-olds will be dubbed the “AERIAL ASSIST”, which involved building a functioning robot capable of passing and catching fitness balls; the LEGO® challenge for 9 to 14 year-olds called “NATURE’S FURY” involves designing robots able to carry out disaster preparation, response and rebuilding missions.
It’s an three-day event from 8:30 AM to 4 PM, Thursday to Saturday.
For the Aerial Assault, teams must create two “alliances” of three robots each. Together, teams must advance a ball down the playing field and score in their goal at the other end of the field, trying to score as many points as possible in 2 minutes 30 seconds of game.
Meanwhile for Nature’s Fury, participants explore a natural disaster of their choice and try to provide innovative solutions, by designing robots with Mindstorms NXT robotics kits.