N.M. Tech Hosts 2002 RoboRave

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M. December 5, 2002 -- The third New Mexico ROBORAVE robotics competition for high school students will take place from 10 a.m.until 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 7, at the New Mexico Tech Gymnasium, with about 50 teams from New Mexico, El Paso, and Juarez high schools scheduled to compete.

Participating teams comprised of four or five high school students each will put their autonomous (not remotely controlled) robots to the test by programming the pie-plate-sized devices to follow a maze of black lines laid out on a white, four-foot by eight-foot sheet of foam-core board.

The competing robots then are tasked to deliver a ping-pong ball to a receptacle atop a small tower--all within an allowable three-minute period.

Most of the team-designed robots competing in New Mexico ROBORAVE are constructed of basic materials from Lego "Mindstorm" kits or New Mexico Tech Mobile Robot Kits (NMT-MRKs).