Not competing. Visiting a team? Just stopping by to check it out? This is for you!
About the FIRST Robotics Competition
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting event that is part science fair, part sporting event, and part rock concert.
The 60 teams participating in this year's Connecticut Regional are from all over the Northeast, and include teams from Ohio and Florida. These teams, along with the other 1,600+ teams throughout the country, all get kicked-off in the first weekend of January. And that's where the fun and challenge really begins. The teams do not know what the game will be before that point. And then they have just six short weeks to design, prototype, build, test, and ship their robot to one of 42 regional competitions (the Connecticut Regional is one of those competitions).
To make things exciting, every year FIRST creates a new game that generally includes a challenge unlike anything the teams have ever seen or experienced in previous years.
Anyway... on to the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition game: LUNACYTM
In the LUNACYTM game, robots are designed to pick up 9" game balls and score them in trailers hitched to their opponents’ robots for points during a 2 minute and 15 second match. Additional points are awarded for scoring a special game ball, called the Super Cell, in the opponents' trailers during the last 20 seconds of the match. LUNACYTM is played on a low-friction floor, which means teams must contend with the challenging and complicated laws of physics.
To learn more about LUNACYTM, read a more detailed game description.
To find out which teams are coming to the CT Regional, view the team list.
Speak the Language of FIRST
To help you with your visit, we have created a Terms Glossary including terms and expressions you will hear during the Connecticut Regional and the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition Game LUNACYTM.
Schedule
The Connecticut Regional is free and open to the public.
| Day |
Time |
What's Going on? |
| Friday, March 27 |
9:00AM - 5:00PM |
Competition Day 1 - Qualification Matches
After opening ceremonies in the morning, teams get all fired up for a long full day of competition in Qualification Matches. The day ends with an award ceremony recognizing teams for various accomplishments. |
| Saturday, March 28 |
9:00AM - 5:00PM |
Morning: Competition Day 2 - Qualification Matches
Qualification Matches continue in the morning, as teams work to make it into the top eight. (The top eight teams get to pick their alliance partners for the afternoon's Elimination Matches.)
Afternoon: Elimination Matches
The 60 teams will be whittled down to just 24 teams (8 alliances of three teams), who will then be competing in a bracket elimination (think of the NCAA tournament brackets). Alliances must defeat their opponents twice in order to move on to the next level The day ends with an alliance of three teams being named Regional Champion at the afternoon's award ceremonies, and additional awards being presented. |
Location
The Connecticut Regional is being held at the Hartford Convention Center Friday March 27th and Saturday March 28th. Directions to the convention Center can be found in the following link. Connecticut Convention Center
Parking
Parking is available in the Connecticut Convention Center parking garage, or at any of the near-by parking lots. To find a near-by parking lot, take a look at the Greater Hartford Convention & Visitors Bureau's parking map. On the map, the Convention Center's parking garage is Number 17 and can be found on the far right side of the map, right near the Founders Bridge.
|
|
