One, power up!
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So I'm here with Greg from Rev Robotics.
So what are we going to see today?
Yeah, so Rev builds educational hardware for robotics.
And so our big partner nonprofit that we support
is called FIRST.
And it just so happens that there is a FIRST Robotics
regional happening here in Shenzhen, right in front of us.
So we're on a down day, and we figured, hey, go check it out.
And so we're going to see the best and brightest
minds of southern China, and how they play the game.
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OK, so the way this works is, there's
a scale in the middle of the mat.
And you put these power cubes on either side of the scale.
And you get one point per second for owning
the possession of the scale.
So if the scale is tipped in your direction,
you get one point per second.
Got it.
Each team also has a lower scale called a switch,
and the switch kind of works the same way.
If you own your switch, it's one point per second.
If you don't own your switch, it's nothing.
So the scale is either red, or blue, or nobody.
And the switch is just you or nobody.
Got it.
And then you're running around for two minutes, another two
minutes, picking up these cubes and trying to place them.
And so you're racing the clock to score as many points
as you possibly can.
So each team has a human player.
And so a robot can go up to that hole in the wall,
and then the human player can put one of the cubes
and give it to a robot.
Oh, OK.
So you can get cubes from the field or cubes
from your human player, or you can steal cubes
from the other team.
Yeah, this is super cool.
So essentially, the match is broken down
into three different time sections.
So there's 15 seconds of autonomous,
and that's when the robot is controlling itself.
So the programmers will type up code.
That will control the robot by itself.
And then for the next 2 minutes and 15 seconds,
it's controlled by two drivers.
One is an operator.
One's doing things that aren't the wheels.
And the other one is solely focused on driving the robot.
In that section, people are using, like, Xbox controllers,
and things like that.
And then, in the last 30 seconds,
you have the option to do other things,
like making your robot climb.
Each team's given a 10-foot by 10-foot space
to work on their robots.
And they're all clustered together in this area.
And they all help each other out.
It's a collaborative area, where everybody's
working on their robots and trying
to get everything going for that when
they're out there on the competition field.
Awesome.
So this is like the pits--
This is the pits.
--but not the secretive pits.
It's not secretive.
The collaborative--
It's very collaborative--
--help each other pits.
Open pits, yeah.
Awesome.
So if you check out these motor controllers here,
the SPARK motor controller-- this is something we make.
So it's really cool to see the stuff
that we make having an impact all over the world.
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So what these kids really get out
of this is what they spend in the first six
weeks of the build season, is they
learn how to apply the things they
learn in math to actual real-world applications.
Yeah, it makes such a difference when you can apply something
that you're learning, in an abstract way,
to, oh, I can actually use that now.
That's right.
And that makes it stick in your head better.
Yeah, absolutely.
What do you like most about it?
The competition.
The teamwork, the teamwork.
Everything.
Yeah.
Everything.
It's really cool, yeah.
This is amazing.
Well, this is the second final round.
It's potentially the last final.
And both teams have had breakdowns.
So everybody is pretty excited and pretty stressed out.
I can't believe how exciting this is.
I didn't really know what to expect,
and this is pretty awesome.
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[CHEERING]
So thanks for inviting me up.
This was actually way more fun than I
thought it was going to be.
I didn't really know what to expect.
And this is amazing.
Well, you're welcome.
This is what we do all the time, and it's a blast.
I can see why you're so into it.
You know, to be honest, I'm really
sad they didn't have this when I was a kid.
I was involved in this in high school.
You could have been.
This is almost 25 years old.
Regardless, I wish I could do this now.
But you can.
FIRST teams are mentored by technical people who volunteer
their time and come in.
So anybody around the world-- there
are FIRST teams in almost every country around the world.
I could come and mentor one of these teams,
and help build their robots?
Yes.
You can look up your local schools.
You can look up the local contacts.
And then you can totally get involved.
That would be super fun.
Yeah, you should totally do it.
So where should people go if they want to get involved?
firstinspires.org.
Thank you so much, Greg.
This was a total blast.
This is Scotty from Strange Parts.
As always, if you enjoyed this video,
hit that Subscribe button down below,
and stay tuned for more adventures.
I'll see you guys next time.
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